GeorgeH

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”― Mark Twain Nothing wrong with that.

Not necessarily. BoB rib corners can also be filed back from the edges. In this case, the rib corners flush with the edges and the rib miters running straight down the center of the join points to BoB construction.

Funny. I had no idea.

Two of the "all time best" German-born Americans: John Friedrich George Gemünder

Were you the only boy who could ever teach her?

I hope both Butthead and Horse-With-No-Name are okay.

I don't disagree that "auctions are dumping grounds--for widely varying reasons." But when someone makes a quantitative statement such as "most of the lots in auctions are things that failed to sell elsewhere," it should be supportable by some data. "Most" implies a majority. It may be true or it may not be true. Without data, who knows? Like you said: "for widely varying reasons" is what I said: "for many reasons and from many sources." That does not mean mostly because they "failed to sell elsewhere." I would surmise that many of the instruments you buy in auctions "nonfunctional in its sold state" were never attempted to be sold elsewhere before ending up at there.

So really your statement is completely anecdotal. Instruments end up at auctions for many reasons and from many sources, and I think that the statement "that most of the lots in auctions are things that failed to sell elsewhere" is unsupportable by any data. That's all.

Not all Hill Certificates were wrong.

"Most"? On what evidence do you base this?

@PhilipKT Also, psychology! Auctions like to have low estimates to attract more buyers and then let them (hopefully) bid up the prices. Dealers like to have high asking prices, and then bargain down (or bundle with an instrument or bow) so the buyer feels like they got a "deal." So, in the end, perhaps the actual sales prices maybe closer than the apparent differences between published auction estimates and dealer asking-prices.

They certainly do seem very experienced in the fine literary art of writing weaselly listings!

Using some iteration of "labeled as" is a way of weaseling out of a return when the buyer discovers that the seller sold them the "cheapest imaginable Schoenbach crap" instead of the $200 "Collin-Mézin" they had imagined they had just bought. By the way, the number and quality of feedbacks are not necessarily indicative of a scammer (or not). There are scammers with hundreds of positive feedbacks that have been doing this for years.

Because violins etc. are illiquid assets, and there is an inverse reciprocal relationship between time-on-market and price. Auctions provide a shorter time-on-market than retail, and hence, lower prices. Auctions provide a date-certain of sale, but the buyers set the price. Retail provides an unknown date of sale, but the seller set the price.

Yes.