Dave Mustaine sold a bunch of his gear on Reverb. Then a d-bag flipper bought it all.

Ganondorf? Bowser?




WaLuigi?

 

I was more eluding to the prospect that people don't flip gear for more cash. They clearly do and anyone would if the opportunity arose. If that strat sitting in your bedroom cupboard suddenly became worth ten times what it is now tomorrow, you'd bite I'm sure. Anyone would!

I don't doubt it. But you have to look at the facts. I have no idea what he bought them for as simply I wasn't interested in buying anything. But let's say I was. What did they go for, around £3000 for the guitar? To do it, I'd have to move money from my savings, maybe a few hours for my bank, and hit buy. If you listen to this guy's youtube video, he needed to do a lot more set up work than I would have had to do, including calling his bank to tell them there were a lot of purchases about to happen. You can argue that he had a lot more hoops to jump through to execute this plan than anyone else.

My point is, people had a window of opportunity. If they were serious about taking it, they would have done so.

Again, people flip things all the time. Sometimes by chance, sometimes by construct. I don't however get the impression that he does intend to flip them in the manner people are suggesting. OK yes he's a businessman and I'm sure if I rocked up demanding to pay £10k for a guitar he'd be daft to say no.

All's I'm saying is, I have seen one of his auctions where he was auctioning off a pair of amps owned by some band (sorry I don't remember the details). OK they were a little extra than standard used price, but they were not 10x the price or anything daft. We'll just have to agree to wait and see what he actually does do before either of us can say we were right.

I hear you! However, nobody is throwing any angst at Jeff Hanneman's widow for effectively doing exactly that. Those guitars are only going to be a collector's investment and never likely to be played again. While I'd love to own one of those pieces and would/could pay a little more than what a typical example is worth, $75k is obscene. That is definitely stuffy collector's territory.

This guy seemed pretty open that anyone is able to use these guitars (albeit at his studio) which I'm sure he actually does charge money for. It's an asset to his business and I'm sure there are plenty guitarists out there who would happily go and use his studio for the potential of Dave's gear to be used on their recordings. While I'm not the biggest Dave fan, if someone offered me Dimebag's guitar to record with, it'd sway my preference for that particular studio is all I can say.

I'm sure he could have. But the thing is, the intent of the buyer as he stated in his own video seems to not be what the rest of the people on these forums are saying. In fact, he's openly saying that all these pieces are available for use (again I'm sure if you use his studio which really just does make sound business sense!) He hasn't talked about flipping them for £10k a piece, nor has he talked about shelving them for a generation so he can be a millionaire. These are the assumptions that have been labelled.

If you look at his auctions, most of the pieces he's been buying and selling for years do seem fairly priced if not absolute bargains. A couple of them I'm still considering even right now. While I have no doubt he paid less than what he's asking for some of those guitars, they're still not bad for the money he's asking for. I'd admit, it does put him in "trader" territory, but hey if he's happy and not doing any harm, what's the prob?

It seems the main intent of this person is to promote people using his studio. If you believe him in his die-hard Megadeth fan status, I'm sure if you add the 2+2, you'll get the answer. As for his attitude, he's getting a lot of flack and I'm not totally convinced it's really deserved. So of course he's going to adopt a "Ah, bite me" attitude eventually!

Let's look at the other side of this. This is not the first time Dave Mustaine has done a gear sell-off. If you look for an ex-Dave guitar on ebay, most notably his old Jackson guitars, they will not be priced anything like a typical used example. I've seen them go for £6,000 for a standard run-of-the-mill Jackson KV2 - that being when this "main" Jackson was the KV1.

It's also arguable that his tenure with Dean and the guitars that came about from that endorsement are not as valuable as his old Jacksons, the guitars he made his name with through the Rust In Peace sort of era.

It's also arguable that, aside from a tragic circumstance happening, it's unlikely that this is the last Dave Mustaine sell-off. I'd wager that assuming Dave Mustaine has a long healthy life ahead of him as well as Megadeth, there will be another something like this in years to come. So having Dave Mustaine pieces out in the wild is unlikely to be a thing of the past.

So far it does strike me as a lot of nonsense over something that someone did as a Mustaine fan who also wanted to boost his own studio's profile. While I'll patiently wait with you and see what he does over the next decade or so as to the fate of these guitars, the way I see it the guy does seem to be straight up with his how and why. If these guitars are indeed available for use and not being locked away in a cupboard somewhere, I don't see the issue. Personally if I could afford to buy every one of Dimebag's guitars and amps for my own studio, I'd do it in a heartbeat. So far, nothing that this guy has done seems suspect or any more a reaction to a response to undeserved Internet keyboard warrior ire.

Of course, if in two years he does auction them at Christies with a £50k reserve, I'll come back and post a video of me eating a hat. You can even send me the hat!

 

Realistically this is the point I most disagree with you on. Yes, people DO flip gear, but that wasn't my point. It's not the default mode for people. A lot of people would jump on the opportunity to benefit from the monetary value like that, but just as many wouldn't. If I suddenly found myself the owner of a really expensive item, it probably wouldn't change my sort of "relationship" to the instrument. I would neither rush to sell it, nor play it any more or less. Guitars, to me, are tools and occasionally carry some sentimental value, but they're not a container for monetary value. Once I own a guitar, its dollar value becomes irrelevant. I know that's not everyone either, but I don't think I'm the only one who thinks about it that way.

 

I detest when people start separating quotes to address each part separately, but we're in it now.

Different situation. Selling a piece of gear you already own because it has become a collectors item is not the same as flipping. Flipping is buying something of value with intent to sell for profit. Of course, this is completely legal and is basically just trading. The difference here is Dave put a huge amount of gear up for sale so fans can buy pieces. What this guy did is buy it all up and essentially corner the "Used Dave Mustaine Gear" market. He got all but 2 if I remember correctly. He now controls how much those guitars will sell for, as he has no competition.

He went through the same hoops you describe, the total amount of money was just higher. And let's not pretend this is work. It's not, it's 30 minutes of phone calls at most.

The window of opportunity was miniscule. I read the headline of Dave selling his gear and not even a day later I was watching Gannon's video. This is in part down to me, as evidently he already has some (if not all) of the guitars in his possession, taking into account the ship time from USA to UK. But I would've at least liked to SEE what guitars he had available.

I don't know if this is the exact amp in question, but he had on eBay Matt Tuck's (Bullet For My Valentine) 6505/5150. It was for sale for £2000. A 6505. They sell used by normal schmucks like you or me for £500. An amp as common as the 6505 is not worth that much. Ever. Not even a block letter. Not even EVH's personal one, let alone something some dude played his butt-metal through.

This is a different scenario. Jeff is dead, and presumably left most (if not all) of his Earthly possessions to his wife. She is selling them with the intent to be bought as collectors items. Dave sold them to be played, which is why he priced them fairly. Higher than retail cost, sure, but still a good deal for USA custom shop guitars owned and played by Dave Mustaine. Gannon decided his own personal gain was more important than enthusiasts getting a chance at once in a lifetime gear.

Asset, maybe, but truly a shitty business move. This is almost entirely negative press for him. Artists don't go to studios because they own rare pieces of gear, they go to studios because they'll record them and make them sound like the pros they want to be. I'm yet to see any evidence of this studio being capable of doing that. He doesn't even host examples of his studios work on his site. Not even LINKS to the bands pages where you can hear it. Amateur hour.

Assumptions, yes, but this guy has been pulling this shit for years. When you hear hooves you think horses, not zebras.

Most of Gannon's guitars for sale are production line guitars, that's why they're good deals. He bought many from Dave that are literally one of a kind. Don't think for a second these will go cheap, especially not with a history of Dave owning it. Let's rewind to the BFMV 6505. Do we really have to go into the detail the difference between Matt Tuck and Dave Mustaine?

In all my years dealing with people, on and off the internet, I have never seen anyone adopt this attitude when they actually had a leg to stand on. It's a hail mary. "I'll show them how much I don't give a shit". They've already failed. They're fighting back the haters not for themselves, but for the haters. See Robb Flynn at basically any point in the last 5 years. Besides, this is totally irrelevant. Gannon still did what he did.

Picture a line outside a cinema (lets pretend it's for a screening of this brand new film called "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back", so the internet isn't really a thing yet and you have to line up like a chump), now picture a guy who just happened to be near the very front of the line. Let's say he's third in line. Now imagine him buying every single ticket for every screening during it's run. As you can imagine, everyone who was excited for the movie and came to see it is now quite upset. "Relax!" he says, "I'll put them up for sale soon and you can get your ticket then!". Unfortunately, this guy has a history of doing this and usually charges out the ass for these tickets and ultimately, you now know you probably won't get to see it. Not any time soon, at least. Then imagine how you feel when someone pipes up and says "Hey, this wasn't the first movie, so I imagine there will be another sequel eventually!".

This is you. This is what you sound like.

Well, I guess we simply disagree on that. I think it was a dick move. We don't know for sure, but the general consensus is Dave is using this sale to assist in paying for his cancer treatments. Gannon decided to buy it all up so he could make a profit. Certainly not illegal, but questionable morally.

 

TIL don't buy anything from @jonsick

 

Weiland's widow is selling all his hats, these will go really well with Dave Mustaine guitars, maybe we can get the guitar douche to buy them?

https://www.metalsucks.net/2019/11/14/anyone-wanna-buy-scott-weilands-hats

 

Worth noting that this person bought all of these within minutes of the gear being posted. Not a sizable margin for others to buy them up.

 

Hmmmmm.... I may stand corrected on some bits...

 

Hahahaha. I don't buy or sell that often, but can assure that when I do, I do so properly. I have no need to go out trying to get the better of anyone. If anything, call it I wasn't as clued up as some of the posters above.

 

I don't understand what is so bad about flipping and making a profit. Honestly I don't. Isn't that how it's done? I use to bu and flip stuff onEbay all the time for profit (back when that was still possible). It was nice getting paid to try out and play with gear, and learn all about it too. I usually cleaned it up real good too and was a realiable source for people to buy from. I was honest in what was wrong or the condition etc and people could easliy go into my feedback and past and completed auctions and see how much I paid and when yet still willing paid the upcharge too. Everything product reselling is buy low sell high type stuff. I think that mat pricing is kinda bs but even that is still an agreement as well. That's the market. Early bird gets the worm as the saying goes. It sucks whenyour on the losing end but great when you're not. I've been on both sides, mainly on the losing end for several years now though. The ocassional deal does come, but you really have to look for it and be on top of it, which takes a lot of time. The payoff is the profit for your time and effort too, imo. If Mustaine wanted more he could have held auctions or hand picked who he wanted to have them or even set a limit etc. It was his deal and he made his deals. he got what he wanted.

 

What a pretentious douche, I am amazed that he did not deactivate the likes/dislikes bar. Based on the comments below, he must be deleting many of them as they do not seem to match the above ratio of displeasure by the viewers. I would have preferred it if he said "I bought them to make profit, lots of it, judge me accordingly if you will" and not this whole thing of buying them so people can come to the studio and play them in the UK. He is clearly selling them already.

It is funny how he is attacked by Russians though, get Khabib involved and book the fight!

 

That's just it, there were 20 (ish) guitars for sale and he still seemed irked that he may have not gotten 2 of them. If he wanted to buy them to 'share with fans', why not buy 6 or 8 of the ones he liked the most rather than getting every single one he could within the first minute or two of the store opening ? Also, from what I understand, it's not like he has a store in the high street of London. He's in a small studio out in the countryside that you really have to look for to find, so it's not as if hundreds of adoring fans are going to be flocking to his studio just to try a guitar that he's going to try and gouge them on the price of.

As for him charging 'reasonable prices', here's a real winner...

https://reverb.com/item/28307206-es...en-with-tour-flight-case-coa-phoenix-firebird

$35k for an ESP that was owned by "Iron Maiden". Not Dave Murray, Adrian Smith or Janick Gers... it was owned by "Iron Maiden" himself.
It's sales like this that are aimed at dopes who know NOTHING about guitars and just want something to hang on thier wall so that they can brag to people as they point to it & tell them how much he spent on it (even though it's only worth about 1/10th of what they spent on it).

 

Dave used ESPs in the late 80s and early 90s. He had several custom Strats made. That looks like a Phoenix from that era so it's most likely legit.



But I've never ever ever seen Dave use anything outside of an ESP Strat in that era. So it's like "Dave breathed in this instrument, so I'm throwing another 20 grand on it."

 

Dave could use a Strat Ultra.

 

I don't think it for cancer treatment. If I got it right, if he needed money for this, he wouldn't have been selling his stuff at more or less market value. Compare this to how much Hanneman's wife is asking for his guitars.
Mustaine is a millionnaire with diversified assets, not a young dude with one record and a surprise cancer at 22.

 

A bit out of context, but I didn't know I wanted a Firebird with that headstock as badly as I want one now.

 

When he lists the guitars, we should all message him en masse on every listing offering him £1 for each of them