Cheaper guitar you bought that cost a bunch more now?

[cka73]

In the mid 90's, I was in my 20's and really wanted a Martin guitar, without the financial resources to get that D-18 or D-28. I purchased a 000-15M. This small bodied, complete mahogany, no frills guitar with no binding or glossy finish, that sounded amazing and still does was where I spent that money. It was about 500 bucks new, and I was proud to own an American made Martin! Just looked yesterday, and these are 15-1600 bucks now. Still love mine with 25 years of wear and tear and a magnificent sound. Anyone else get in on something early on that proved to be a great purchase, which might be cost prohibitive now?

[gr81dorn]

Martin 15 series was $799 new when I bought m 000-15 back in the day.

I bought one of the first Wateloos when they came out and then one of the first of the Stella Waterloos when that model was release...this is less than 10 years ago and the prices are silly compared to the original prices.

When Bedell first launched their high end usa-made stuff, no one wanted them and every store was struggling to sell them. I think that is still largely the case, but their prices are much higher now and they are actually quite justified cuz they are exceptionally nice, but haven't really caught on. It surprises me since they are made in the USA and have a built-in distribution network as part of the TOH brands Breedlove and Weber. I got a "1964" model brand new for like $699 about 5-6 years ago cuz a dealer couldn't move it. It was incredible. They are listed for $3700 new at retail at the current moment.

[acousticchiq]

silver sky - paid 1800 for it brand new. i think they retail for 2800 brand new now

[mercy]

Every guitar I ever owned is higher today, new.

[Brent Nelson]

Not cheap....but comparatively so. I purchased a very well played Froggy Bottom H14 from the now defunct Madison Music many moons ago for just under 2k. And man do I wish I had kept it. I sold it for an equal steal to forum member Dave Cohen (who I haven't seen around here for many years) a few years later. It was a fantastic guitar that did everything well (even though I don't). I was foolish to let it go. It was a lifer.

Like a user above, I also had an early Bedell 64 dread, one of the very first of the models when they still used nitro. I scored it for under 1K. Another I was a dope to part with. It may be the best mahogany dread I have ever owned of dozens.

[Guitars44me]

Sheesh, almost everything out there cost way more than it used to…

Have you tried to buy a burrito lately?

That said, 20 years ago, give or take, I was buying occasional things from musicians friend. They had little catalogs they would put in with your shipment. These listed the things on sale at the warehouse.

I scored a beautiful, and fantastic sounding Martin D15S. Slope shouldered 12 fret dreadnought, for $500, shipped! It was a great Guitar and if I was smarter, I would’ve kept it. Ha ha ha

I did sell it twice and buy it back twice, so I actually owned it three different times. And now they go for about 1500 bucks used… Sigh

But I can’t complain! look at my signature

Play if you got them, and have fun.

Cheers

Paul

[warfrat73]

How about the opposite... when I bought my Northwood in 2006 or so I thought, these things are stupidly underpriced, that picture of James Taylor playing one just emerged... I'll buy one and in a few years if I don't still want it, I'll make a couple of bucks selling it because they're bound to way go up. Well... nope, basically worth exactly what I paid for it. Still stupidly underpriced for what you get... they even seem to be inflation proof (in the bad way).

But, that aside, pretty much every guitar that I've held onto for more than a couple of years has gone up. My MIJ Strat is probably worth about 5x what I paid for it when I bought it NOS. My Bourgeois about 2.5x what I paid for it new.

A lot of that is just inflation, though.

[brad4d8]

in 1965 I wanted a 12 string. My local shop had two, a Guild F212 and a Gibson (don't remember the model). The Guild was $200 and the Gibson $100 more, so got the Guild. No regrets, still have it and could sell it for a lot more than I paid, although that's not going to happen during my lifetime!

[rstaight]

Don't know if this counts but here we go. In 2007 I purchased a new Indiana Scout for $100. I wasn't actually planning on buying a guitar, but I played it and it sounded good for the price. I had an extra $100 on me so I bought it.

I still have the guitar and take it to jam every now and then. I just looked it up and Amazon has them for $135 and I have seen reverb adds ranging from $175 to $199.

So depending on where you buy, it has gone up by 35% to 99%. Wish my wages had gone up 99%.

[warfrat73]

And before somebody beats me to it, a D-28 cost about $100 in 1936.

[tinnitus]

Not a huge jump up, but Eastman is now listing the AC422CE I bought 2 years ago for $599 more than I paid. I can live with that.

[fpuhan]

Originally Posted by mercy

Every guitar I ever owned is higher today, new.

And yet...

I've come to believe that "investing" in guitars is a fool's errand. "New" isn't the same thing as "mint," and once you've put your hands on a guitar, it's no longer "new."

I bought a number of guitars with the intent to just pack them away, and when I retired, sell them off to help finance my sunset years.

Well, here I am. Retired. And not only has the value of some of my guitars actually gone down, I think the only one that has continued to increase in value is (surprisingly) my Taylor GS Mini-e Koa. Taylor's price for it has increased about $300 since I bought mine. But since mine is used, Reverb's top estimate is about $30 less that what I paid for it.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by cka73

In the mid 90's, I was in my 20's and really wanted a Martin guitar, without the financial resources to get that D-18 or D-28. I purchased a 000-15M. This small bodied, complete mahogany, no frills guitar with no binding or glossy finish, that sounded amazing and still does was where I spent that money. It was about 500 bucks new, and I was proud to own an American made Martin! Just looked yesterday, and these are 15-1600 bucks now. Still love mine with 25 years of wear and tear and a magnificent sound. Anyone else get in on something early on that proved to be a great purchase, which might be cost prohibitive now?

Hi cka
My Olson Dreadnought in 1993 cost $3050 (extra $50 for the pickup). Inflation factored in, 2023 that would be $6274.77 USD

It's an amazing guitar.

[cka73]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

And before somebody beats me to it, a D-28 cost about $100 in 1936.

Sweet deal! Hope you're a hundred and all stocked up on them.

[Osage]

Years ago I got really into 30's small bodied Epiphone archtops. This was before Dave Rawlings was around and they were close to worthless. I'd find them in good playable condition for like $150 at guitar stores! I sold all but one when they started selling for a pile.