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Idiotic eBay Pricing of the Day

pete

Brassica Oleracea
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Anyone want to buy a couple of my Mark VI's so I could buy this? Wow! What a freaking deal!!!

I think maybe he should add another 0 to the end of the price. He would have just a good of a chance of selling it as he does now... :p
 
Note that on the bottom of the ad, it says, "Value $2000" -- which is also ludicrous. I assume that folks reading the ad won't mind paying 7.5X than what the alleged value is.
 
I've struggled a bit to come up for what I think is a fair price for this horn. People shopping for mexiconns typically aren't looking to pay the premiums that closet mintyness typically brings to more fashionable instruments, and the 50M is hardly a vintage Darling

I'd say $500 to the right buyer in a retail setting. I'm pretty sure most would (wisely) pass over it for lesser cosmetic examples from Vito, Yamaha, and Selmer USA student models in that same price range. A shiny saxophone with a stigma is still a saxophone with a stigma.
 
16M is a better horn and that was the intermediate model. I'm fairly sure that the $15,000 horn is a 20M (note the bell-to-body brace). The 50M had bell keys on the left. DoctorSax has a nice article about the evolution of the 50M. He's absolutely right on the design being Vito-esque: the French-made Vito "Johnny Hodges" models, 135 and 35, have similar bell-to-body braces. The flat, sheet metal brace of the 50M and the overall key shapes are similar to the Kenosha-made Vitos.

I've just realized I know waaay too much about junky old student horns.

Anyhow, I think $15 is about right for the horn :p.
 
A month ago I perused Letgo and found a beat up 16M for $25. I think the guy felt sorry for me because he wanted me to understand that it had been a 'marching horn'. This of course was obvious from the stenciling on the case and the fact that this thing is pretty beat up.

It's now buried down deep in a stack of projects.
 
The flat, sheet metal brace of the 50M and the overall key shapes are similar to the Kenosha-made Vitos.

I've just realized I know waaay too much about junky old student horns.

May I tap that knowledge about the Kenoshas for a moment? What do you know about them? I have a friend who has an alto for sale at my tech's shop. I should have played it when I was there, but completely forgot about it. Are they student horns? Intermediate models? Have you found any info on them?

My friend couldn't really find much about them when he picked it up a couple of years ago. He got it for cheap, but has since decided he's not an alto player, so now has decided he wants to off load it.
 
I'm of the opinion that most of the negative comments about Vitos comes from the newer horns, such as the ones mentioned above, rather than the very old Kenosha horns. That being said, I don't know of anyone that's done an in-depth review of, say, a 1950's Kenosha horn. I'm relatively sure that they were positioned as the low-end model, though.

I've seen a few models of Kenosha horns. There was one that had the "Vito" name on the bell filled out in silver "wire," like the "Buescher 400" on the Buescher "Top Hat" horns. That kind of made me pause and think, "Maybe these weren't that bad ..." Sounds like a project to research!
 
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