5string Posted November 17, 2008 Posted November 17, 2008 If someone ordered a one-off guitar, are they worth more because one was made? Initially, how much more would a one-off guitar cost? Are they better quality guitars than the customs made on the line? Do they have a higher resale value than a regular custom.
bobv Posted November 17, 2008 Posted November 17, 2008 Assuming you had the documentation of the provenance, ok you have a rare one-off. However rarity is not, in and of itself, enough to increase the value. You need desirability also, and that's anybody's guess. Suppose K-mart had a few guitars made to their specs a few decades ago and there aren't too many of them left out there on the market today - would you jump on it? Is this one-off you speak of similar enough in features to the guitars that the market craves right now - for instance is it basically an R9 with some nice color choice? Or is it a guitar that only a mother would love? I'm sure George Gruhn, the guru of collecting, has been interviewed on this one - see what he says. The made-to-order guitar starts out being more expensive than the production guitars. Whether they hold that increased value depends on what it is. Are you comparing a custom shop Historic to a production-line Gibson USA model (ok, trick question, nobody ever seriously tried to say there's any comparison at all possible between those two)? If you're comparing your one-off to a Historic Custom Shop model, I'm still not sure you get your premium back for awhile. It's like people who put in a new gourmet kitchen and expect their money back on resale - the next guy says, sure, but I'm not paying for somebody else's choice of custom finishes and hardware.
5string Posted November 17, 2008 Author Posted November 17, 2008 Wow, Thanks for your response. I have a one-off 57' reissue in black w/ 3 pickups. The only thing that is different is that it has a white binding as opposed to an aged binding. It's pretty cool looking. So, based on what you said...it seems as though that may not hurt the value. Right?
Craig10119 Posted November 19, 2008 Posted November 19, 2008 Well that would just depend on the potential buyer. If they liked it, they might pay a bit more... Again, if they don't they might want the guitar for less. I can't understand why everyone's going on about value so much now... Sure, you want to know just incase you have to sell but I still don't see why everyone so curious. Just play the thing. It's only going to be worth the amount that someone's willing to pay. No point sitting bragging to your friends "my guitar's worth $8000..." Guitars were made for playing.
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