Where are they all coming from?

[buzzyreed]

So just a question.. there seems to almost always be about three or four organs of high quality offered for sale on e-bay from one seller in Florida. Where do these come from? are there that many churches in Florida that are getting new organs or **gulp** getting rid of their organs? Wish this was the case in Minnesota...the former, not the latter...

[davidecasteel]

I don't know. i could wish a couple of them were offered a little closer to home, though.

David

[don60]

This seller scours the country, mostly east of the Mississippi, for used organs and accessories that can be flipped at a healthy profit. So David, some of his merchandise may well have come from your area. I know that some has come from my region (Pittsburgh-Cleveland).

Until recently, he had a full-time driver who handled most of the pickups and deliveries single-handedly.

[toodles]

I've seen several of his ebay offerings that I had previously seen offered on Craigslist in other parts of the country.

[circa1949]

I've seen several of his ebay offerings that I had previously seen offered on Craigslist in other parts of the country.

Right. For one thing, he's not making as much of a profit as he once was. If you want to scour the country's craigslists, go to searchtempest.com

But the overall pattern corroborates what I've said here at organforum for years about there being a vast pool of unwanted used electronic classical organs. The thing is, at any given moment only the tip of the iceberg is visible. As Michael will attest to with his ADC-4300 and I could have with my ADC-1140*, if you wait long enough, some organ will become available to you at the price RobberWarner or whatever he's called, is paying for them. And without his value-subtracted modifications and fatuous markup.

* - now sold for a very reasonable markup considering the _real_ improvements I put into it, like toe pistons, new cage power supply, MIDI adapter. All said & done I probably made $500 "profit" on it, which of course counts my labor as "free".

[myorgan]

As Michael will attest to with his ADC-4300 and I could have with my ADC-1140*, if you wait long enough, some organ will become available to you at the price RobberWarner or whatever he's called, is paying for them.

I can attest to that. I've never paid over $2,000 for an organ. However, the price of moving an organ is usually as much or more than I've paid for any of mine.

This fellow in Florida is making himself some money off the graciousness of others. I often see people, organizations, and churches who would LOVE to have a nice instrument, but they are all gobbled up for re-sale by such as those who have already been mentioned. When I retire, perhaps I'll start a non-profit that re-locates organs for the cost of the service only. I HATE seeing people capitalize on other's goodness to price instruments out of reach of the common person.

Michael

P.S. I'd love to know how he's finding suckers with enough money to pay his prices!

[toodles]

I HATE seeing people capitalize on other's goodness to price instruments out of reach of the common person....I'd love to know how he's finding suckers with enough money to pay his prices!

As to capitalizing on others--well, if the organ doesn't sell in a local market, and he offers to buy it, what is wrong with that? He may also be buying trade ins from local dealers, and that helps the dealers, who see them as competition for their new instruments to some extent. I don't have a problem with what he is doing--it's called capitalism, and it's an economic system that tends to work better than the others that have been tried.

I've tried to sell and once in a while give away organs, and I find that moving an organ scares a lot of people off--this gentlemen offers to arrange shipping, and I suspect that's a big reason he has some success. He probably has some arrangements with one or more trucking companies to do it reasonably.

His prices have become fairly reasonable of late, and I suspect he never got some of the former high asking prices--he probably negotiated a deal at a lower price.

[Admin]

As to capitalizing on others--well, if the organ doesn't sell in a local market, and he offers to buy it, what is wrong with that? He may also be buying trade ins from local dealers, and that helps the dealers, who see them as competition for their new instruments to some extent. I don't have a problem with what he is doing--it's called capitalism, and it's an economic system that tends to work better than the others that have been tried.

I've said this before in regards to this guy and totally agree with you Toodles.

[toodles]

I've said this before in regards to this guy and totally agree with you Toodles.

Thanks, Admin!

Plus, the organs that he moves are not ending up in the landfill.