Vintage Steel Market - Dropping?

[Dave Mudgett]

I agree with Donny that $600K for a '58 V would have been very unusual, if it in fact happened. I'd also like to see the particulars of that transaction - was it a special guitar of some kind, celebrity-owned, etc? But $120-150K was not out of the realm of normal transactions a few years ago, and I think they've come down significantly from those types of levels.

Collectibles - especially high-end collectibles - are very tricky. They can be quite volatile, and no matter what, must be taken on a case-by-case basis. A lot of people in that biz talk about it like they were blue-chip stocks - and even look at what has happened to the biggest blue-chip stock of them all - GM. There is no such thing as a fixed or even stable market price for anything like this. When you get down to it, there's not a helluvalotta difference between a real nice $400,000 '59 Les Paul Standard and the very fine historic reissue '59 Les Paul Standard that I own which was made in 2003 for less than 1% of that price. They got some of the good eastern hard-rock curly maple for the top, took a fetish over construction techniques, and a bunch of serious Les Paul freaks have been bowled over by the playability, feel, tone, and looks of that guitar vis-a-vis a good original.

[Chris Lucker]

High end steels, such as authentic Emmons Wraparounds and Bigsbys are regularly changing hands with ever increasing prices. Look at the prices Standel 25L15s are fetching now -- The last three I know of went for $13,600, $14,800 and $15,600. That is triple what they were going for last year.

Chris