I've seen student basses going for more than $800 on Craigslist... I don't know if anyone buys them. I know I wouldn't.

To me that price sounds normal for an entry level upright. Maybe someone else will chime in.

Seems reasonable if it's playable at all. My first upright was $500 in 1981. It was playable, just.

I was told from a teacher to go for a budget of $2000 not to outgrow my instrument too quickly.
This goes with the advice I usually give to those who ask for directions on which bass to buy: I usually say "don't buy your first bass, go straight for your third instrument".

And, by the way: I did not buy an URB: I regret it but it could not go past a reality checkpoint with the size of my apartment.

Seems right to me too. Might even be a good deal. I was pricing them when I was looking for an upright and I really would have liked to get me one but settled for the Stagg electric. I saw some for $400 but they were really beat up. Not even what I'd consider a student model. Everything else playable I saw was at the $1500 range.

$800 is a steal for a decent upright. Violins are expensive, giant violins are giant expensive.

What Ben said!

Double basses have gotten a lot cheaper in recent years. Several US makers are mass-producing with a good level of quality, and the Chinese makers are offering a lot of upright basses for low prices.

Yep; it's just you -- they're getting cheaper, like John said in the post above me.

You have a blank signature, so we don't know where you live, unless your login name is your location. These sorts of things (pricing trends) do often tend to be regional in nature, having to do with import/export fees, price of transport, exchange rates, etc.

I spent $600 for my excellent Chinese-made upright, which is an intermediate model.

Forget the price; what people often don't take consideration of, is that most uprights are sold as unfinished instruments. So, add $300 to $400 for setup work (including shaving the neck) and putting on a good set of Thomastik strings.

In the used market, the prices I see are rarely much less than buying a new overseas-made bass. I tried a dozen or more models, used and new, and liked mine the best (it's in my signature). It seemed to have the richest timbre and the most consistent tone.

Moving up to a higher price bracket, fully carved Bulgarian and Czech basses have been preferred for about a decade or more now. A friend of mine has one and it plays and sounds a beauty. MUCH more expensive though ($3K and up). Also quite pricey for setup work.

Although this is a simplification, there are two or three basic "types" of upright basses -- forgetting the carved vs. plywood question. The slappers and rockabilly folk usually want one with a narrow neck and high action. Some companies specialize in those, while others make "both kinds" (again, an over-simplification of what's available).

The point is that you can't just use prices of unspecified basses as a judge of what's out there or what's fair. Nor can you judge from an ad whether it's a bass for you. Upright basses vary considerably -- almost as much as the various miking techniques.