I’ve got no story...but quite a story!
 

Just for fun I had a bunch of guitar picks printed for my optometry practice. If I find a patient is a guitar player I give them a pick.
The effect is great. Normally nervous patients open up and tell me about their guitar.
So last month I had a patient who said he was a guitar player and I gave him a pick. He got a big smile, his eyes glazed over a little, and he said “I gotta tell you about my Martin”.
Seems 25 years ago a guy comes into a barbershop with a guitar and asks the barber to give him $10 and hold his guitar for collateral. The barber gives him a 10 spot and hangs the guitar on the wall.
My patient comes in for a haircut, sees the guitar and asks what’s the story. He tells the barber he would like to have that guitar, cause it’s a Martin. But the barber can’t sell it cause he is holding it for the owner.
So for years my patient keeps getting haircuts and checking out this guitar that never gets redeemed by the owner.
One day my patient goes in and the barber tells him he is retiring and closing up shop. Of course he asks what will happen to the guitar. And the barber says, “I’m giving it to you!”
He is thrilled and takes it home. But the guitar had hung in the shop where lots of cigarette smoke had coated it.
I don’t remember how he did it, but he finally got it clean and the smell gone.
And of course he finishes by saying it’s the best guitar he’s ever played!
I don’t remember which model he said or how old, but that is one proud Martin owner!

I need cataract surgery...how about a complementary pick for a fellow forum member?
Very cool story by the way! $10 for an old Martin...must have been some kind of need ?

Sure...next time you are in office![emoji6]

Very interesting story! Thanks for sharing. ;)

Yeah, I'd love to find the trick he used and apply it to my bad smelly Martin story.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=556193

Have you tried the ozone generator yet? The rest of those methods are child's play.

In the attic
 

So I give another patient a pick and asked about his guitar.
“Well I mostly play my Martin in a gospel group, but let me tell you about my Stratocaster!”
Seems that a lady found a guitar case in her aunt’s attic and sent him over to check it out. He opened it up and found an old, American made Strat. Asked the lady what she would take for it. She said she needed a new vacuum and it didn’t have to be too nice. So for a fifty dollar vacuum he got a 1K guitar. I think he said it needed some work, but it was worth it!
You always hear the guitar in the attic tales, but I never thought I would meet a guy that got one.

Popping popcorn now

Great story, there was a guy over here in the uk that found a Martin D18 in a charity shop and payed about £100 for it, lucky guy.

Personally I cant help feeling like that lady got taken advantage of, but I suppose it depends how badly she could gave used the money.

If I was him I would have at least got her something decent like a dyson!

Nothing like a story about someone ripping off an old lady to warm the heart... :hmm:

Some years ago, one of my Dad's friends asked me if I'd take a look at a guitar he'd had since he was a kid. His parents bought it for him for his 15th birthday.

As he was opening the case, he commented that he'd rather have $500 than an old guitar. When he opened it, their sat a 1963 Fender Jazzmaster, in Burgundy Mist, in absolutely drop dead mint condition. Everything that was in the case was there the day his parents bought it.

Apparently, he tried playing in twice. Both times, he said, his fingertips hurt. After the second attempt he stuck it in his bedroom closet where it stayed for the next 40+ years.

Long story short, I told a friend at Fender about it, and he helped arrange the shipment of the guitar to Corona. Fender inspected the guitar and offered him $18,000 for it. The people there said they'd never seen anything so old that was in such remarkable condition.

So, I could've bought an $18,000 guitar for $500, but that just wouldn't have been right.

I got one. I worked with this gentlemen for years. He wasn't a musician. He didn't know that I was. One day he was walking through an airport and saw a guy busking with an electric guitar. A Les Paul of sorts. They got to talking as my friend says I have a guitar like that. My dad bought it in the 50s etc. The busker tells him that he's got a very expensive guitar. The story as he tells it was that his dad left him and his mother when he was a young child. The only thing he left was a Les Paul. For that reason he held on to it. Every couple of years his wife would drag it out for a garage sale and he'd end up putting it away. So after talking to the busker he went home and got hold of a music store and ended up dealing with a knowledgeable guitar music store back east. He sold it for $150,000. After I'd heard this story I talked with him about it. I wish I had known about the guitar before hand. I can't help but think I might have been able to get him more money for it.

In the attic
 

LOL
I have to agree with you.
I did not ask how many years ago, but even 20 years ago, $50 USD was not much of a vacuum.
He did make it clear that she said any old vacuum would do, and I think he said it had to have some repairs. Still he guessed it was worth $1000 today.
Thanks for looking
whvick

What I always liked about the Pawnstars television show are the unrealistic moments when they hire a real expert on the value of what somebody brought in, and share that information with the seller. They negotiate armed with relatively equal information. "I found this 15th century Spanish canon in my grandpa's garage. Is it worth more than $15?" "Should be several thousand dollars if it's real. And I just happen to know an expert in 15th century Spanish canons, so let's see what he says."

I doubt this happens frequently in real life. But I don't think people would watch Pawnstars if the recurring theme was only one party having the information needed to negotiate a great result for themselves. Any viewers with a sense of fairness would get turned off after one episode.

15th C Spanish cannons are ten a penny - expect no more than $15! (unless the galleon comes with it!)