what should I pay for a used tiki bar

I'm new to tiki, but I love the tiki spirit. I'm looking for a tiki bar as the focal point for my pool patio (lanai) and found this locally (in San Francisco) on craigslist.org. What's a good price I should offer for this tiki bar? I like the dark bamboo compared the one bar that Target was selling early this summer. Thanks, or "Mahalo" in advance for your opinions!

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/fur/197246223.html

I think the seller is asking a fair price for the bar. I'd offer $350 and see what happens.

That thing is gorgeous. I'd be very hesitant to put it outside though.

I'm new here also my Wife & I just finished building our own small Tiki Bar. We both have minimal construction skills but were able to pull it off for around $100.00. If you surf the posts here @ Tikicentral you will see a lot of people with all ranges of construction skills building their own bars & saving $$$. Frankly if I couldn't walk into a "used" bar for sale at $300.00 or less I'd build my own. Thats just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Thortiki

I rather not spend the time building a bar. I'm not that creative and handy. I really like the soft corners of this bar. I've seen a lot of bars with rectangular table surfaces. This bar would go well with some of my big tiki stuff I got from a recent Hawaii trip. Next I'll need to look for an old long board to hang on the wall. This is a great website. I'll have to browse around the forums for more tiki room ideas/inspirations.

Luckily I emailed the seller before I started this post. Looks like someone beat me to the bar but that person has not come by with the money yet.

You need to make a trip down South and go to Bamboo Ben's. If he doesn't have what you want he will make what you want. :)

Learn the lesson from me. I paid $800.00 for a great Witco repro made by Keigs for a now defunct Tiki Bar. I bought it on eBay from the owner, who seemed like a nice guy. I paid and waited over 30 days to finally get it UPS. I opened the box, and the state of affairs of this bar was horrendous. I mean did the guy bait and switch me, man?
I was disgusted, and angered that I would be so duped. I decided that I am going to take the time, expense, and hard work to restore all the damage.

I should not have to do this, and I will never buy any Tiki furnishings secondhand over eBay. The photos nor description matched what arrived at my door. I did purchase directly from Keigs on eBay and highly recommend him. I have decided that the former Tiki Bar owner and less than scrupulous eBayer deserved to go out of business, Bad Karma and if in the very short time he was in business he did that much damage to his decor...he is a schmuck.

My advice is see it, touch it, and get a real provenance.

If you haven't totally ruled out building your own tiki bar, you might want to check out our posting yesterday on 'Anyone own this bar?' in the General Tiki section. The 'Safari Bar', as it was called in this British DIY magazine from the mid-60s, is just about as cool as it gets! just replace the 'African mask motif' with your favourite tikis! Voila!, as they say in France. Cheapest tiki bar plans around! Now where's that hammer & Dovetail saw? SIAN my dear!...Pass me my pipe...I've got a bar to build!!!