Gibson J-200's circa the early 90's. Better than current offerings?

[WeezyMcGee]

I'm speaking to someone right now who SWEARS by the quality of Gibson's output circa the early 90's. He says their modern acoustic offerings, particularly the J-200 are nowhere near the overall quality of those offered in the early days of the Bozeman factory in the early 90s.

 

He claims that a J-200 from this era is more desirable and worth considerably more as a result of this early 90's mojo. I'm wondering, is there's any truth to this? Will a Gibson J-200 from the early 90's be worth more than an identical Gibson J-200 from 2010?

 

Basically I'm looking to trade my Santa Cruz Vintage Southerner for a J-200 with a bit of cash. I think a J-200 for the VS is not an even trade. At retail the VS with my specs sells for nearly $4500 current price of the J-200 is around what... $3600-$3700? Called elderly instruments and asked what they'd consign a pristine sunburst J-200 for... $2000-2200. My Vintage Southerner? $3000. This seems pretty clear that it ought to require cash to be made even and he disagrees. His reasoning is that early 90's Gibson J-200s are more highly sought after than what Gibson is currently putting out and worth more as a result. I can't find any evidence of anything that would verify this claim.

 

Having less experience with Gibson J-200s I'm more than willing to hear his point of view but I haven't seen anything to contradict what I've found... which is that a 90's J-200 isn't worth any more than a 2000's J-200.

 

He said if I asked the folks here I would get a better idea so I guess we'll see.

[RichCI]

There are all sorts of rumors out there about Gibson guitars from this period or that period; take them all with a grain of salt. Try out a few examples of that model guitar from that and any other point in in time and just look for the one that feels and sounds best to you.

[BigKahune]

IMO, there has always been some variability between guitars of the same model and year (that's why a lot of people play them before they buy them) - this is true for early 90s product and well as today's product. So, have you played this guy's J-200? Does the playability and sound/tone make it a tad more valuable to you? Even if so, it's not worth more than a couple hundred extra bucks over what Eldery quoted you. Unless he's got an Elite or Custom, he's dreaming.

 

I purchased a new J-200 a while back and went through a few before I found the one I settled on.