An alleged "rare rare rare rare" guitar fails to set eBay alight with a bidding frenzy

Talk about optimism! This eBay seller is asking a whopping $78,000 for this horrible looking pile of firewood, which he claims is a W. Starrett Vintage Pre-1980 Guitar.

The "pre-1980" description makes me laugh. I mean, guitar-wise we were in the stone age in the decades before 1980, weren't we? The big name musicians were playing cigar box guitars, whilst the rest of us had to make do with a shoe box with a couple of elastic bands stretched around it.

The auction is due to finish soon as I write, and whilst it has had no bids there have been three offers, all of which the seller has declined. He's also added the following to his listing:

This is a rare piece and I will increase the Buy It Now Price by $10,000 after each listing it does not sell. Please see if you can find this rare guitar--anywhere else.

In other words, "if you don't buy it now at a ridiculously inflated price, then I'm going to stick the price up even further next time to teach you a lesson."

Possibly it is a rare piece, but the optimistic Buy It Now fee and the seller's threatening tone must surely turn away any potential buyers.

Let's see him re-list it and watch it fail to sell again and again.

Let's watch his eBay fees creep up and up.

UPDATE (Saturday morning): It didn't sell (of course it didn't sell) and - true to his word - the seller has re-listed it at $88,000.

ANOTHER UPDATE (Sunday morning): I see the seller has removed the ridiculous threat to raise the price by $10,000 if he has to re-list it again. Which doesn't stop the whole thing being a joke. (Oh, and I also see that a certain Forum has borrowed this story without giving me any credit. Did anyone say Telecaster?)