A controversial topic but would love thoughts

[Tonart]

I could probably recoup 60% the day my guitars are sold. 40% is not an exorbitant expenditure for a lifetime of enjoyment. So no, it’s never an investment for me. You’re competing with the manufacturer himself. He can make an endless supply, unlimited limited runs. A million dragons if they wanted to. There are thousands and thousands of talented artists out there, each with a different interpretation of what a dragon should artistically look like. I’ll bet many could offer better visual art than what has been issued so far.

Maybe certain materials are inherently rare or become unobtainable after a while, like Pernambuco or Mammoth Ivory. But how many people really care about such things, hence where is the demand going to come from?

The fact that the equivalent of a living Leo Fender inspects and signs on every private stock guitar does distinguish them in my opinion, but by the time Paul retires there’ll be so many PS guitars that it’s a marginal bump in value if there even is one.

So nope, I don’t see them as investments but rather a “mitigated expenditure”.

 

[Tonart]

But unlike the conventional thinking out there, I am fully supportive of buying guitars to “collect” them. Leave them unplayed and just admire them as art.

Unless someone can prove you’ve used their money to buy your guitars, nobody gets any traction commenting on how you’ve spent your money.

There is no shortage. Paul makes enough for everyone.

As long as you enjoy them, it’s doesn’t matter how you enjoy them. If collecting and babying them makes you happy, then the end justifies the means.

 

[Jimi D]

Seeing as how vintage 59 Les Pauls have taken since 1959 to become as valuable as they are, investing in guitars is more for the joy of playing them than profiting on their sale 75 years later. Plus, only the ones that sat dormant in their cases are worth their princely sums. And then, to retain their condition, they must remain there. Kinda sad.

The thing is, if you’d taken the cost of a ‘59 LP and invested it smart you’d have a quarter million dollars today, easy. The fact that a handful of guitars have sold for more than that doesn’t make them a good investment any more than striking it rich with Bitcoin makes someone a good investor.

AFAIC, guitars are beautiful toys and tools and making money off them is never a consideration, for me. The best place to put money with an eye to the future is in monetary instruments designed for decent returns at moderate risk. My $.02

 

[ViperDoc]

The thing is, if you’d taken the cost of a ‘59 LP and invested it smart you’d have a quarter million dollars today, easy. The fact that a handful of guitars have sold for more than that doesn’t make them a good investment any more than striking it rich with Bitcoin makes someone a good investor.

AFAIC, guitars are beautiful toys and tools and making money off them is never a consideration, for me. The best place to put money with an eye to the future is in monetary instruments designed for decent returns at moderate risk. My $.02

And who knew in 1959 the Les Paul would become as iconic as it is today? Best to diversify the portfolio and build a deep quiver for whatever may come. Meanwhile, rock out in as many ways as possible.

 

[JasonE]

Thank you...
As an "off the cuff" example I acquired a sweet deal on a local buy for a 2001 McCarty with rosewood neck in maybe 2013.
I don't really want to post what I got it for, but today I know I could get double for it easily.
As time has progressed, and in these current times these deals are less likely to impossible. That said, it can be done.

The sexy guitar in question... and trotted out at the drop of a hat... often...

I have a Tom Anderson that I got a deal like that on. I have had it for 8 or 9 years now. I originally bought it because I could have flipped it and made decent money when I bought it. I like the guitar so I held on to it. I could probably double my money on it now since the prices on these have gone up considerably since I bought it.

Most of my PRS guitars are models that are no longer made. They seem to make changes to models that they bring back and they don't seem to sell as well. I am super happy with the guitars I have. I keep fighting the urge to thin them out because most don't get the play time they deserve. However, every time I pull something out and consider selling it I fall back in love with it and play it for a while and remember exactly why I bought and kept it and it goes back in the closet.

 

[Permanent Waves]

I am getting to an age where I take into consideration the resale value of an instrument before buying it. My time to play seems to get shorter (at least until I get to retirement) so I prefer to invest in fewer but better instruments rather than a large amount of lesser guitars that I don't have time to play and will be hard to sell (and likely at a loss). Having said that, I don't see them strictly as an investment either because ultimately, they are hard to move, especially in an estate sale situation where your executor may not be familiar with the market. I think sound financial planning is also important, though I agree it is hard to rock out on a GIC - the sustain just isn't there . However, I will admit that the ROI on some of my guitars has been considerably better than on many of my investments.

I have a few guitars I don't play much that I keep as investments because I bought them cheap over 30 years ago and their values keep skyrocketing, and no, they are not PRS. Other than the really early serial numbers or the outrageously gorgeous models like the Dragons or Private Stock, I don't see a huge markup on the PRS player's guitars, even the pre-95 ones. It will be interesting to see these values on PRS's when they get as old as Gibson and Fenders are today, but these companies had a 35-year head start on PRS for producing solid-body electrics. Also, these companies had periods of perceived lesser quality which pushed up the value of their vintage instruments. This is not likely to happen at PRS, at least not as long as Paul is alive. You're not ever going to see same price gap between a a 1995 CU 24 and a 2015 CU24 the same as you will see a price gap between a 64 strat and an 84 strat.

 

[Rhythmisking]

I started getting guitars (more than one) as a means of sequestering capital from an ex-wife who routinely spent more $ than I made. The rule was only buy used, and only at an amazingly low price so I knew I could get more than I paid for it if I needed to sell it, and at least come out even if I needed to sell it quick. The other rule was that it had to be a guitar I liked, wanted and would play. This became a habit; compulsively cruising CL and later reverb looking for crazy deals and jumping on them. I live in SF, so there's a ton of musical instruments on the local CL.

That's how I got acquainted with this forum. I found a Santana (my avatar) on CL for a ridiculously low price. A college kid who needed fast cash, and I felt a little guilty, but he even delivered it to me. This was my first PRS. GREAT guitar.

So having bought and sold a LOT of guitars over the years, I have WAY more guitars than I need, and they're worth quite a bit more than what I paid, so it's kinda like an IRA that's just way more fun.

Most all of the guitars I have are 'players' rather than collectors items except for one, and that one is a bit of a problem for me. A while ago I scored one of my Holy Grail guitars, a mint '77 Fender Starcaster, with all case candy and even the brand new-looking original case for $2500. Absolutely perfect condition. Not a single pick scuff on the pickguard. I'm pretty sure it was unplayed -because it was unplayable. A great representation of everything that was wrong at Fender in the 70's. Even though the Starcaster was their most expensive guitar ever, the the neck pocket was huge AND the angle is buggered so the neck was mis-aligned, and set up was abominable. I was able to get it sorted well enough non-destructively so that it now plays ok, but it's not great. It actually does sound really good though, the Seth Lover Wide-Range pups are awesome and in a semi-hollow guitar sound airier than they do in a solid body. But to really make it perfect would cost a fortune and require the sort of work that would drastically reduce it's value as a 'mint condition original 70's Starcaster'. Plus it's too 'nice' and too valuable to play out with, although I do play it at home and I've now put a bunch of pick scuffs on it. 'Nice' guitars like this are ones I really don't want to have, but I can't seem to part with it. I almost traded it to a guy with another Starcaster, played to death with very heavy wear, bare wood in spots and badly needing a re-fret but it actually played great, because that more the type of guitar I like to think of myself as owning, but I just couldn't do it.

Definitely a First World problem.

 

[RC Mike]

Can a person make money by buying and selling PRS guitars? Sure. That fits the definition of an investment, I suppose. It’s really just about knowing more than the other party to the transaction, which isn’t the same as an investment appreciating in value.

There are a couple of things that are going to happen. Paul is going to retire or die. PRS will change. Those two things will cause a temporary spike in the prices of “Paul era” guitars.

The other thing that will happen is that the brand will become more obscure. More? Yup. There are plenty of guitar players that are unfamiliar with PRS. 3rd biggest US manufacturer of electric guitars—become obscure?! Yes. It’s inevitable. Brand zealots will begin to decrease in numbers. Just erosion over time. That’ll decrease demand for those “Paul era” guitars, slowly but surely.

In the end, there’ll still be half a million of them floating around. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to buy whatever model any of us want to own. Twenty years from now, I’d bet those prices will be relatively the same or lower than they are today.

 

[dmatthews]

I started getting guitars (more than one) as a means of sequestering capital from an ex-wife who routinely spent more $ than I made. The rule was only buy used, and only at an amazingly low price so I knew I could get more than I paid for it if I needed to sell it, and at least come out even if I needed to sell it quick. The other rule was that it had to be a guitar I liked, wanted and would play. This became a habit; compulsively cruising CL and later reverb looking for crazy deals and jumping on them. I live in SF, so there's a ton of musical instruments on the local CL.

That's how I got acquainted with this forum. I found a Santana (my avatar) on CL for a ridiculously low price. A college kid who needed fast cash, and I felt a little guilty, but he even delivered it to me. This was my first PRS. GREAT guitar.

So having bought and sold a LOT of guitars over the years, I have WAY more guitars than I need, and they're worth quite a bit more than what I paid, so it's kinda like an IRA that's just way more fun.

Most all of the guitars I have are 'players' rather than collectors items except for one, and that one is a bit of a problem for me. A while ago I scored one of my Holy Grail guitars, a mint '77 Fender Starcaster, with all case candy and even the brand new-looking original case for $2500. Absolutely perfect condition. Not a single pick scuff on the pickguard. I'm pretty sure it was unplayed -because it was unplayable. A great representation of everything that was wrong at Fender in the 70's. Even though the Starcaster was their most expensive guitar ever, the the neck pocket was huge AND the angle is buggered so the neck was mis-aligned, and set up was abominable. I was able to get it sorted well enough non-destructively so that it now plays ok, but it's not great. It actually does sound really good though, the Seth Lover Wide-Range pups are awesome and in a semi-hollow guitar sound airier than they do in a solid body. But to really make it perfect would cost a fortune and require the sort of work that would drastically reduce it's value as a 'mint condition original 70's Starcaster'. Plus it's too 'nice' and too valuable to play out with, although I do play it at home and I've now put a bunch of pick scuffs on it. 'Nice' guitars like this are ones I really don't want to have, but I can't seem to part with it. I almost traded it to a guy with another Starcaster, played to death with very heavy wear, bare wood in spots and badly needing a re-fret but it actually played great, because that more the type of guitar I like to think of myself as owning, but I just couldn't do it.

Definitely a First World problem.

That's pretty much how I got my 2001 McRosie. A kid needing cash. Great score!