Every so often, when looking for trends on the used gear market, we see a specific no-longer-manufactured pedal rapidly escalate in resale value. The Klon Centaur—a pedal that's rendered the term "mythical" a total cliche in guitar circles—is by far the most famous example of this, with prices still cruising near $2,500 USD for the most coveted gold case versions more than a decade after the last ones were built.
But there are other, less famous examples. The Echo Park Delay, for instance, mysteriously doubled in used price when Line 6 stopped making them (though that trend seems to have cooled off a bit).
Most recently, a pedal from Sydney's Bondi Effects seems to have caught the imagination of a certain group of players, or perhaps, more accurately, pedal collectors. As observed and debated on several forums and Facebook groups over the past couple months, listings are now popping up for the Del Mar with price tags for more than $1,200 USD. For a pedal that once retailed for $199, these asking prices fall somewhere on a scale between aspirational and, frankly, delusional.
But the truth of the matter is that these pedals aren't selling for these prices—or at least they aren’t yet. It seems like those sellers that are posting their Del Mars in the four-digit range are waiting for the market to hit that point, and based on our sales history, they may be waiting a bit longer.
In fact, while there have been multiple listings for the Del Mar for more than $1,000, the highest price yet achieved by one of these pedals on Reverb was for $490. (At the time of writing this article, there's also one listed for $475.) While a far cry from Klon prices, this mark is still more than double what a brand-new Del Mar would have sold for just a year ago.
The reason for this surge remains unclear. While certainly a fine pedal, the Del Mar is one of countless boutique overdrives on the market today. The Klon, at the time of its ascent, offered a notably unique transparent circuit in a drastically less crowded field. In fact, according to Bondi, their new Breakers Overdrive is actually an improved take on the Del Mar circuit.
When we posed this question of why the Del Mar is surging in price to Bondi chief Jon Ashley he gave us this telling response:
"The short answer is we only made about 700 of them. Since we only made 700 I can’t imagine that everyone who thinks they want one now has played it, so the reasons for that are above my pay grade. Speaking of pay grades, where’s my cut?
"For many players, including Mateus Asato, it was the ultimate low gain overdrive, but for some it sounded like a very bad fuzz, and so after three years we discontinued it and replaced it with the Breakers Overdrive, which sounds like what I initially envisioned the Del Mar to sound like. It does all of the good things the Del Mar did but better—and none of the gross fuzzy sounds.
"We do have some Del Mar related news which we will be announcing April 1, so stay tuned for that."
We'll have to wait and see what Jon and the Bondi team have in store for April 1. Until then, if you happen to be sitting on one of those 700 original Del Mars, now might be a good time to list it on Reverb.