How far did analog drop in price before rebounding?

[Sundown]

Hey all,

 

Just curious... When DX-7s and D-50s were all the rage, how far did classic analogs drop in price before attaining iconic vintage status? Did a Model D ever fall below a thousand bucks? How about a Memorymoog, a classic Oberheim, or a Jupiter 8?

 

Again, just curious.

[ksoper]

Did a Model D ever fall below a thousand bucks?

 

In 1988 I sold my Model D for $400. Needed rent money. I don't think you could've gotten much more for one at that time.

 

 

[mcgoo]

Memorymoogs could be had for under a grand, especially if it wasn't a Plus (version with MIDI & sequencer). I bought my Plus new for $1399.00 on blowout & felt like I did well when I sold it for that much 10 years later.

[synthizen2]

My best guess for when analogs reached their lowest value is roughly 1986 to 1995. It took a couple of years after the introduction of the DX7 and affordable samplers, to have an effect on the resale value of analogs. During this time period it was possible to find Minimoogs for $350, Prophet 5's for $700, and OBXa's and Jupiters for less than $1000 easily.

 

Two events in the 90s increased and in some cases even restored or exceeded the resale value of analogs: the EDM movement, and the internet. Had those 2 key things not happened, i think the resurgence of analogs would not have happened either.

[Kenny Ingram]

Oh no...I get stomach and heart aches every time I see a thread like this.

[IndySteve]

Some other things happened that I think are significant. First, people started missing their knobs. My digital synth at the time was a Korg DSS-1, which is among the most analog sounding thanks to the analog filters, same as the Polysix and Mono/Poly; but it doesn't have knobs or sliders to play with. Well, it has one. It also doesn't have portamento. Most of the early digitals didn't. The DX is an exception.

 

Another thing is the birth of virtual analog and soft synths. Both of these taught a new generation how much fun it is to just make up sounds with analog synthesizers. VA and softsynths got gen-y interested in analog synths, creating demand for the original analog classics. With the old fogies hanging on to the diminishing supply of originals, the price went up.

[MAJUSCULE]

Oh no...I get stomach and heart aches every time I see a thread like this.

 

+9999999999999

[Sam Mullins]

In the late 80's I sold my first three keyboards which I had bought in the late 70's with hard-earned cash from de-tassling corn. It makes me sick to think about it now: $650 for a 59 Hammond C3 and Leslie. Around $100 each for a Wurlitzer 200 and a Micro-Moog.

[ElmerJFudd]

The digital instruments and software+pc+controllers are great in that they are lighter and in many cases they can do the job of a studio full of analogs and electro-mechanicals or at least come very close. But development is pretty rapid in this area and without fail the instrument you buy today is replaced by something better in a season or three. So what are these instruments really worth? If pricing is what the market will bear, $4k US seems to be the max we are willing to shell out.

 

How do you guys generally feel about that? Are the digital instruments worth this much money? How long do you generally keep them?

 

If instrument makers were building analogs and electro-mechanicals like the CS-80 or a Rhodes today, what do you think they would be worth? What's the most you would be willing to pay for instruments like this? Would you pay $5k US for a Vintage Vibe Piano? If they were mass produced in Mexico like a Fender Guitar would you expect to pay less?

 

Should the same apply with the digitals? Should the JP-80 cost less than the Stage 2 because one is made in Asia and the other "hand assembled in Sweden"?

 

A digital Hammond XK-3c+XK Traditional Lower Manual+XK Pedal Board+Xk System Stand totals somewhere around $8200. The B3mk2 runs somewhere around $26,000. Which is a better investment? Are instruments good investments? Should we even think of instruments as an investment?

 

 

 

 

[marino]

I spent about $8000 for my Rhodes Chroma+Apple IIe+proprietary interface, and I consider myself lucky to have sold the whole system for about $2500 in the early 90s.

 

A keyboardist I knew made the worst deal of the century... he returned his Chroma to the store, and for an additional $500, they gave him a Roland D550! Analog was dead, long live digital!

 

I missed a Model D for $500 in the late 80s. I had had it on loan for a few months and I wanted it badly, but had other urgent expenses to front... so someone else was quicker and grabbed it.

 

And now the big one... my tech offered me a CS80 for $500! He told me that it had been bought used by one of his customers, who thought it was a home organ, and now he just wanted to get rid of that enormous heavy thing!

I reasoned (or rather, lost my reason) for a moment and thought "CS80 is huge, heavy, impossible to move, plus it breaks, it's expensive to service, doesn't stay in tune - and of course, in a short time it will be completely useless, because the DIGITAL REVOLUTION is coming!!"

 

...Sigh...

 

[The Real MC]

I turned down a model D in the early 80s for $200. Bought a Rogue for $50, a Liberation for $100.

 

Back then it was not uncommon for the analog polyphonics - P5, OB, Memorymoog - to sell for under $500. I've read of people letting modulars (including moog) go for nothing if the lucky soul hauled it away themselves.

 

I have never owned DX7 or D50 or any of the digital instruments.

 

The deals are still out there. This year I got a basketcase Memorymoog for $400.

[RABid]

Sold my Model D with a warped contact bar and unstable osc 2 for 500 in the late 80's.

 

My Chroma and MemoryMoog went up in flames when the music store we were practicing in burned down. Collected around $3500 from insurance on those.

[piano39]

My local music store had a Moog Source for months priced at $80. I wasn't interestsed because I was saving for a Casio CZ-5000.

 

A friend of mine bought the Realistig MG-1 Moog for $15.

[eric]

I clearly remember it being 1987, when I went over to a local pro keyboard player's house (I was in high school at the time) to buy my very first Invisible stand and anvil briefcase ($50 for the pair). He was liquidating some gear and had just sold his Jupiter 8 for $500.

[analogholic]

Probably the best deal I ever made was to buy an Xpander in LA in '91 for 1000 bucks.

The guy who sold was a sax player and had been using it with an EWI.

He asked me "Are you sure you want to buy this since doesn't have any good pianos and drums in it" "Uuuhm yeah I'm sure"

Sold it in Sweden a couple of months later for three times as much.

Man, if I knew what I know today, I would have fxxking bought EVERYTHING.

Well, at least I'm not alone

 

[ksoper]

Should we even think of instruments as an investment?

 

I don't. They're tools. I invest in my career when I buy one, but I'm not counting on anything holding or increasing in value.

[eric]

Another sad one that is really not that old. I bought my first Jupiter 8 in 2000 off of eBay. It was one of the last revisions, I think the JP-8A, pretty much mint in an ATA case for $1200! Wow. I regretfully sold it about 3 years later for $2500. Then I got the itch and bought another one, this one much more beat up, for $2400. It needed a bit of work. I held onto it a little longer and sold it after five years for around $4000. If I had held onto either of those beasts, it looks like they are fetching $7500+ these days. Wow.

[Bill H.]

Around 1990 I turned down a Jupiter 8 for $600 and a Minimoog for $350. I wasn't stupid. I really wanted them, but it was during a tough period in my life. I was extremely cash starved among other things.

[burningbusch]

 

If instrument makers were building analogs and electro-mechanicals like the CS-80 or a Rhodes today, what do you think they would be worth? What's the most you would be willing to pay for instruments like this? Would you pay $5k US for a Vintage Vibe Piano? If they were mass produced in Mexico like a Fender Guitar would you expect to pay less?

 

Should the same apply with the digitals? Should the JP-80 cost less than the Stage 2 because one is made in Asia and the other "hand assembled in Sweden"?

 

It's a mistake to buy into marketing BS that says, "oh it's made here vs. elsewhere so it's worth more." This is only relevant when a country or area of a country is particularly known for its ability to produce specific goods. This happens when, over time, talent congregates to these areas. Look at Silicon Valley. There's no place on the planet with that level of high tech talent. Hollywood for entertainment. France/Italy for high-end fashion, fine leather, etc.

 

Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo are some of the most expensive places to live, period. Should you expect to pay more for goods coming out of these cities vs. others? I wouldn't.

 

Everything is hand assembled. How else is it going to be made? Robots? I wish. iPads/iPhones are hand assembled in China. I don't think the quality would be one iota better if the assembly was done in the USA or Europe.

 

Busch.

[Sundown]

The deals are still out there. This year I got a basketcase Memorymoog for $400.

 

If you've got the repair chops, then I agree. You can find some rough instruments and turn them into gems.

[Sundown]

I wouldn't feel too bad about these prices... If you factor in inflation, you can pretty much double the 1980s figures to equate to today's dollars.

 

But it's crazy to think that vintage analog has become so valuable. Sometimes when I long for a Model D or an eighties polyphonic, it's easy to forget that few had MIDI, many had no touch sensitivity, and some had tuning or stability issues.

 

Plugins start to look pretty good at that point...

[Mike Kent]

I bought almost 100 synths while they were cheap (the most I owned at once was 36). Here is a list of the ones I found. Each old synth I bought I would try it for a week or a few months before deciding if each was a keeper, then maybe flip to try something else. Some I had to sell to pay bills at the time (we had 4 kids to raise). These were pretty typical prices in the early 90s. I thought these "old" synths were all better than the going prices but these were really not unusual prices at the time:

 

Minimoog $350-$500

Moog Prodigy $100

Micromoog $50

Moog 15 Modular $500

JP-8 $350-$700

JP-6 $400

JP-4 $150

SH-101 $50-$125

SH-09,5,3a,7 $75-$125

System-100 Complete $250

System-700 Complete $3000

Juno-6,60,106 $70-$150

MKS-30 $100

MKS-80 $200-$400

JX-3P $100

JX-8P $100

TR-606 $75

TR-808 $500

TR-909 $150

TB-303 $75

MC-202 $75

Arp Odyssey $400

Arp Axxe $150

Octave Cat $75

Pro-One $100-$150

Prophet-600 $200

Prophet-5 $500

MS-20 $150-$200

CS-15 $75

OB-Xa $600

Wurli $100-$200

Rhodes $150-$250

 

[IndySteve]

Ouch! I don't know which is worse (by today's standards) Giving up a Chroma and $500 for a Roland D550, or giving up the chance to buy the CS-80 for $500. I think based on woulda, shoulda coulda, it's the CS-80. Ironically, all the reasons not to buy a CS-80 are true (to a point), they are huge, heavy, impossible to move, breaks, expensive to service, doesn't stay in tune, and in a short time will be completely useless (if you can't keep it serviced). Of course, none of that means that the CS-80 won't go for the price of a Ford Fusion.

 

[IndySteve]

Synmike, when the zombie apocalypse comes, I want to be on your team, you scavenge like nobody else. Did you keep any of these? Maybe we need a show "Flip my Synth".

 

A few years ago there was a website called freeelectone.com, by a guy who was picking up home organs for free including some Hammonds and some high end Yamaha Electones with the same technology as the Yamaha CS-80. I looked for the site last year, and it had vanished into the web ether along with most of the free organs.

[J. Dan]

I bought my Moog opus 3 at a pawn shop for $90. If anyone is interested, it can be yours for $600

[Bucktunes]

Seems like the value of a good synth tends to take a "smiley face" pattern over a few decades. Here are the phases as I've observed;

 

1. New and state of the art

2. Still cool, but getting a bit long in the tooth

3. Outdated, outclassed by newer synths on the market

4. Probably should sell it and take what you can get

5. Kind of unique nowadays. Cool that you're still using it

6. Nice vintage piece. I've forgotten how good those sound!

7. I always wanted one of those. How much do you want for it?

 

Like old cars, if you take good care of them they can end up being worth more than when they were new!

[joegerardi]

I got $900.00 for my Prophet-10, which was 9 grand new.

 

Worse, I got $750.00 for my Emulator III, which was the same price new, so it wasn't just analog.

 

..Joe

[kanker.]

I picked up a Mini in the early 90's for $200. Wasn't a particularly great one, ended up trading it in even for my Nord Electro 2 rack, which for that Mini meant I got the better end of the deal.

 

Picked up a Korg Mono/Poly for $40 around '91

[Piktor]

In the middle 1980s I just missed buying a Multimoog at an auction for $150.00. Ended up buying it from the successful bidder a couple weeks later for $200.00. (He was disappointed that it wasn't a poly.)

 

Fortunately, as I rarely sell or trade anything, I have managed to avoid seller's regret.

[NewImprov]

I paid $100 for an Arp Odyssey in 1988. Paid $1200 for my Minimoog Model D in 2002, but prices were already rising then, and I knew I was getting an awesome deal. Still have both, though the Odyssey needs some work.

 

I got my Rhodes in 1998 for free for helping someone move. He'd paid $100 for it.