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Strings Attached: Collector is hoping to sell guitar owned by ex-DA to do good work
Photo Courtesy of Mike Rawlins
Mike Rawlins holds the Paul Reed Smith guitar he bought at an estate sale.
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Published: October 16, 2008
On Sunday, Mike Rawlins of Winston-Salem traveled to an estate auction in Hillsborough to look at three guitars -- a Fender Telecaster, an aquamarine-colored Paul Reed Smith Custom 24-10 and, most interesting to Rawlins, a Martin D-41 acoustic guitar.
Rawlins plays acoustic guitar, and he maintains a modest collection of instruments. He doesn't care for electric guitars -- they don't feel right in his hands. So he was naturally drawn to the Martin -- but it just wasn't what he was looking for, and there was no deal to be had. He was also intrigued by the Telecaster, as older models from the 1950s and early '60s fetch eye-popping figures.
"There was always the chance that it might have been vintage, but it was new and a budget line," Rawlins said. "When I left home … I had no interest in the Paul Reed Smith. Absolutely none. It was just another electric guitar. I didn't care."
But he ended up buying the Paul Reed Smith. It was a beautiful guitar. And he felt that he could make a little money through resale, in part, because of its ownership history.
The guitar's history is part of what made it, and the other two guitars, interesting to some people at the auction.
All three guitars belonged to Mike Nifong, the former Durham County district attorney. Nifong was disbarred after his mishandling of rape allegations leveled in 2006 against three lacrosse players at Duke University.
He filed for bankruptcy in January. The sale of the three guitars, all of which sold in 30 minutes, brought $5,100 to the court-ordered bankruptcy auction.
Rawlins paid $2,000 -- slightly less than what a similar age (1997) and style of the guitar would sell for through a guitar dealer.
"I can probably make a couple of hundred dollars on it," he said. "It's nice -- but I won't be getting rich."
Rawlins didn't go to the auction because of Nifong.
"I had heard about the auction a month ago, but it didn't really register to me who he was," he said.
"A friend explained the whole thing to me the day before the auction. Even then, I really didn't care.... I just like finding deals on guitars … and I felt I could make a couple of hundred dollars on this guitar."
Hunting for bargains, especially for guitars, is something of a hobby for Rawlins. He described himself as the sort of man who can't pass a pawn shop without entering. Yard sales are irresistible. He knows his away around eBay, perhaps too well for Rhonda, his ever-tolerant wife.
"When it comes to looking for guitars, I'm like a bug drawn to a bug light," Rawlins, 54, said. "It's hard to stay away, even if you know there's a chance you're going to get burned."
Rawlins has no intention of keeping the guitar -- although Paul Reed Smith guitars are highly regarded by players.
He has played in bands -- he was a drummer, bassist and guitarist, a "weekend warrior" is how he described it -- during his youth in his native Ohio.
These days, he works as corporate director for CLS Supply Chain Services -- which, among other things, performs studies on damaged goods for manufacturers, food suppliers and drug companies. His guitar playing is now limited to playing one of his stable of acoustic guitars at home.
Rawlins said he is going to put the guitar up for auction on eBay. He said he hopes to use the auction to do something positive.
"I've been thinking about explaining the story behind the guitar with a reasonably high starting bid on the guitar, with proceeds going to charity," Rawlins said. "I am content to just make a little if we can turn the result of wrongdoing into something for the better. It seems like the right thing to do."
He hasn't decided on the charity -- a favorite is MusiCares, a nonprofit foundation that provides insurance, medical care and housing for destitute musicians or musicians in need.
He is also considering other options -- including donating the money to the Duke lacrosse team, or perhaps to some sort of counseling service.
As for the buyers of the other guitars, Rawlins said that the buyer of the Martin guitar, which was fairly modern and went for about $2,000, vanished upon purchase, avoiding the media swarming the auction.
"Maybe he was just shy," Rawlins said, laughing. "He sure didn't want to talk to anybody or hang around. Anyway, it's his business. He got a nice guitar at a fair price."
The Telecaster was a modern model, notoriously cheap, that can be easily bought for $175 to $200 on eBay. The buyer paid $1,000.
"You have to hope he paid that for the guitar simply because of who it belonged to," he said. "If he bought it to resell, well, he's going to have a rude awakening."
■ Ed Bumgardner can be reached at 727-7365 or ebumgardner@wsjournal.com.
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