Current 2nd Hand Les Paul pricing...Too High?

[Mr French]

Imo, people tend to totally overvalue their own stuff adding in what they paid, mods (that actually decrease value), nostalgia, other (unrelated) values, etc when selling instruments. Even if it's not the real greedy set, you can see where that ends up vs reality.

Then you add the times we're currently experiencing and the asking prices are reflective of that. Optimistic? Lunacy? Somewhere in between? Some sellers are simply uniformed to the street value of their stuff. Some just getting while the gettings good, so to speak.

Market decides prices most of the time.

Tldr: yep, used prices are still a bit high. Or I'm not high enough?

I agree with the overvalue. Another thing people do is grading a guitar from players grade to museum piece. I'd expect a guitar to been played and have some defects.

I've seen people purposely give the buckle rash to look "cool" and try to increase the value of the guitar because of it. So it's all up in the air with prices but there is a general limit.

 

[moreles]

I follow most of the forums and visit the online marketplaces and shops all the time. Though asking prices verge on the ridiculous, once you sort through the stuff that is not going to move, eliminate the overseas sellers, and focus on what is actually bought, it's somewhat less ludicrous. In my own transactions, I have ended up paying and receiving amounts that are consistently at or even below the low end of posted "sold" prices, so I think more regular valuations are out there if you are willing to search carefully and patiently (months). But yup -- there's just stupid pricing going on at the asking end. There's also a lot of faddishness based on small-scale, special interest developments, like the non-availability of Danocasters (a nothingburger on the larger market) or the amazing, earthshaking, beyond-belief, never before on Earth release of the... Silver!!! Sky!!!!!!! Now that builders are back to churning out instruments, and with geezers like me continuing to die off, I think the premium prices will stabilize or even decline, if overall inflation cools and we'll be back to wondering if the role of the guitar in music and culture is diminishing.

 

[rjwilson37]

If you see something you like, make a reasonable offer. I was trying to sell my 2017 Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom Figured Top Yellow Widow Burst, a 1 of 10 guitar for $4500 and I paid $4800 for it plus tax putting it around 5k. After lowering the price a few times trying to sell it for Months, I ended up letting it go for $3300. The best offer before that was $2800. So I lost $1500-$1700 on that guitar from my purchase price. I thought for sure I would get at least $3800-$4000 minimum for it. The guitar was in Excellent Condition, just like you see in the picture below. This did have a Richlite Fretboard and that could be the reason since all Customs now are coming with Ebony again.

 

[Hopnoodle]

Rj, the price you got is in line with my formula. Gotta ask, did you get $5K worth fun from the guitar?

 

[KS 5150]

I'm in Canada as well and deals are there, but you have to be quick on the trigger to snap them up off of Kijiji. The guitar below I purchased for $3100 CAD and it is worth far more than that:

https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/nogd-1987-gibson-les-paul-custom.458557/

 

[iluvchiclets]

... I think more regular valuations are out there if you are willing to search carefully and patiently (months)....

Thanks - a very good point. Perhaps I'm just overly-enthusiastic. I can certainly be patient.

It's just that I'm watching a few Les Pauls that are of interest to me ($3000 CAD each) and I politely asked if they were firm on their price. They said yes...so, no amount of reasoning was going to help me convince them otherwise. I wanted to make sure it wasn't "me"...ha ha.

(One of them agreed to go lower, and I asked for some more pictures. They said "ok"...it's been two weeks, no more communication. Sheesh!?)

 

[mjross]

If you see something you like, make a reasonable offer. I was trying to sell my 2017 Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom Figured Top Yellow Widow Burst, a 1 of 10 guitar for $4500 and I paid $4800 for it plus tax putting it around 5k. After lowering the price a few times trying to sell it for Months, I ended up letting it go for $3300. The best offer before that was $2800. So I lost $1500-$1700 on that guitar from my purchase price. I thought for sure I would get at least $3800-$4000 minimum for it. The guitar was in Excellent Condition, just like you see in the picture below. This did have a Richlite Fretboard and that could be the reason since all Customs now are coming with Ebony again.

View attachment 616694

Richlite would not have been a problem for me, I rather like it! However, the yellow binding is a little overwhelming or is it just brighter in the photo?

 

[wjlim22]

If you see something you like, make a reasonable offer. I was trying to sell my 2017 Gibson Custom Les Paul Custom Figured Top Yellow Widow Burst, a 1 of 10 guitar for $4500 and I paid $4800 for it plus tax putting it around 5k. After lowering the price a few times trying to sell it for Months, I ended up letting it go for $3300. The best offer before that was $2800. So I lost $1500-$1700 on that guitar from my purchase price. I thought for sure I would get at least $3800-$4000 minimum for it. The guitar was in Excellent Condition, just like you see in the picture below. This did have a Richlite Fretboard and that could be the reason since all Customs now are coming with Ebony again.

View attachment 616694

I remember seeing this guitar on CL for months in the SD area. I was just telling my friend a few weeks ago about this guitar and that I can't believe I missed out on it. I was new to high end Gibsons. Now finding out that you let it go for $3300... I am even more mad at myself for not contacting you! Someone got an incredible deal. If only I had a time machine. After you sold it, prices skyrocketed to where they are now. This could get $4800+ today in my opinion. I'm starting to see used guitar prices slow down a lot these days. Maybe I'll get another chance at one of these someday.

 

[rjwilson37]

Rj, the price you got is in line with my formula. Gotta ask, did you get $5K worth fun from the guitar?

I enjoyed this guitar for 4 years, it was a very sweet guitar. But eventually, after purchasing and playing my other guitars with Slimmer necks and Epiphone stepping up there game with the Inspired by Gibson line, I just sold it off which helped purchase 3 other guitars basically. The Richlite did not bother me at all, it is even less maintenance and feels the same so who really cares. I guess a lot of people do as was mentioned to me a few times. I also passed on a nice Ebony Gibson Custom at Moze guitar shop because it had Richlite and I figured it might be hard to sell if I wanted to sell it at a later time.

@wjlim22 I eventually just broke down and sold it cheap, since it was for sale on CL for 4-5 months with no real buyers interested. The yellow binding is very yellow, just like in the pictures. But it was an excellent guitar for someone who likes bigger medium C necks.

 

[fretout]

I agree with you OP, the prices on the used market are massively over-inflated. There’s many causes for this that came together at the same time (lack of inventory, increased demand of additional hobbyists, media influences, ect.).

I’ve wanted to pick up a few Les Pauls over the last few months, but so far I’ve purchased zero.

The best thing you can do is hold your money for now. I’ve already witnessed many Les Pauls sitting for sale recently, whereas a few months ago, they would have sold in seconds.

I think when the hobbyists have mounting expenses due to the current economy and massively increased living expenses, and collectors sadly having less income due to their investments drying up, we’ll see more guitars in the marketplace, selling for lower prices due to urgency. It’s sad, it sucks, but it’ll likely adjust the market back to normal levels.

 

[iluvchiclets]

I agree with you OP, the prices on the used market are massively over-inflated. There’s many causes for this that came together at the same time...

Excellent post, fretout, I think you hit on some very key-points.

 

[afireinside]

It is crazy what people are asking. But online fees, increased shipping costs, 1099-k we will be slammed with this year.....

I saw a 2021 60s standard LP for $1650 last week mint but cant hang with 60s necks and it sold quick.

Used 50s standards or trads are 2k+ even on GC. No warranty,dings/dents/fretwear. Roll of the dice on flame on the top/weight.

So i bit and bought a new WW 50s standard with financing/ warranty. 8.5lbs super crazy flame, beautiful burst!

 

[JHMvP]

I don't know how it is with you guys outside Europe but over here, in 2022 YTD alone we're looking at 11-14% inflation-rates. Prices for groceries, gas&electra and especially car-fuel went completely through the roof over here. So yes, I do see high prices for used stuff as well but I cannot qualify them being crazy.

Apart from that inflation, we have also seen that many nic(h)e products became a higher value than retail, as soon as they went out of production. Rolex is the best good example for this and this has been going on for at least 9-10 years already.

So yes, we do see used, damaged Studio's going here at €950-€1300 now (used to be €700-800) and other Gibsons that are going at 20-70% over their original MRSP. With Marshall tube-amps (especially the pre-1990's, the pre-2005's and limited versions like the SL5) are sometimes even at 70-250% over MRSP.

The reason is not that sellers suddenly all started to forget to take their reality-pills; it's our governments that keep printing money and spend it on non-issues like other countries' debts and other spends that are not considered to be any investments in better things to come (read: contributions to the EU, unlawful foreign social security-payments and all the immigrants). In the mean time, our inflation-rates are getting very close to countries that totally don't understand political-economics like Turkey.

I've started collecting Smartwood Exotic's since 2002. At that time I bought my guitars at €500-700. The last Smartwood Exotic's I saw lately on eBay/Marktplaats/Reverb were priced at €1100-1250, without papers, without original case and not in mint state.....

 

[JHMvP]

And I'm guilty as well; my Marshall 4010 vertical inputs + Marshall 1933 cabinet combination is definately not going under €2.000.

[Edit]
It's €2.200 now.
[/Edit]

[Edit]
It's €2.300 excluding prepping for transport, now.
[/Edit]

 

[Brek]

There aren't a massive amount of custom shop guitars for sale new in the UK right now. I have my R8 lab up for sale I'm asking £5k as there are no new ones in UK of same spec, their is a heavy aged for 2k more. So I'll sell or not, but only at my price if it does sell. A new standard is £2400 in uk, used are anywhere from £1500 to £2.5k (for an older one with flamey top).

 

[darkvoice]

You also need to take into consideration prices of guitars currently for sale. If someone bought or considers buying a guitar at current inflated prices and they want to sell some of their gear to fund that purchase, they would want to get as high price as possible. Not every seller is a speculator, but if they are buying at inflated prices they have little choice but to follow similar inflated prices for guitars they sell. It's all connected.

 

[Brek]

You also need to take into consideration prices of guitars currently for sale. If someone bought or considers buying a guitar at current inflated prices and they want to sell some of their gear to fund that purchase, they would want to get as high price as possible. Not every seller is a speculator, but if they are buying at inflated prices they have little choice but to follow similar inflated prices for guitars they sell. It's all connected.

I hadn't connected those dots, but yeah makes sense. I follow used prices out of habit more than anything, so always have something to say when these posts crop up.

I have someone interested in the R8 but I suspect they are a dealer, so I imagine they will be offering less than I am asking, which will be politely refused.

I don't need to sell, I can wait, I used to also complain about used prices and had an opinion of sellers asking more than I thought the market supported. Now, not so much, If ya want it buy it, if ya don't, don't.

 

[InTheEvening]

I’ll also add, there’s folks listing guitars that they like a lot and would only be willing sell for an inflated price. For example, you know fair market value is $1000 but you really like the guitar and are in no rush to sell it, and would only be willing to part with it if offered $1500 or some other stupidly good offer. Most likely it won’t sell but if it does, you got a sweet return on it. I’ve heard Phillip McKnight and Trogly mention using this tactic…as well as forum members who have spouses that want them to sell a guitar they really don’t want to part with.

 

[darkvoice]

I’ll also add, there’s folks listing guitars that they like a lot and would only be willing sell for an inflated price. For example, you know fair market value is $1000 but you really like the guitar and are in no rush to sell it, and would only be willing to part with it if offered $1500 or some other stupidly good offer. Most likely it won’t sell but if it does, you got a sweet return on it. I’ve heard Phillip McKnight and Trogly mention using this tactic…as well as forum members who have spouses that want them to sell a guitar they really don’t want to part with.

I do this. If I have a guitar that I really like, sometimes I list it for a high price, above the market. I am not rushing to sell, but if someone offers the right price I'd sell it. Otherwise - I am happy to keep it.

Also, it's interesting to see MPL forum's suggestions of older threads with similar titles on the bottom of the page - apparently people complained about Gibson prices in 2014 ("How overpriced do you think Gibson Les paul are .") and in 2008 and before.

 

[CB91710]

I do this. If I have a guitar that really like, sometimes I list it for a really high price, above the market. I am not rushing to sell, but if someone offers the right price I'd sell it. Otherwise - I am happy to keep it.

Also, it's interesting to see MPL's suggestion of older threads with similar titles, well people complained about Gibson prices in 2014 ("How overpriced do you think Gibson Les paul are .") and in 2008.

Some things never change.
Prices, new and used, always increase.
People always complain about the increases.