How much would you like to pay for this J.Custom?

[Chris]

$1110 + $150 shipping:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254905845708?hash=item3b599287cc:g:YVQAAOSwkd9gUbbO

$1517 with free shipping:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284141153696?hash=item422821eda0:g:~7AAAOSweHRf995Y

$1219 + $80 shipping

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265134221211?hash=item3dbb3b279b:g:eRoAAOSwXxJggkod

Aah, ebay.

[Chris]

Another one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324273451927?hash=item4b80343397:g:O0wAAOSwb7dfRcOi

$1600 + 300 shipping

[Chris]

...And more! "Store manager carefully selected"

$1492 + Free shipping

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15442798474...cAAOSwUQhghXTF




$1584 + 99 shipping

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373523497360?hash=item56f7bc4190:g:iKMAAOSwSwZgZv~F

[Chris]

Ishibashi has it on reverb too!

https://reverb.com/item/37629515-iba...680-amber-1210

[mpexus]

This is totally Illegal by eBay terms but its something that is happening for some time on some Japanese sellers...

[Leon]

This is the future of shopping. Pick your price*!









*from this pre-approved list of prices.

[Chris]

This is totally Illegal by eBay terms but its something that is happening for some time on some Japanese sellers...

I tried to report the auctions and this is what I get.



I messaged Ishibashi over on Reverb to let them know. Maybe they can do something about this one - I assume they actually have the guitar.

[jim777]

Yep, it's Ishi's guitar.

$909, free shipping if you buy by April 30th. It's ALWAYS cheapest to buy directly from them, not through a 3rd party like Reverb.

https://www.ishibashi.co.jp/ec/produ...3149?SPID=ubox

[thrashinbatman]

i remember seeing something about this. i think it was like you're paying a guy in Japan to find that guitar or whatever, and the cost is associated with a finder's fee or something. they all use the same picture because you aren't actually getting that guitar, you're just paying a guy to find one for you. why this happens on even guitars that are available and can be bought for a regular price is beyond me, though.

[jim777]

i remember seeing something about this. i think it was like you're paying a guy in Japan to find that guitar or whatever, and the cost is associated with a finder's fee or something. they all use the same picture because you aren't actually getting that guitar, you're just paying a guy to find one for you. why this happens on even guitars that are available and can be bought for a regular price is beyond me, though.

They count on you not knowing how to buy a Japanese guitar from a Japanese store, so they are basically selling you something from a store and charging you a fee. The cheaper ones on eBay usually have higher shipping. It's certainly not tough to buy directly from the store, but think about how dumb the average person is, and then how half the people out there are even dumber than that

[thrashinbatman]

They count on you not knowing how to buy a Japanese guitar from a Japanese store, so they are basically selling you something from a store and charging you a fee. The cheaper ones on eBay usually have higher shipping. It's certainly not tough to buy directly from the store, but think about how dumb the average person is, and then how half the people out there are even dumber than that

yeah. your average dude is just gonna see the guitar on eBay, decide they're willing to pay that price, then do it. it's not THAT difficult to seek out a Japanese store and get it direct, but it requires more effort than going on eBay.

[Iron1]

[Chris]

This one claims to own it.

[Chris]

Yep, it's Ishi's guitar.

$909, free shipping if you buy by April 30th. It's ALWAYS cheapest to buy directly from them, not through a 3rd party like Reverb.

https://www.ishibashi.co.jp/ec/produ...3149?SPID=ubox

Good catch.

So $909 direct from Ishi, or $1400 + another $100 shipping if you buy it through their Reverb store? Rather dickish.

[Naren]

I sold my J Custom for about $1100 on Reverb, even though there were a lot of previous ones on there that had sold it for $1500, $1700, $1900, and so on, and there were others listed by shops on Reverb that were selling it for $2000 or higher (Vince sent me a link of a shop selling it for $4000 or so on eBay). It took me about 8 months to sell it at $1100, even though I had bought it for around $2600 or so at the Ishibashi in Japan.

I guess that's just how the business goes.

[Drew]

Yep, it's Ishi's guitar.

$909, free shipping if you buy by April 30th. It's ALWAYS cheapest to buy directly from them, not through a 3rd party like Reverb.

https://www.ishibashi.co.jp/ec/produ...3149?SPID=ubox

That's a crazy good price for a J Custom.

I guess J Custom isn't custom enough for kids these days?

[playstopause]

There's TONS of overpriced listings (like double the price) from Japan on Ebay. I have no clue how they think it's going to sell.

Example :

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/303980129204?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item46c6a0abb4:g:u0EAAOSwMFFgjAYF&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACcBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%252Fn%252BzU5L90Z278x5ickkpFtSR0CGv%252Bh98r8Yb9quS4pfYhz9KJzl2oEIpV7iBLW3YeHkDkrC7knH5E7f6O1SfbcCA2yuc4hECHNyoHkurGlWXOoosdaiAAqRIwBe64itat119b5wM1bjXP%252FQ6KcfIzdGQtsm%252BlXuhSGFdnqEQqbyFrH%252BFRsiGMx3nTtvMNsx6%252BBOrS5oTW6EHREs5PpY3KciXVvpezWBL3Onw9PrhqJEt51VCukiZVR6YlJ6BnPbTHkkKy78Y4Ed1h49nWDXVOzdMD1SeZw1DAvyBr1CDR5HVPKdQopo0wFlpKY20aWqasvimPLmn0Z8aKkH4K2NwhD%252Btv1Dpy%252BjAyxUebOfBSF6qqpuJNbyceuxNCdclRJl9BFJTxNldyd4a%252F77KxicUH1IXpzX4vK%252F960Neqxr6NCfTVFUUGTieQncXsRoFzDkx7AoxYZJtiIOzCoB5l3klPjXUht9YqfFDDM%252Ffl7Wke3dpkmH%252Fdxiz4NG%252BsVN4AVRuCfQu5cb0M82DAMxccB%252F6REZK5YJxwYkjV5g3%252BCSze4Mrnquz2TzR7Ife5jwvd9NLm2xlT4%252FWxHfdX4PArDdbyQMgw2o1AbNJNrmO1k81H21jfiuJyvvgKyUZwnShSIwaG1fEXiV3tWbXWMtWpe9UFUn%252BtW8rucH7Febi%252BhBcQgsMSRH7Nqp3UKdYnr4luFsaWnNpiUx2l1p4FLgrrxOiz3jKvU1VUTVNSVIDmQkiji9ESZ7y5%252Fi%252BCjrAq%252FFQP%252BxzrnBhE4nvF%252Fcz54VGC7rfGtnuMjUTxMMOblXzXpXnA%253D%253D%7Ccksum%3A3039801292045b738bfae53c4f7595e9a36ddbe9fb1e%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2334524

[Naren]

That's a crazy good price for a J Custom.

I guess J Custom isn't custom enough for kids these days?

What makes you say that? Not all J Customs cost the same. Plus, that's one of the older J Customs. I just did a Japanese search for that one and found several for around $800 or $900 (all of them used since that seems to be a model that started in 1999 that is no longer in production). Even if you buy a new J Custom, you'll find a pretty big range of prices, though usually starting at around $2000 or so and going up to over $3000.

[Drew]

What makes you say that? Not all J Customs cost the same. Plus, that's one of the older J Customs. I just did a Japanese search for that one and found several for around $800 or $900 (all of them used since that seems to be a model that started in 1999 that is no longer in production). Even if you buy a new J Custom, you'll find a pretty big range of prices, though usually starting at around $2000 or so and going up to over $3000.

Yeah, and $800-900 is a crazy good price fort a J-Custom. I can't say I'm familiar with that particular model, but I feel like even the cheapest J Customs back in the day were in that $2-3k range. That's, I'd say, a bit more depreciation than normal for a guitar, even if you assume that it was on the lower end of the typical new J Custom pricing.

[jacksonplayer]

Most of these "eBay brokers" are legitimate in the sense that they'll actually buy the guitar in Japan and ship it to you (or at least try to buy it). All they do is scan Digimart, Yahoo Auctions Japan and Ishibashi for listings and then just copy the pictures/description and paste them into an eBay listing.

It's stupid for Ishibashi guitars, since you can just buy them direct from Ishibashi's English-language site and save $$$.

For many other Japanese shops it's tougher, though, since they won't ship internationally. In that case, you do need some kind of broker to buy the guitar and ship it, whether it's on eBay or elsewhere. Digimart is the ultimate guitar porn site, but the vast majority of guitars for sale there will need to have a broker get involved.

[jim777]

Shipping from Japan is very limited at the moment, and very expensive due to Covid. It's much more expensive to get something now than it was pre-Covid. Hopefully it goes away as Covid moves behind us. I'd love an Exrubato or a Momose Strat but they are expensive enough without adding $250 on top for shipping

[Chris]

Yeah, and $800-900 is a crazy good price fort a J-Custom. I can't say I'm familiar with that particular model, but I feel like even the cheapest J Customs back in the day were in that $2-3k range. That's, I'd say, a bit more depreciation than normal for a guitar, even if you assume that it was on the lower end of the typical new J Custom pricing.

This. $900 is a crazy good price for a J-Custom, no matter how you Naren it.

[Naren]

This. $900 is a crazy good price for a J-Custom, no matter how you Naren it.

Oh, not saying it isn't. I was just giving some of the reasoning why that specific one is lower in price than other J Customs (and I'm sure there are other reasons I haven't considered other than its age, demand/popularity, and different J Customs having different MSRPs). Drew's post ("I guess J Custom isn't custom enough for kids these days?") would infer that all used J Customs would be cheap, but most of them still are around $1700 to $2200 used in shops here in Japan.

Shipping from Japan is very limited at the moment, and very expensive due to Covid. It's much more expensive to get something now than it was pre-Covid. Hopefully it goes away as Covid moves behind us. I'd love an Exrubato or a Momose Strat but they are expensive enough without adding $250 on top for shipping

Yeah, it's pretty bad. The post office won't let you ship anything to the US other than letters/documents (though I heard they're planning on restarting shipments to the US in a few months. I forget the exact date). And independent shippers like FedEx have been charging pandemic surge prices, so something I wanted to ship to my mom which would have cost $40-50 from the post office normally would have cost around $250 from FedEx. Maybe people who ship a ton of things all the time might get a discount, but I've never seen prices this high before.

[Shawn]

It’s crazy how the same guitar....RG8s for example pop up with 5-10 different prices and almost every other guitar you see on eBay....and Reverb, too.

[Drew]

Oh, not saying it isn't. I was just giving some of the reasoning why that specific one is lower in price than other J Customs (and I'm sure there are other reasons I haven't considered other than its age, demand/popularity, and different J Customs having different MSRPs). Drew's post ("I guess J Custom isn't custom enough for kids these days?") would infer that all used J Customs would be cheap, but most of them still are around $1700 to $2200 used in shops here in Japan.

I'm sorry, man, but your post there read an awful lot like you WERE saying $900 wasn't crazy cheap for a J Custom.