I really didn’t expect to win it. After all after six months of looking for a Fender Rhodes electric piano I was surprised to win one on eBay for less than my first bid.
We had just finished our afternoon Buzzcutz podcast when the email arrived and there were two questions on my mind. The first was how I was going to get the piano and two – why did the keyboard only go for $755 – a cheap price since my survey over the past several months made me believe there would never be one available under $1500.
The first answer was simple – my vacation started the next day and it didn’t take long to negotiate with the seller to meet me the following night. Besides, the road trip to Hampton Roads sounded great with all the other things on my mind for the past several weeks.
The reason the auction was such a deal had to do with a few things too and these are good lessons for any eBay bargain hunter.
First, the auction was a three-day auction and this usually means the seller is wanting their cash quick. The second reason was his feedback score. This seller had a feedback score of only 92% with just 12 previous sales. Low scores and low sales experience make most buyers wary of buying anything on eBay. It was clear too by the brief description and sparse photos that this could have fetched a higher price if a little more time were taking to really sell the keyboard.
A Fender Rhodes may mean very little to most people. It’s almost certain that everyone has heard one though and it was just last weekend that I saw The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek using a Fender Rhodes on stage in the late sixties.
Manzarak used the Fender Rhodes as a bass instrument and that was it’s original purpose when it first appeared in the 1950s. The Doors didn’t have a bass player, but the keyboard did the trick. During the seventies, the Rhodes became such an important keyboard instrument in popular music that it was everywhere providing both a background and melody to genres that included funk, soul, R&B, pop, jazz and fusion. Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, George Duke, Chick Corea, Michael McDonald – you name it, the Rhodes was on record as one of the most popular electronic keyboards of the time and it’s still a retro gem that will never find a real substitute.
Besides the signature tone, the Fender Rhodes Suitcase has an elegant, simple construction that includes the keyboard assembly with 73 notes that sits atop it’s own speaker cabinet that has 4 Fender speakers. It’s a great keyboard with little fuss and real handy. The reason I wanted one was of course the sound, but I also look forward to leaving the keyboard at my friend Jared’s house so when we rehearse music, I don’t have to break down, pack my own and ascend his 30 steps to his second story apartment in Elizabethton. I’m getting too old for that.
I left the office around 11.30 for my trip across the state of Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. This is beautiful country and I ran into my first snowfall of 2007 just outside of Wytheville. This light snow made the bleached white sycamore trees really stand out across this Southeastern landscape and as I passed through Appomattox, VA, the long rolling hills of this Virginia countryside seemed all too familiar from town to town. The time went by quickly too because I had just recently bought two new books from Audible and enjoyed listening to ‘Punk Marketing‘ all the way on my iPhone.
There was a brief moment of mild panic crossing over the James River on Highway 17 near Newport News. It occurred to me this journey was so unplanned that noone knew how to find me. There was $1000 in my pocket, I was traveling to an apartment complex in the urban part of a city some 450 miles away looking for a keyboard from a guy with low feedback on eBay. After a few calls to my friends with an update of my whereabouts it wasn’t long before Omar was meeting me outside his apartment.
My anxiety settled when Omar told me he used the Rhodes in his dad’s church and although he loved playing the keyboard, his real joy was the pedal steel guitar. After plcuking few improv lines on the Rhodes (falling in love with the tines and the growl when it’s turned up loud), he showed me his pedal steel and we talked about Robert Randolph and the Family Band. I paid him $760 and he helped me load the heavy keyboard into the Jeep and within 30 minutes I was on my way back to Kingsport.
It was 7.00 and my journey back home had a couple of stops for gas and a dinner of country-fried chicken at a great roadside eatery called the Virginia Diner. Traffic wasn’t too bad either and with a book in my ear and a new keyboard in tow, it was about 3am when I opened the door and closed my lids on another day.
It’s easy to admit that this keyboard was a present for myself right before Christmas and this baby is ready to go. Can’t wait to get it out with my buds on the music scene too and relive the funky soul this keyboard’s sound brings out when you play it live and loud.
So if you’re looking for a bargain on eBay, keep your eyes open for a three-day auction and give some of these new sellers a chance. Be careful though, it’s easy to get burned and although this was a good deal, there are certainly some bad deals out there too, but here’s a toast to good karma this year and a good sale.