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Martin "Pearl Harbor Survivor" on eBay

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HISTORIC-Mu...hone-1941-Pearl-Harbor-Survivor-/181967200398

There's a wall of text in the ad. I'm going to TL;DR it: Seller says it was his father's horn and his father was on one of the ships sunk in Pearl Harbor in 1941. He wants to sell the horn for $12,000.

I did a brief bit of Googling and it does appear that stuff even loosely connected to the Pearl Harbor attack does command a premium on eBay, but how much of a premium seems to vary considerably. What do y'all think?
 
Well, let's leave for a moment the discussion if this is a relac or not, but personally, as much as I love Martin saxophones--and I have 2 among my gigging set of horns--I wouldn't pay 12K for one. If the seller was to get that kind of coin, it might--and I stress might, sell to a war history buff.

I haven't check the prices for Pearl Harbour memorabilia like you have Pete, so I'll take your word on that it's pricey. I have no doubt it is, but for this kind of one-off stuff, I think you pretty much set your own price and see what the market will bear. I know of a couple of sax-playing, war historians, so this might appeal to them. The question is would someone of their ilk pony up over $10,000 for a horn that its particular history notwithstanding, might be worth a couple of grand tops? (And that's if freshly overhauled by a primo tech with a stellar rep.)

Let's talk about this Martin's history for a moment: ancestry.com and other cited sources in the eBay ad aside for a minute, did you see anywhere anything that mentioned proof that this specific horn was the one on board the USS California? Is there any actual proof? I didn't see a mention of a photo of the horn on board the ship even--let alone letters of provenance attesting to that fact.

From a sax player's perspective, I'm interested in the finish. It might be the pics, but to me the engraving doesn't seem as sharp as it could be, and the lacquer looks a bit too good to be on a horn as well used as this one ostensibly was. This makes me wonder whether the horn might not be a relacquer job. A high-quality relac, but a relac nonetheless.

Since Martins are heavy horns, and have lots of metal on them, relacquering on them isn't as a big a deal--especially if done well--as on some other brands. And given it's not a Selmer, it wouldn't drop the price significantly. However, when dealing with something that was present during a moment of history, again the buyer would have to make the determination whether or not a refinish would adversely alter the price.

FWIW, IMHO the price is too high. You can get a better model Martin for waaaay less money in original condition. Have a custom overhaul done, and you're still thousands ahead. Again, just MHO. YMMV and likely may.
 
... did you see anywhere anything that mentioned proof that this specific horn was the one on board the USS California? Is there any actual proof?

Nope. That was one of the things I looked for, first. I believe the association is supposed to be: my father was stationed on boat -> my father played sax and this is the sax my father played. Therefore, this is the sax my father played on the boat. Again, a loose and possibly incorrect association, but even a small association might = more cash. I wish Terry was here to comment, because I'm positive he would know.

(Oh. Any Navy/Marine types out there, forgive me if there's a distinction between "ship" and "boat." No offense is intended; I'm just ignorant. Thank you for your service!)

As far as the horn itself, taken out of any historic context, around $1000 is the value. Maybe $1200, max. I'm somewhat non-committal on it being a relacquer. It does appear to be a bit discolored, but that might be the lighting. If it is a relacq, I agree with you that it's pretty decent.

From what I understand, the USS California didn't sink so it couldn't be recovered, like the USS Arizona (that's the ship memorialized in Hawaii), so it could easily be that said horn could have just been picked up out of a non-flooded room or something. I dunno.

All that being said, *when* someone asks me for a value on this horn -- I've had at least one person ask me regarding all of the recent "historic" horns on eBay -- I'm going to just say, "Value? I can tell you about the horn, alone. If you're looking for historic value, I really don't know. I can say that I've never seen another generic military horn have any real premium value.




 
At least it's getting closer in line with reality... Obviously a historian wasn't impressed enough to buy it at 12K. Will a sax player pay 4? Me? Meh... It would not be the model I'd be dropping that kind of coin on... My opinion: Still too high.... But hey, maybe they'll sell it at this price and prove me wrong. :emoji_rage:
 
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