I used to own a vintage guitar a few years back that I put up for bid on Ebay for some ridiculous amount (I really didn’t want to sell it so I set the price really high). The guitar had ties to the Duke Ellington Band and also to Django Reinhardt. For those of you don’t know who Django Reinhardt is – He is pretty much as popular in France as Elvis was in the United States. I received a lot of new information regarding my guitar, it was incredible. One day I received a note from some dude in Paris, France claiming to be the director at the “Cite de la Musique” (a museum / venue that holds shows, displays, festivals, etc). The dude asks me if I would be interested in allowing the guitar to be displayed for 3 months in their “Django Reinhardt” Swing Festival (which was going to take place in about 11 months). He said that they would pay for the shipping, and it would be insured, etc. My initial response was that I certainly would not ship this valuable guitar to a stranger and possibly never see the guitar again. So we went back and forth, back and forth until finally I said “I will do it if you pay for 2 tickets to Paris, France, hotel for 5 nights, and a daily perdium to deliver the guitar for display, and to pick up the guitar when the festival is over. I was curious to see what he was going to do with my counter offer. If he happens to say yes, I guess that my wife and I are going to France for free. This would be a great opportunity for us, right? Well, I did not hear back for over 4 months. Then one day, out of the blue, I get an email stating that they will accept my offer and provide me with what I have requested. The offer was for everything I asked for plus over $100,000 of insurance for the guitar, so I agreed to the deal. I really thought that this was some really great news. But, as it turns out they did in fact give me 2 plane tickets to France, but the second ticket was for the guitar. What? Really? Seriously? After discussing this with my wife, it turns out she really didn’t want to go to France any way so I ended up going solo – just me and my vintage guitar.
It was awesome to visit France and see all that stuff, but not quite so fun being alone on the trip. I had problems eating the food and speaking the language, but it was a great experience getting to see the guitar on display (and I shouldn’t complain since it was a free trip). About 4 months later I was ready to go back and pick up the guitar. This time my brother Luis from Miami wanted to go along so I didn’t have to go back alone. We actually flew into France and immediately took the train to London for the first part of the trip, then spent the last 3-4 days in Paris (but that is another story). We made it back to the US safely, and it turned out to be a great experience. I eventually found an auction house that was interested in working with me and put the guitar up for sale. I was a little hesitant but made the decision to go for it. The guitar was sold at auction and I have no regrets.
