I think this is an Alexander

[Heavy_Metal]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/365293748905?_ ... 1506.m1851

[the elephant]

Looks like it.

[bloke]

What if one of you ends up being the winning better for $2,000 and end up only with the mouthpiece shown in the final picture?

[peterbas]

.

[bloke]

I see shiny, but I also see really wrinkly.
Assuming Mr brown is also an Alex (and forced to purchase one of the two), I'd pick Mr. brown in a heartbeat...
The few dents I see on Mr. brown...At least, I could remove them myself (rather than someone else - up to their "standards")...
...though all old tubas' valves are crap-shoots.

Lots of people like Alex tubas. I wouldn't be buying one to keep. I tend to shy away from them. Most offered for sale seem to be about as old-and-older as the oldest Miraphone tubas. I might buy one hand-to-hand (inspected by me, prior to a purchase).
Old tubas (and - in particular - old rotary tubas)...Who knows whether someone(s) have buffed the crap out of their bells, what's up with the valves, whether spider cracks didn't show up in pictures, etc., etc.

I'm sure I've passed up some amazing deals, but I also suspect that some that looked ok in pictures would have canceled out several of the "amazing" ones...

...all of that who-cares-what-bloke-says blather being published, I'd move on a good lookin' Alex BB-flat (based on pictures only) way before I'd move on a C...but those American college boys are all told to buy C instruments, so...

...and sure, I could easily be accused of "sour grapes".

[peterbas]

.

[bort2.0]

Somebody desperately wanted to attach a carrying strap ring to that tuba.

[bloke]

I also shy away from those "mechanical review" continental European eBay tubas, and clockspring linkage is a nonstarter...noisy...old worn (probably not "mechanically reviewed") rotors.

[peterbas]

.

[bloke]

Sonora/Meister Gerhard Schneider/Musica/B&S/etc...

Those things are pretty darn good.

The entire range is remarkably solid...from the bottom range of the piano keyboard to the B-flat above middle c.
The tradeoff (vs. Miraphone 186) is that the "open" D is Mississippi-delta *FLAT.

I don't believe I could sell that tuba (in the USA) for $2900 - even with the dents removed and the linkage updated.

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* https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/i ... ields2.jpg

[peterbas]

.

[bloke]

I've always smiled favorably at the European instruments with recording bells. I've played a few of them including Miraphone and B/M, and - even though it's difficult for the player to hear the actual sound of any recording bell tuba - once I've managed to hear how they sound, they still sound like German rotary tubas, other than the sound going out in a different direction. Probably that's a good thing.

[Heavy_Metal]

Sold- anyone here win it?

[bloke]

I strove to communicate in (best I could manage) Deutsch with the seller.
He would never admit to it being an Alexander.
I told him just where to look for the name, and he claimed to not be able to tell, even though I'm pretty certain that it was too soon for it to have been either packed or shipped off - or picked up in-person by the buyer.

[arpthark]

It's 99.9% an Alex, and I 100% did not win nor bid on the auction.

[bloke]

We've all seen a couple if not more than a couple Alex tubas with replaced not-Alex bells.

It would have been easy to show the krantz and the name, and it would have been easy to have identified the instrument by its name in the auction.

It would have also have been easy for that seller to have just answered my questions yes or no, rather than feigning some lack of understanding of the questions which were clearly offered forth.

That wasn't done, and pictures were either out of focus or cut that part of the bell off in the pictures.

I'm not accusing anyone of foul play, but I'm leaving open the (OK...) at least .1% chance that it was yet another Frankenalex.

Again, over the years of us gossiping about eBay auctions, it wouldn't be the first one of those.

Hey...
Were there some (imo) underpriced B-flat Alex (that looked to NOT be some ancient relic) within driving distance of me, I'd go take a look.

[humBell]

We've all seen a couple if not more than a couple Alex tubas with replaced not-Alex bells.

It would have been easy to show the krantz and the name, and it would have been easy to have identified the instrument by its name in the auction.

It would have also have been easy for that seller to have just answered my questions yes or no, rather than feigning some lack of understanding of the questions which were clearly offered forth.

That wasn't done, and pictures were either out of focus or cut that part of the bell off in the pictures.

I'm not accusing anyone of foul play, but I'm leaving open the (OK...) at least .1% chance that it was yet another Frankenalex.

Again, over the years of us gossiping about eBay auctions, it wouldn't be the first one of those.

Hey...
Were there some (imo) underpriced B-flat Alex (that looked to NOT be some ancient relic) within driving distance of me, I'd go take a look.

Looking at the bid history, i'm actually confused how it happened. If the increment is $25, how could the person bid $1550 and then $1599?


The timing of the retraction also implies the max bid was exposed by it, and the second bidder knew what they could bid up to.

Sigh...

[bloke]

$25 was the MINIMUM bid increment...not the maximum...

...and the maximum bid does not necessarily show up on an item's page.

[peterbas]

.

[humBell]

$25 was the MINIMUM bid increment...not the maximum...

...and the maximum bid does not necessarily show up on an item's page.

But if you bid 1550, the other autobid enters 1575. At that point you cannot bid less than 1600.

The answer is probably that minimum increment thresholds are different in euros than in dollars.

Yup. The increment between 1k-5k euros is 10 euros.

So i am just a US centered ebayer. Ebayist?

But yeah, retraction happening within a minute clearly informed the bid. One more thing to complain about, as if the world didn't already provide enough of that.