Randy Hunter Jazz Saxophone Lessons

I am looking at purchasing a Yanagisawa Baritone saxophone BW010. It appears that if I purchase via ebay the price is a few $1000 lower.

Is this a good idea to purchase directly from Japan?

I have been impressed with the Yanagisawa brand and I own their soprano, alto and tenor saxes. BTW... I sold my Selmer Mark VI tenor and Mark VII alto which was the BEST thing I could have done to cover these purchases.

Do you have a favorite saxophone retailer that offers competitive prices? I am open minded regarding other brands, but I have found the Yanis the best bang for the buck.

Thanks!

David- Sorry for another tardy reply! I was at a gig followed by final performance exams at the university yesterday. I'm not certain about the bari from Japan. Maybe "proceed with caution" when buying overseas is the best advice I can offer. I haven't heard anything bad about instruments from Japan, but I know there are some instruments from China that are on the verge of being counterfeit, like "Selman" saxes. I even had a student that got a mouthpiece that was supposed to be a Wanne at a ridiculously low price one time - I can't remember if it actually said Wanne on the piece when it arrived. It was perhaps the equivalent of one of those Rolex watches bought on the streets in New York.

Of course, you may be looking at a legitimately great Yani. The other issue to be concerned with is handling during shipping. It would be a real drag to get a great instrument from overseas that was damaged in transit.

My first step, personally, would be to consult with local repair techs to see if they know of any local deals- used or new. My bari is a Yamaha that I've had for about 25 years. It's a YBS-52. It's certainly not the top of the line, and certainly not as good as a new top of the line Yani would be, but it was used and the price was good when I got it. Overall, I've been very happy with it- for the most part. The bis is a little awkward.

Let me know what you decide or learn.

I'm totally on the same page with Randy. I would be patient and wait for a local deal; as Randy said, repair techs are an excellent resource.

If I were in the market, I wouldn't even consider going through Ebay, especially when it involves an international transaction. Way too much risk for my taste.

JL

David, I looked at a similar proposition some time ago and I came away with the following thoughts.

First off, I think the Japanese sellers are legit, but I'm not sure. Some of them have quite a few transactions with little or no negative feedback.

Second, at the time I noticed that the buyer is responsible for import duties. That put me off at the time and even more so now, when import tariffs are changing minute to minute, and there is no longer a de minimus clause for one-offs. (And I'm not even sure if that would help lesser-priced items, anyhow.)

And the eBay of today is not like it was in the past. I think there are a lot of scammers and there are a lot of "professional" eBayer's, meaning sellers that specialize in one thing or another and turn them over quickly. I have had decent luck with Reverb.com, which given that it's largely a guitar-oriented site is kind of ironic, but I have picked up both a nice Yani "Curvie" soprano and a very nice 991 alto.