Well, I'm "Songbob" on Ebay, and have been buying and seling there for more than three years. I've been pretty lucky, so far. I have bought the following (see if you can spot a trend): Oahu lap steel, Orpheum archtop (made by Kay), D'Agostino Les Paul copy, several effects pedals, an electrified mandolin, an add-on electric pickup, a Danelectro reissue, a Silvertone archtop, and a Samick Ray Benson telecaster guitar, plus odds and ends like cases, straps and connecting cords. The trend, of course, is that all of the instruments save the Orpheum and the Silvertone were electric instruments or accessories, and most of them were newish. I wouldn't trust to buying antique instruments, particularly acoustic ones.

I've sold a uke, a strat copy, a tenor banjo, a five-string, the mandolin mentioned above (minus the pickup, which I put on one of my mandolins), several jazz 45s, three boxes of comic books, and odds and ends like castanets and a Vega banjo wrench. I am about even, buying and selling, if you leave out two instruments I bought for myself (as a birthday present and as a celebration of selling a property recently) and one I bought my sister. Include them, and I'm about $500 behind, but I now have a nice collection (see http://members.aol.com/rjclayton/instrums.jpg).

Ebay used to be THE place to get bargains. Now it's much less that and much more a national and a little international clearinghouse for goods. If you want to get an idea of the current value of an instrument, do a search on Ebay and average the last 50 of them that sold (making sure they're exactly the model you're interested in). Ebay is more accurate than a "blue book," since it represents real prices, not what a group of store owners thinks a given piece should bring.

Not that things don't sometimes get out of hand. The other day I say a Stella/Harmony six string (NOT a Sovereign) at over $225, when similar ones normally go for $40-60. "Mint," they called it. Mint is what they made!

I always have to remember, though, that Ebay prices do not include the shipping, so I mentally add $10-30, depending on what item it is (e.g., the picks I just bought will be shipped for $1, and the amp I bought six months ago cost $30 to ship).

I like Ebay, and will buy and sell there (carefully, of course). There was a Gibson guitar from Japan, for example, which had a plate on the back saying "Made in Japan," of which I would be leery (so were all the other bidders -- it was at $46 with an hour to go). And I'm especially careful about "no-picture" ads.

But caveat emptor pluribus unum, I say. I like the place.

Bob Clayton