Let's look at couple of things:
1. Most folks are not "like us." I realize that the average player on a forum owns multiple guitars but the average player outside the forum isn't like us. He may own one guitar, and when he goes to buy his lifetime instrument do you think the average player is going to spend hours learning the used/vintage market? He'll probably want a new version of the guitar he's seen his hero play.
2. If a non-playing spouse wants to buy his/her spouse a lifetime instrument, do you think he/she is going to try to sort out the used/vintage market? Not likely. Now I realize that Amy Grant buys Vince Gill vintage guitars but she's a definite exception.
3. Think about how forum-dwellers like us, who love and know instruments, are depressing the used market by flooding it as we serially buy new and sell or trade used instruments.
4. What's left for the used market is a specialty group of buyers: those who don't have the money for a new guitar and those who are pursuing a particular guitar from a particular time period for some personal reason. I recently bought a used 2004 Taylor 710ce. I'd just sold a 2001 example of that model and instantly wanted one like it back. I loved the combination of East indian Rosewood and Engelmann spruce. However, because the original had a Fishman Blender barn door and I preferred to not have the door, I wanted one from the period after the Fishman electronics but still with the Engelmann spruce top. That narrowed things down. Fortunately for me, the Expression System 1.0 has a low resale value. I was able to buy a 2004 in virtually brand-new condition that had a few finish flaws for a KILLER price.
5. And remember: a used guitar is very much like a car - the instant it leaves the dealership it is worth half of its new price or less. Guitar players seem to think they live in some sort of virtue bubble where their instrument unrealistically maintains a large percent of its value because they treated it well. A cream puff's value starts at 50% and moves down from there for every. single. flaw.
Bob
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' "
Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring
THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
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