Professional guitar appraisal?s

[Gutch220]

I was wondering about guitar appraisal?s and if the guys who do them. Do they usually low-ball the value or over-estimate the value depending on the best interest of their business or their industry. Also what is your guys' experience with Gruhn Guitars appraisals (low-ball, too-much, just right)?

 

 

I just had a 1934 Gibson L-00 acoustic appraised at $3850 by Gruhn

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

I was wondering about guitar appraisal?s and if the guys who do them. Do they usually low-ball the value or over-estimate the value depending on the best interest of their business or their industry. Also what is your guys' experience the Gruhn Guitars appraisals (low-ball' date=' too-much, just right)? [/quote']

 

Ok I'll move this over from the same thread you posted in the Les Paul thread.

 

My response was:

Hey Gutch' date=' ...If you do little leg work research, you're gonna find that George Gruhn is [i']the best[/i] in the business.

His reputation is impeccable. When it comes to guitars there is no equal.

[retrorod]

Yep, What LiveSoundGuy said! An appraisal by Gruhn is worth its weight. He is the King. It has been my experience when buying or selling with guitar dealers.....What they have to sell is worth Gold!.....What you want to sell to them is worth Silver....kinda hard to move right now....those haven't been bringing much lately....you know the speel!!

I guess everybody has to make a lil' profit...or sit on it!

[Gutch220]

I'm not interested in selling it at all. I heard great things about Gruhn, that's why I chose him. I just wanted to know if it is in his (or any other appraisers) best interest to estimate high or low. For instance, if I was planning on selling a guitar to an appraiser, he would low-ball the estimate. But Mr. Gruhn isn't involved with any transaction of of my guitar so I'm assuming he tries to be unbiased.

[retrorod]

Exactly! I think it is an un-biased appraisal. No way in hell would he buy it from you for that! He might try to sell it for you ( if interested) for that ...at a tidy commission fee!... I feel like he has a pulse on the market...and it does go up and down...contrary to the what the 'dimestore dealers' think!

[ballcorner]

The vintage shop I worked at gave three prices on valuations. First, we gave an insurance value (what a person would likely have to spend to replace a lost instrument including phone calls, shipping etc.) - then a wholesale value (what we would pay for the instrument -- and a retail value.

 

Our retail value was based on local selling prices considered against Internet sales (which we tracked daily) because this reflected what the instrument would likely sell for. There isn't much point telling a person their guitar is "worth" $5000 if nobody will pay more than $3500 for it.

 

With pre-war instruments like your Gibson a local record or eBay history would be sparse or non-existent. In such situations, Gruhn's prices were the best guide. Still, the market value of an instrument is whatever you can actually sell it for. I have been working with a rare Gibson that is valued at $25,000 but nobody has come forward with more than $20,000 to offer for it. To me, that puts the value at $20,000 - plain and simple.

 

The web sites operated by Folkways (Guelph, Ont.) and Mandolin Brothers often contain examples of rare and really old guitars along with prices. These sites offer a more likely range of prices for vintage instruments than valuations present.

 

To specifically answer your questions: A dealer's reputation is everything - so to undervalue guitars and buy them out from people would lead to trouble fairly quickly. Certainly in the case of Gruhn you have no fears.