Worth of old PRS 24?

Nice ones. They both are 1987 models. The all mahogany one is a Standard 24 and the Vintage Sunburst one is a Custom 24. A little more info would help. Are the pickups and electronics the original ones?
How are the frets? Any cosmetic damage?
The Standard has different saddles.
 
Jazzedout said:
Nice ones. They both are 1987 models. The all mahogany one is a Standard 24 and the Vintage Sunburst one is a Custom 24. A little more info would help. Are the pickups and electronics the original ones?
How are the frets? Any cosmetic damage?
The Standard has different saddles.
Click to expand...

Yes, the pickups and electronics are all original. There is probably some minor cosmetic damage. I would have to inspect more closely.
At one point I changed the saddles on the Standard to graphite saddles.

These guitars have not been out of their cases in over 20 years.
 
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Tuners on the Standard should say Made in W Germany so I suspect these are newer (they just say Germany, which starts post 1990 reunification). As noted both are 1987 guitars. Your Standard has birds, which is relatively rare for that model, most would have had moons. Garett Park Guitars might be worth asking if they're interested, as they have sold a lot of older PRS over the years. Or look on Reverb or Gbase to get an idea of their value, although a lot of adverts are priced 'strong' and don't sell. Also there is a huge premium for early guitars from 1985 and low serial number '86s guitars, so you need to look at the value of '87, '88, and '89 guitars to get a proper sense of your guitars' worth. Collector interest for '87 guitars is there, but their values are relativley low comparred to '85s. Standards are much harded to shift and worth much less than Customs (probably 50%). The market is very driven by condition, so any damage or changes will reduce their value disproportionately, and also the percieved quality of the flame on Customs. Your Custom looks nice but isn't that dramatic to look at, so probably won't attract a premium for it's top. Also your Custom is Sunburst. Vintage Yellow is more valuable, so again if you comapre to a VY Custom, you'll need to downgrade the value a bit.
 
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Collywobbles said:
Tuners on the Standard should say Made in W Germany so I suspect these are newer (they just say Germany, which starts post 1990 reunification). As noted both are 1987 guitars. Your Standard has birds, which is relatively rare for that model, most would have had moons. Garett Park Guitars might be worth asking if they're interested, as they have sold a lot of older PRS over the years. Or look on Reverb or Gbase to get an idea of their value, although a lot of adverts are priced 'strong' and don't sell. Also there is a huge premium for early guitars from 1985 and low serial number '86s guitars, so you need to look at the value of '87, '88, and '89 guitars to get a proper sense of your guitars' worth. Collector interest for '87 guitars is there, but their values are relativley low comparred to '85s. Standards are much harded to shift and worth much less than Customs (probably 50%). The market is very driven by condition, so any damage or changes will reduce their value disproportionately, and also the percieved quality of the flame on Customs. Your Custom looks nice but isn't that dramatic to look at, so probably won't attract a premium for it's top. Also your Custom is Sunburst. Vintage Yellow is more valuable, so again if you comapre to a VY Custom, you'll need to downgrade the value a bit.
Click to expand...

Thank you. This is very helpful.
 
Sounds like you might be thinking of selling?
Obviously you cant do that here. There is a huge used PRS market here in uk. By and large its a buyers market though.
 
merciful-evans said:
Sounds like you might be thinking of selling?
Obviously you cant do that here. There is a huge used PRS market here in uk. By and large its a buyers market though.
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I may be wrong, but @althea posted elsewhere that he had bought a Spec SH, so I think it was an advice request, rather than a sales pitch.
 
althea said:
Thank you. This is very helpful.
Click to expand...

Thanks althea - I should also have said the birds on your guitars are a big deal for value - so if you see a similar guitar but with moons you need to up the value of your guitar. The multiplier effect is hard to quantify but on an early low serial '85 Vintage Yellow Custom it probably doubles the value from around $10K to $20K (and up). For a '87 it's much less than that but still an important factor. If either of your guitars has one of the old blue-lined cases that helps with the value too. Blue-lined cases are still around in '87 but not much, most have black linings by then.
 
althea said:
Correct. I'm just trying to get an idea of the value of these old ones I have not played in ages. I'm not trying to sell.
Click to expand...
I hadn't meant to imply that you were trying to sell here, just that you might be considering sale. That's usually why people consider resale value.
 
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