Nothing is “wrong” with the Starla…
Hey all: this is just a follow-up to my post from earlier today where I accused the PRS Starla of being the “Edsel of Guitars”! For those who were not alive in 1950’s (which I think is pretty much ALL of us…even old guys like me aren’t THAT old!), the Edsel was a fancy new car introduced by Ford that, for whatever reason, did NOT get accepted by the public, and even though it was a nice enough car, it utterly failed to sell, and was soon discontinued. There is more to the story, but you can read that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel
My friend Kyle (http://hauntedtraphouse.tumblr.com/) wanted to know what was wrong with Starlas…why had I cast aspersions of the Edsel on them? And of course, my answer is “NOTHING” is wrong with Starlas! I, in fact, LOVE the Starla. I don’t only own “a” Starla myself…I own TWO Starlas!
BUT, the guitar-buying world does not seem to agree with me about this guitar… Starlas just do NOT seem to sell for some reason. At least not where I live.
Recently I tried to sell one of my Starlas for $1500 on Kijiji. Keep in mind the “new” retail price of a Starla is around $1800. The one I was selling is MINT…like brand new, just out of the box, mint. $1500 was a reasonable…hell a VERY reasonable asking price. But after 2 weeks I got no bites. Not even an offer. So, I lowered the asking price to $1250. And I got…Nothing. Not one response or offer! So after a couple of months of getting zero response, I lowered it to $1100. AND STILL GOT NOTHING!
After three or four months listed on Kijij and Craigslist, with only one or two lowball offers received (one guy offered $600 for it! After I stopped laughing I hunted him down and punched him in the nose!) I took it off the market. There is no way I am letting a mint condition 1800 dollar guitar go for less than 1100!
Also: I am the only person I know that has a Starla (let alone TWO Starlas!). I have never seen a single one being played anywhere by anyone except in photos on Internets and even then I have only seen one or two players with them.
Also Also: ALL of the Starlas in the local shops near my home have been there for 18 to 24 months without selling! The retail prices started out in the $1800 range, and over the course of the last 18 months or so kept going down until they bottomed out at around $1500. But even then these guitars did not sell, and now the prices have been put back up to 1800! I guess, like me, the stores are thinking “if no one’s going to buy it, they might as well not buy it for $1800!” My point is that the stores have all tried reducing prices and yet, like me, they STILL cannot sell a Starla!
So: what is wrong with the Starla? IMO, nothing. I love them. In the market’s opinion…well I can’t answer that one. But they just do NOT sell. It is definitely the “Edsel” of the guitar world!
PS: Here is the one I was trying (and failing!) to sell! If you live in the Toronto area, and want this guitar at the bargain-basement price of $1100…please message me! ;D
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