Okay, so you go into the guitar store, try out a bunch of electric guitars, and the value of the instrument in 10 years’ time is not the first thing on your mind.
We get it. We’ve been there. C’mon, in the rarified air of the guitar store, the mind is elsewhere. It’s everywhere else except for thinking about resale value – might as well be thinking about your 401K.
No, the mind is having a very different kernel panic. It’s Candy Apple Red vs Surf Green, fat necks vs thin, and some of the biggest questions you will ever ask yourself in life, such as, “Is that switch loose or is it just me?”
But, in case you were wondering, Guitarist magazine has been speaking to Reverb’s Data Science Leader, Cyrill Nigg, about resale value, and he has some thoughts, backed by the numbers, and he reveals that – across the board – signature guitars are the models that are going up in value over time, and some dramatically so.
And it's not just the US-made signature models that are holding their value. We would expect many Gibson Les Pauls to hold their value, to appreciate over time – especially if they are limited edition or are now out-of-production. But the data reveals that Epiphone guitars are similarly a good bet.
“The Tom DeLonge ES-333 and Joe Bonamassa Firebird, those have held their value really well,” says Nigg.
Guitars such as the above, and, notably, Fender’s John 5 Telecaster, are not just holding their value, some have proved to be sound investments, doubling in value since 2019.
“During the pandemic a lot of the prices went up, but then they tended to come back down,” says Nigg. “But the signature models have just stayed a bit more elevated compared to some of the other, more standard models.”
What about non-signature models? Or guitars, as regular people call them. Well, if you’ve got the name Rickenbacker on the headstock, you're in luck.
“They’ve been pretty consistent, especially the 330, 660, 620,” says Nigg. “And, on the bass side, the 4003 – that’s kind of like a perennial bestseller on Reverb.”
You can read the full interview with Nigg in the latest issue of Guitarist, which you can pick up at Magazines Direct – and you'll save a bundle by subscribing.
