the Fly Clone Project

A gentleman in the Facebook groups has listed a set of six pre-refined Fly saddles for $200. When another member pointed out that a set of new Graphtech saddles under warranty are around half the price, the seller doubled down and insisted that the saddles he’s selling are superior in quality and performance because...something, something...Ken perfected it the first time. Or something.

Rather than dispute whatever the seller’s assertions indeed are, I want to remind folks that I have six refined Fly saddles which may be purchased for whatever the cheapest price one can find Graphtech Ghost saddles is. And I’ll suggest you buy the Graphtech saddles, instead. But the Fishman saddles are available, if you insist.

Hi,
New user here. I have a couple of Parker Fly's I'm going to sell and need help with the values. I'll sell one at a time, probably ebay or reverb.

The first up is USA era Cedar Bronze Fly. I'd rate it 9 out 10 for one very small impression on the body's face. Comes with the Parker HSC. A price range would be great.

Thanks!

Hi @peter parker—welcome!

The Fly Concerts are less-common than the Fly Deluxe, so some might use the word “rare” in such a listing, though a few generally pop up for sale each year. They are effectively Flys without magnetic pickups, so the customer for such an instrument is arguably also less-common

Depending on your urgency to sell, I’ve seen them sell recently for what seems to be around $2,300 +/- with opening numbers in the mid-/high-$3ks. I don’t think you’ve got a $4k+ guitar there, but you never know. If you’re in a bind and you’d like to sell it quickly, a $2k sale price would probably sell in a day or so.

If it were me, I’d be happy netting anything north of $2,500, but my personal “I don’t wanna sell it price” would be closer to $4k

You’re welcome to sell it in our Classifieds section; just post a clear asking price that you’re comfortable with.

Also, tax return time in the US seems to be a high level for buyers accepting higher pricing.

2010 Custom Shop RF842 Fly Deluxe with Floyd Rose (P1007029) with EMGs in mounting rings, produced for Adam Dutkiewicz prior to him jumping ship from Parker to PRS.

This is the first time I’ve seen “NEVER owned by a celebrity” as a selling point. Parker speculators are a fun bunch.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Fri Feb 25, 2022 4:27 am “NEVER owned by a celebrity” as a selling point.

For those Seinfeld fans among us, something about seeing the sale
of a guitar almost owned by Adam Dutkiewicz reminded me of when George thought he’d bought Jon Voight’s Chrysler Le Baron.

Good luck to the seller—that’s a lot of money, but maybe someone has been waiting for one of these guitars to show up?! He’s right that it is quite rare!

'99 Trans Butterscotch Artist (229079BSS), listed for $4,875 and sold for undisclosed offer.

Pre-refined Artist with accessories that the seller ostensibly bought off Reverb over the past two years (?) for $4875+tax. Given the last Artist we saw listed was for $6200, there seems to be room for haggling. FWIW, two years ago, Artists in less-than-pristine condition were being listed for sub-$2k.

Reading about the ridiculous prices that seem to be normal on Reverb, I am beginning to wonder if I should list my custom Parker for USD 15k (or 17.5k with backup spring included).

I just failed to sell a pristine condition Two Notes Torpedo Studio for EUR 500 via an Austrian portal. Reverb lists them EUR 999 and more.

Greetings...
Nef

I can see the trend moving back to the 2K range now.
There are a number of Classics listed around 2.2 - 2.4 which could sell around 2K.
I think ultimately we will get back to the sub-2K level for a decent guitar once the collectors internal bidding war reveals itself to be artificially inflated.

Last chance to sell for +10K @Nef

Black '98 Fly Concert/Bronze (266158BSS). Initially listed for an optimistic $10,000+tax, the price was subsequently dropped to $6,499 on April 5th, 2022, with the listing then marked "ended" (presumed to have changed hands outside of Reverb).

Please, for the speculator’s/seller’s sake, DO NOT look into what this guitar and others like it previously sold for - It just happened to appreciate in value five and a half times while he owned it. You’ve got to believe him - He was helpless to stop how much more valuable he decided it became!

The guitar previously sold for $1,400.

For reference, this natural Concert/Bronze with hidden serial previously sold for $1,300.

Realistically, now, I’m curious to read what others would consider a “fair” fetching price for Concerts/Bronzes. I’ve seen a number of them seemingly sell for north of three grand, as of late - But it remains to be seen if the latest owners were themselves duped into regarding them as $10,000 investments just waiting to pay off.

I would think a good deal of the price for any fly comes down to condition, and in the case of cedar wood, rarity. Once you start documenting nicks, cracks, dents and dings things drop precipitously.

The elusive low-cost Fly with a 45-day return policy!
And, apparently, this Fly is from 1991—futuristically, that was at least two years before it was made!

I saw the listing, but it was sold/404’d before I could get a closer look.

Between the $2,100 Fly also on GC and the subtraction of tax and Reverb fees from other listings, we are effectively back in the area of two grand being the average Deluxe/Classic price. Our favorite flipper was even forced to drop the asking price for the 90s Plum Deluxe he poached the 9 spring out of down to around $2450 before it sold.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Sat Mar 05, 2022 9:50 pm …we are effectively back in the area of two grand being the average Deluxe/Classic price.

Of course, it’s not all roses. For those of us who already own redundant amounts of Flys, when one pops up that we really want, it seems to be listed for three times the price of the last guitar we bought (I’m looking at you, every Spruce Artist I saw after passing up a $1900 beater).

For anyone who caught it: Rick Nielsen’s autographed, one-of-a-kind, checkerboard painted hardtail deluxe sold on Reverb for $3k a few hours after it was listed. Seems like only recently, Reverb was oversaturated with four or five competing listings for USM-era black Deluxes missing springs and bars, listed for $4k+ as “investments.” I feel bad for whoever was falling for that.

Update: The buyer subsequently confirmed that it was a refinish copy of Nielsen’s, rather than the original they believed they were purchasing.

For anyone wanting to pay around eight grand for bragging rights to a 2000 walnut-bodied Fly Supreme (061040BW):



Update: As of 4/6/22, the listing price was lowered by $101 (presumably to entice those who pulled eight grand out of their pocket and found they were $101 short).

I saw that and I’m jealous!!! The $8k price tag and lack of a “Make an Offer” button are helping me stay calm Too bad Reverb got rid of that “let someone rent this guitar for a few months” button

Bumping to ask if anyone has thoughts concerning what seems to be the Parker resale community trying to close the asking price gap between the “budget” models and the flagship carbon models.

Over the the past year or so, we’ve observed asking prices for carbon models (Flys, DF842, DF824, etc.) range from around $2k to $10k (with the bulk of listings above $3.5k seemingly intended as a cue to attempt transaction outside of Reverb). The reasons for these wild variations in price have made up the bulk of discussion in this thread. Note that you can still occasionally find Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace listings for Flys at sub-$2k, courtesy of sellers who don’t keep up with the “FLYS ARE CRYPTO” frothing that has thankfully dropped off a bit in the FB groups.

We’ve also seen asking prices for NiteFlys from all eras of production reach further and further into Fly territory ($2k+), despite the NF’s marketing history as being the “budget” version of the Fly. As previously discussed, this seems to largely be a market reaction to the shameless speculator market for Fly springs diverting demand to what buyers are told is the “next best thing” to the flagship models. Hornets and single cut models also seem to fall into this category.

Which brings us to the true budget models (most of which were produced without Ken’s involvement, and have only a body or headstock shape in common with the Fly or carbon DF series): P series, DF and RF radial series, and sub-$500 DF series. The majority of these were Asian-produced and, though originally intended to compete with brands produced in the same factories at their relative price points, have been observed listed by Guitar Center and optimistic speculators for as much as twice their original price tags (Guitar Center currently has the all-wood DF724 listed for $3,300 - Some employee must have seriously overpaid on a trade-in).

The basses don’t seem to get much discussion outside of a few enthusiasts, and Parker-branded jazz box and acoustic guitars from USM are things I consider collectible oddities (Not holding much more water in the small market of Parker-specific collectors than a Ken bobblehead you can set on a guitar balanced across two chairs) - their actual resale value seems to be decided case-by-case.

https://reverb.com/item/51484020-parker ... black-rare

The guy listing springs for $1000 has relisted the $10k bronze for $3500 lower. The absent offer button still gives me the impression that he’s trying to cut a deal outside of Reverb; should anyone feel like haggling with him.