Hobby
Buy and sell instruments, collectables and craft supplies in Guatemala.
A double marimba takes a maker months to build by hand, which is why a used one with sound keys is worth tracking down rather than ordering new. Hobbies run from that end of the scale to the small one: a binder of trading cards, a classical guitar a pupil has outgrown, a bundle of tissue paper left over after the giant-kite season in Sacatepéquez. New and pre-owned pieces for music, collecting and crafts are listed side by side. Before you drive out to Totonicapán or Cobán to see something, ask the seller for a short video of it in use.
Hobby gear that gets played, kept or used up:
each kind is judged by its own rule. Anything you play belongs in music and instruments, where a guitar or a keyboard is worth what it sounds like on the day you try it. Collectables is for things that are kept rather than used, so a coin or a trading card is priced on rarity and condition, not on what it does. Art and craft supplies get consumed, and the question there is simply how much is left and whether it is still fresh.
The Guatemalan marimba, single or double:
the difference is more than size. A single marimba has one row of keys and can be tuned to whatever key its owners choose. A double marimba pairs a large marimba with a smaller tenor, adds a second row of keys like the black notes on a piano, plays every note of the scale, and needs three or four players. In both, the keys are cut from a dense, reddish native hardwood, and each one sits over a cedar or cypress box tuned to its note. The buzz that gives the instrument its voice comes from a thin membrane of intestine fixed with black beeswax over a small opening in each box. Workshops in Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango and Huehuetenango still build them by hand, and a large new marimba can reach around Q20,000 depending on its size. A used one closes that gap because the parts that cost the money, the keys and the boxes, are the parts that last. Membranes, cords and the rubber heads of the mallets are ordinary repairs that any maker does.
A dead marimba key, a bowed guitar neck and a polished coin:
all three are faults you can find in a few minutes. On a marimba, strike every key along the whole keyboard. A note that sounds flat and short usually has a torn or dried membrane beneath it, and a rattle can be a loose cord. Look under the frame and inside the boxes for the small round holes of woodworm, and for a double, confirm that both the large marimba and the tenor are included. On a guitar, sight down the neck from the headstock for a bow, and check the first few frets for grooves worn by years of the same chords. With coins, leave anything that has been polished bright: cleaning strips the surface collectors pay for, and on older silver pieces the damage shows most. With craft and art materials, open the box. Paper and canvas stored in a damp room show brown spots and warp, markers dry out in their caps, and tissue paper left in the sun fades unevenly, which shows the moment it is glued to a frame.
A marimba listing that answers the transport question:
say whether it is single or double, who built it and in which town, and whether the stand, legs, mallets and cover go with it. A video of a scale played from the bass end to the top tells a buyer more than any photo. Then say how it comes apart and how it would be moved, because a double needs a pickup truck and several pairs of hands. For a coin or card collection, photograph both sides of the important pieces and say whether you will split the set. For a craft lot, separate what is sealed from what is opened. A buyer coming down from Huehuetenango will want to play the marimba before it is loaded, so have it standing on its legs, keys in place, when they arrive.