reliablefender a.k.a. The STRATosphere - Anybody know these guys?

[ripper70]

Hey All,

I recently stumbled upon an eBay merchant, user name reliablefender. They have an eBay store called The STRATosphere.

Just wondering if anybody here has dealt with them.

I'm posting a link to a page from their store. Lotsa stuff for sale and this barely scratches the surface. The scale of this operation is immense.

eBay Store - The STRATosphere: Bodies

[dennistruckdriver]

Yeah. I have bought stuff from them, but no more. I just can't stomach the idea of buying guitars and then ripping them to pieces just to sell the parts. Under another username, they even bid on and won one of mine, and parted it out.
They are blocked from bidding on any more of my items for sale.

[diceman]

I've heard "good things about them."

Like Dennis said, they just buy guitars and gut them.

What bothers me more is when I see vintage guitars gutted out. In my search for Fender Mustangs/Duos/MM's I've come across a lot of sellers who are selling a body, neck, pickguard, pups, tuners, bridge, etc after tearing apart a piece of guitar history...

[ripper70]

Is every guitar, then, worth more in pieces that it is intact?

[EEF13]

I have bought a couple of things from them

[ripper70]

I don't understand how they can make enough money to make it worth the effort. I reassembled, on paper, a Gibson LP Studio Worn Cherry from the parts he had listed. It wasn't scientific mind you. I pretty much scanned his completed listings and took a rough average of the selling prices including shipping.

I put the guitar back together for $840 including shipping, which I estimated to be around $65 - $70. That leaves him with about $770 in his pocket to buy a guitar that I could buy from MF for $799 shipped.

WTF?

[diceman]

Ripper - I've thought the same. He might make $100-150 per guitar. But, it looks like he's got a whole lot of them. Even if you only sold one guitar worth of parts and made $100/day, that is a decent little profit...

[Jason]

They're stolen, you ignorant sluts.

[diceman]

Everything but serial numbered neck plates!

[teeloh]

Like others, I have bought from them. I found them reliable, though quite expensive for (say) Buddy Guy signature necks, or other high end fender stuff, which can be bought cheaper elsewhere. I am quite picky about fender necks, and have tried and rejected a few. They are quite good for that.

Almost every 'name brand' guitar made before 1980 is likely to be worth more stripped than whole.

As long as people fetishise vintage guitars, with little regard for their sound, this will be the case.

[Frails]

Being a Strat guy I've stumbled on their auctions often. Personally, I'll never buy from them again. First of all, I am 100% convinced that they schill bid. There is not one auction of theirs that I have bid on, and I mean not one out of many that has not jumped up significantly in the last few seconds, regardless of item. It just seems impossible to buy anything from them for a good price. Case in point- tonight I watched a lefty Strat body in red nitro stay at $79 until 30 secs left. I bid $102.52 and take highest bid. But then with 3 secs left it jumps to $160. So typical with their auctions!

Also, they have never responded to one of my emails. I have asked many a question on their items, especially pickups, and they NEVER responded. Their prices for things like bridge assemblies are very high, especially when there are manufacturer's like Callaham that simply blow a stock Fender bridge away.

The whole chop shop thing, well to each his own. And being lefty I suppose I'm always for more inventory across my screen. But there's things about their operation that always bugs me.

[leftyguitarman]

I've dealt with them like 7 or 8 times through ebay. Always have had fast shipping from them and the items were always as described. Never had one issue.

A lot of their stuff is pretty expensive, but still, they provide a lot of things that you can't come across otherwise.

[dennistruckdriver]

Originally Posted by dennistruckdriver

....Under another username, they even bid on and won one of mine, and parted it out.....

Originally Posted by Frails

....I am 100% convinced that they schill bid....

I know for a FACT that they have more than one account!

[b-squared]

I agree with Dennis...it makes me sick to my stomach--this guy takes vintage Strats and parts them out.

It's a travesty. I would never buy from him.

BB

[blues24]

I had good luck from them.They had just the parts I need.Being that im a lefty,its very hard to find some parts.There service was very good from start to finish.

[ripper70]

Well, I can understand how Dennis and BB feel about vintage guitars being dismantled and sold in pieces. And I'm sure that reliablefender does have other accounts and user names. He'll need them to help him circumnavigate his way around other sellers like Dennis who don't want to surreptitiously become part of reliablefender's operation by having their vintage axes parted out.

I'm not so sure about the shill bids though. To put in a shill bid with 3 seconds left in an auction risks losing the sale entirely. No seller could afford to do that. There are a lot of bidders on eBay, including me, that scalp their bids either manually or via automated bidding services like auctionsniper.com. I wait 'til the last second before placing my bid and I know many others that do the same. I lose more than I win that way but when I do score it's usually pretty good.

I mean, this seller has been on eBay since Sept. '03 and has a 99.8% rating with over 100k transactions. I just can't figure out where he gets all the guitars from, or how he manages his inventory or where he stores all this gear or pays employees and STILL makes money.

[coldsteal2]

Ive been buying parts from them for years
its not always easy to find brand name necks and
bodies so they are a constant source, a little high priced
but constant.

[Fletch]

There's another guy called reliablegibson. I met him, a young kid. He buys LP studios, low end V's, SGs, and other low end gibsons and parts them out. He said he buys them right on ebay, takes them apart and puts them right back on ebay.

Said he makes a couple grand a month. He always had a bunch of parted out guitars listed so even though he didn't make a whole lot of money on each he still cleaned up on volume. He also worked in a music store, that is how I found out about him and his auctions. He might have even been buying new guitars with his discount and parting them out...

I thought he was a pretty enterpising young kid, but I also noticed what somebody else said that his auctions were dirt cheap until the end and shot up before closing. I bet he had a bunch of ebay accounts that he used to buy with. I don't know if he's still around or not...

fletch

[Christmas]

I've bought many parts from the STRATosphere and they've been really cool each time & ship super fast. What's the big deal with dismantling mass-produced guitars that were in pieces at the factory only a few months prior? IMO, they're doing a great service to the parts-guitar builder (like me!). The prices for Highway 1 bodies can be a steal. Shill bidding? Sounds like sour grapes.

[PINKBITS]

Purchased quite a few things. Never had any troubles.

[leftyguitarman]

Originally Posted by ripper70

I just can't figure out where he gets all the guitars from

Almost all of his stuff is Japanese Fender parts. He probably gets them from some sort of a connection in Japan.

[Alpedra]

I´ve ordered a strat neck from them a couple of years ago for a project. Gave up on the project and ended up selling that neck on ebay for around the same price.

They´re a bit on the expensive side, but had no problems with them. Fast shipping too.

[ripper70]

Well, Fletch, I did a search and couldn't find any user by the name gibsonreliable but there was a gibsondependable though it is a significantly smaller operation. I'm guessing this is who you were referring to.

I also agree with Christmas. Parting out a guitar is no big deal, IMHO. And I've seen enough auctions, of every stripe, where the scalpers take over in the last few seconds and push to prices thru the roof. Happens most times for things I'm interested in bidding on. I hate it when it happens, but sometimes I'll go back a few weeks later to read the eBay feedback just to satisfy my own curiosity about the transaction and sure enough it'll be there. In short, I'm not so sure about the shill bidding either.

I can see why diceman is bothered by seeing a piece of guitar history gutted and sold to the highest bidder. On the other hand, I see alot of vintage era guitars being sold on craigslist and eBay that are really not vintage. Swapped out parts, mostly tuners and p'ups, rarely in any kind of condition that would be considered "vintage". And, if you think about it, every time you see a vintage Fender Mustang being parted out it means the one sitting in it's case under your bed just went up in value.

[teeloh]

I think 'Gibsondependable' were the source of my first LP, about 3 years ago. It was a 1990s LP special. I added tuners and electronics myself (not well: I am not that handy) and let a luthier finish the job.

It was a good intro to les pauls. I think I got the body and neck for US$300 or so. Might have been a little less.

[diceman]

Originally Posted by ripper70

I can see why diceman is bothered by seeing a piece of guitar history gutted and sold to the highest bidder. On the other hand, I see alot of vintage era guitars being sold on craigslist and eBay that are really not vintage. Swapped out parts, mostly tuners and p'ups, rarely in any kind of condition that would be considered "vintage". And, if you think about it, every time you see a vintage Fender Mustang being parted out it means the one sitting in it's case under your bed just went up in value.

Good point. I've got a couple of 60's Fenders which are original (one of them has new knobs and pup covers) - the other (my '65 Jag) has recent pickups and partial rewiring - 80%+ original (and I have no interest in finding original parts to "complete" it!). I guess they are going to be harder to find if their siblings kept getting ripped apart and parted out. Good for me! Sort of... Knobs and hardware crap isn't quite as big of a deal - but separating a neck and body which have been together for 40-50 years just makes me cringe a little! Side note - but none of my are under the bed - they all get played frequently!

[Fletch]

Originally Posted by ripper70

Well, Fletch, I did a search and couldn't find any user by the name gibsonreliable but there was a gibsondependable though it is a significantly smaller operation. I'm guessing this is who you were referring to.

I also agree with Christmas. Parting out a guitar is no big deal, IMHO. And I've seen enough auctions, of every stripe, where the scalpers take over in the last few seconds and push to prices thru the roof. Happens most times for things I'm interested in bidding on. I hate it when it happens, but sometimes I'll go back a few weeks later to read the eBay feedback just to satisfy my own curiosity about the transaction and sure enough it'll be there. In short, I'm not so sure about the shill bidding either.

I can see why diceman is bothered by seeing a piece of guitar history gutted and sold to the highest bidder. On the other hand, I see alot of vintage era guitars being sold on craigslist and eBay that are really not vintage. Swapped out parts, mostly tuners and p'ups, rarely in any kind of condition that would be considered "vintage". And, if you think about it, every time you see a vintage Fender Mustang being parted out it means the one sitting in it's case under your bed just went up in value.

Yep! That's the dood... my bad.

fletch

[markernst]

I have watched their auctions and they must be bidding up their own auctions. Like Frails said, their stuff always has a bidder at the start and at the end, always! No way a seller with that many auctions having 100% bid activity on their stuff.

[Alpedra]

I´ve always had that feeling too. It´s a way to push their prices up (it drives other people to bid and bid to win, it´s a psychological thing) and at the same time it´s a way to avoid selling a part at a price lower than they think it´s worth.....

[ripper70]

Originally Posted by markernst

I have watched their auctions and they must be bidding up their own auctions. Like Frails said, their stuff always has a bidder at the start and at the end, always! No way a seller with that many auctions having 100% bid activity on their stuff.

I just don't buy it. They have about 3,000 transactions per month. Half of them are Buy It Now. In order for them to do what your suggesting they would have to have hundreds or even thousands of individual accounts, each one attached to a credit card and verifiable billing address.

Every transaction leaves an electronic paper trail. Every month there would be a record of the same bidders jumping in at the last minute on hundreds of auctions. If the powers that be at eBay were to discover a pattern of manipulation like you're suggesting they would shut them down.

I mean, we're talking about a 99.8% positive rating on a seller with over 114,000 transactions. It seems like it would be easier to have the success that they've had by satisfying their customers than it would be by cheating their way to the same result.

[jonesy]

Good ebayer IMO, I have had several transactions with them and all of them have been good. They will combine shipping for you and items are just as described.