Has the Vintage Guitar Market gone up in flames? The urban legends of a Blackguard '52 Tele in mint shape going for $96,000 on EBay (actually, it might have been true... but maybe only once)... are probably all just a memory now... sort of like the finger someone supposedly bit into in a bucket of wings at the fried chicken place a few years ago. The Vintage Guitar stores don't seem to want to lower their prices yet, and admit to the recession... at least not officially. Going through my latest issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine, I saw the following listings: a 1953 Fender Tele, VG+ for $55,900 (page 68), a 1951 NoCaster with original case, $69,165 (page 133), and a 1953 Fender Tele, clean with case $59,500. All this reminds me of last night...I watched one of those Art & Coin TV channels, that sell you things all night... Greg "Hurricane" Thomas was on, taking over for Barry Chappell in the Art Hour. They were selling Haziza sculptures made of Acrylic for an opening bid of $700... the phones were dead for the first few minutes, and Hurricane finally had to open bidding on the first sculpture at $0, in $100 increments. (I think it finally went for $500). My first thought was that in this economy, those sculptures at the old prices of last year will be a hard sell. I might apply that to the prices on those Tele's... I don't know if anyone is buying $50K tele's right now, or if those prices are flexible when you call the dealers up, but my guess is... it's like the finger in the chick'n bucket... that puppy is gonna sit in the bottom of that bucket ...
