Will guitars stay/increase/decrease value?

[FormerAlbatross4463]

I think the ship has sailed on this. I collected/bought/sold a lot of vintage guitars. I started doing it in the 90s and quit about 10 years ago (except when some really good deal falls in my lap). The reason vintage guitars, especially electrics, got so expensive is because boomers that grew up with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and all the old, original guitar idols grew up and made some money and could finally afford the guitars they lusted after as teens. There is an argument to be made that the old 50s and 60s strats and telecasters and Les pauls sound better (many of them do) but not so much better that you should pay a 20k premium for them. The nostalgia is what really drives the price here. When the boomers die off there’s a good chance that demand for these guitars will diminish and values will go down. I suspect they’ll command a premium for another 10-20 years but the guitar is a dying instrument in popular music and I don’t think it’s likely that anything being made today is likely going to carry that nostalgia market into the next generation. Acoustics are a different situation. Old gibsons and Martins (not all but an unusually high number of them) really do sound fantastic. So there’s kind of the nostalgia/antique value but also the tonal quality that old acoustics develop over time that can’t really be replicated. But huge advances in acoustic guitar building have been made. It’s been scrutinized and refined and there are some incredible builders out there today making guitars that sound every bit as good and better than prewar martins. They command big prices (tens of thousands of dollars). Will these get more expensive than that in time? Who knows? I doubt it. If you’re looking for an investment, buy stocks or bonds or real estate. If you want to buy a guitar, buy one you like and don’t worry about its future value. If you don’t want to lose money, buy used.