Canadian Harp auction (long)

[Diachrome@xxxxxxx]

Well, its been a week since I won the ebay auction. I returned very tired 
yesterday from the long trek up to Toronto to pick up the spoils of victory.  I 
would like to make some comments then give those that lost and those who will 
gain an idea of what's ahead.

First. I knew about the existence of these parts 4 years ago when I purchased 
the large inventory of prewar and vintage harps from a dealer outside 
Buffalo, NY. He told me of their existence.
The problem was that I didn't know who had them or if they were split up into 
smaller groups for sale. When it came to light that the parts were for sale I 
knew I had to have them and that I deserved them since vintage harp repairs 
are my main business, not by choice but by chance. I'm supposed to be honing my 
skills by fixing diatonics but I take what the customer needs fixed, that 
being chromatics.

btw, the seller told me he offered the parts to someone in the US about a 
year ago for $400 but the guy never got back to him.  thank goodness for 
procrastination:-)

The auction
When I first used ebay I bid early and lost the bid many times. I complained 
here that it was unsportsman like conduct to bid late in the auction but Barry 
Bean and Gary Warren straightened me out.
Now I'm very ruthless and savvy when it comes to bidding and rarely lose a 
bid unless I can't get to my computer or I see the harp or mic has gone way past 
its value. Learning NOT to bid is an art also.

I arrived in Toronto about 11am this past Saturday and met with Hans (seller) 
and his wife, Carole. We had planned on having lunch together to celebrate 
the deal.
Hans  told me several pro players got involved in the bid and some bidders 
wanted to have him pick out the parts that they were interested in.  Shame on 
you Toronto harp players!
 Luckily Hans is an honest businessman.

He told me the second place bidder (he didn't identify you) offered to give 
him $1,100 after the auction closed. That was the highest he was going to bid 
but didn't have time to counter my bid.   I would like to say that you were 
still several hundred dollars short of my actual bid so you would have lost 
anyway. I'm not rubbing it in, I just want to let you know that I was determined to 
get the parts for my business and bid extremely high to get them.
The seller cringed when he learned what my actual bid was. 

I was ready to go up against HohnerUSA in the auction so you know how bad I 
wanted the parts.

I told him some guys have already spent their money on the trip to SPAH and 
that may have kept more from bidding, or the fact that they never drove in 
Canada. My family went on many summer vacations to Toronto and Montreal when I was 
a kid, and I went there for my honeymoon 8 years ago so the eastern border of 
Canada feels like an old friend.
 
The bid.
I almost didn't get a chance to place the bid.  I left work about 40 minutes 
before the auction ended at 10:50am est. (approx. time) and got online with 
only 12 minutes to spare.
AOL wasn't working properly all weekend. When I tried to link a webpage AOL 
would shut down informing me to restart the computer.  I was sweating bullets 
when I hit the bid icon worried that my bid wouldn't register. Less then a 
minute after that AOL went down.  I had to restart the computer to find I won the 
auction. 

The goods
For those of you that were interested in diatonic parts there was only one 
prewar marine band (unassembled) in the inventory.  There were no reedplates for 
the Educators nor Tremolo harps although the rest of those harp parts were 
present. I emailed the seller to see if he forgot to give me some parts. I'm 
waiting for his reply.

All the parts were not new but enough were that I wasn't upset. There was 
about a 20lb box of chrome parts ready for replating and several hundred used  
260/270/280 reedplates and mouthpieces in the inventory. 

A good many harp techs and players in general emailed me after the auction to 
get parts from me. I will be letting some parts go in time but for the most 
part I want to try to sell them to players first to recoup my investment. The 
trip to Toronto and back added about $400 more to what I already paid.

The big news
The big news is that there were 180 NOS wood 280 combs and parts in the 
inventory. This is great for those of you who like the wood 280s. I will slowly be 
assembling them for future sales. These will be new old stock 64 Pro, 
Chromonika 111, and prewar 64 Pros with the star of David on the front coverplate and 
a Larry Adler 16 hole model. The selling price will be somewhere between 
$225-$300 depending on the model.

I will not be using the 280 wood combs for repair work as long as I can sell 
assembled 280s. They will only go into assembled NOS or reconditioned harps 
for sale.

Other big news is that parts are there for the Chromonica Deluxe 1 and 11.  
The Deluxe is the futuristic looking chromatic Toots is holding on his "Man 
Bites Harmonica" recording.
The 1 is a 10 hole chromatic, the 11 is a 12 hole chromatic.  The model was 
notoriously leaky but I plan on fixing those problems and making it available 
for sale until supplies run out. 

There are enough parts to assemble at least 300- 260 and 270 prewar and 
vintage harps.
I don't know if any are long slot 270s but I'll sort those out.

I do have hordes of spare combs for 260/270 harps that I will be using in the 
repair business. I'm not going to bother fixing cracks in the combs in those 
models since a clean new comb is a better choice and the turnaround time is 
quicker then fixing a crack.  The price of the replacement combs is also very 
affordable. See my website.

Some of the spare parts I acquired for repair work are
new CBH2016 reedplates
large Comet coverplates
assorted used coverplates and mouthpieces for 260/270/280 harps.
NOS Bassharp reedplates. combs. reeds
Marine Band combs

I can't decide if I want to sell the Bass harp parts to other techs or do the 
work myself.

When I'm ready to sell off parts to other harp techs I will sell them at 
HohnerUSA prices.

Harp spam
so now business has gone from repairing and restoring chromatics and handmade 
diatonics to being the biggest source outside of ebay for vintage and prewar 
Hohner harps and replacement parts.

You can buy from me with confidence or buy on ebay and I'll fix the problem 
later.  So don't worry about bidding on a chrome with a cracked comb or a slide 
button or mouthpiece assembly missing, or..... hell, life is too short, just 
buy it from me;-)

take care all



Michael "Fathead" Easton
Chromatic and diatonic repair and restoration @
http://www.harmonicarepair.com