Non-CS Fenders now over $3,000

metropolis_4 said:
You have to admit price increases over the past 3-4 years have been pretty crazy compared to the past.

Not just on Fender either.

My wife and kids bought me a new Gibson LP Standard in Aug 2020 for $2,200.

3.5 years later the same guitar is now $2,999
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Dunno if you do the grocery shopping for your fam…

…or have bought a car…
 
I bought a few guitars about 4 years ago that have really gone up in price. I wouldn't pay today's prices for them, even though I think they are good guitars. I don't see the value in them at today's prices. That includes a few Fender guitars and a Suhr. The price increases are not just with Fender. Look at what Suhr and Anderson, as well as some others, have done in the last 4 years. I bought a new PRS in the fall of last year. That is the fist new guitar I have bought in 4 years. I am fortunate enough to have a collection that covers all of the bases I wanted to cover, and then some, so I don't see me being in the market for a new guitar for a very long time or ever again. It is a good time to have a collection that fills all of my needs with the way prices have gone up.
 
SillyOctpuss said:
A nitro guitar does take longer to cure than a urethane finished one. They also probably spend more time drying out the woods for custom shop. They'll definitely have more time spent on prep, finish and QC than a Mexican or bog standard us strat.
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Usually more refined fret work as well.
 
Flip guitars, they said... Don't hoard, they said... Who's laughing now ...
I see a parallel with the popularisation of crypto around 2021. Buy low, sell high ... basically if you sell your guitar for normal sh prices you price yourself outside the game. If you sell for stupid "new normal" prices, you'll never sell it quickly. And by the time you sell either way the price is already higher than when you started and you'd have to pay more. It's like a ponzi scheme ...
I'm happy this is not TOP where by now there would be at least a dozen brainless "but what about InFLatiON" posts.
 
Fuck the overpriced guitars - that's just one symptom out of thousands.

Inflation is historically bad across the board. And have you seen the housing market? These are fucked up times.

moneyprintergobrrr.jpg
 
SKU said:
When it comes to mass produced guitars there's almost no difference between les pauls and strats ... all done by machines. Glueing a neck to the body in the case of a LP, inlays, tops ... doesn't matter in terms of human time cost - relatively.
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There is still a surprising amount that needs to be done by hand.
 
People need to stop complaining about the price of a Porsche because you can buy a Ford for less .
 
You can trace the start of the recent bullshit to the time when everyone started buying up all the toilet paper when COVID hit. :rofl

And I'm half-joking.
 
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Eagle said:
People need to stop complaining about the price of a Porsche because you can buy a Ford for less .
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I think the topic is 2015 Porsche (84-ish k) vs. 2024 Porsche (115-ish k), not Porsche vs. Ford:

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www.motortrend.com

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www.motortrend.com

American Professional Strat was introduced in 2017 at $1399: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...l-series-debuting-january-2017-300387497.html

American Profession Strat in 2024 is $1799:

https://www.fender.com/en-US/electr...-anniversary-2-color-sunburst/0113902803.html

So While a Porsche has gone up 37-ish% over 9 years, the American Professional has gone up by 28-ish% over 7 years.
 
I think Eagle also has a fair point that today's American Standard is a much better guitar than the early-2000's/90s ones. Excepting the case situation, the American Performer is PROBABLY a bit closer spec wise? Those are $1399. 2012, I think, was when the American Standard got revamped w/ custom shop pickups, etc.?
 
There's also greed ...
Reverb prices exploded just because regular people got greedy. Cannibalism basically.
Companies have no feelings, so when they see guitars they used to sell for 1000 still selling for 900 SH on reverb they sense blood.
Snowballing effect. I'm patiently waiting for the bubble to burst so I can get my Knaggs for 1500. :grin :grin :grin
 
I stumbled across a 2012 Fender price sheet (that's not relevant because it's all in the super inflated MSRP #s). The takeaway was (1) holy hell were there a ton of sig guitars back then and (2) the price difference on the sig and other "specialty" stuff was about the same as today -- 50% premium.
 
SKU said:
There's also greed ...
Reverb prices exploded just because regular people got greedy. Cannibalism basically.
Companies have no feelings, so when they see guitars they used to sell for 1000 still selling for 900 SH on reverb they sense blood.
Snowballing effect. I'm patiently waiting for the bubble to burst so I can get my Knaggs for 1500. :grin :grin :grin
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Yes, I noticed that trend as well with the used market.

It's monkey-see-monkey-do. "Hey that dude is trying to sell his Epi LP for $3K! I'm jacking up my price too!"

You could also argue, "Hey why toilet paper so damn expensive? Fuck it, I'm putting my Charvel So Cal on reverb for $1000 more than the market would bear!"

You could also argue, "Wow, Gibson's prices are insane! As a supermarket owner who sells toilet paper, I'm going raise my prices too!"

It's a shit storm domino effect of epic proportions, and everybody suffers.

Non-used-market-guitar-wise and speaking for myself, I point the finger at Gibson for starting a very ugly trend even before COVID hit.
 
LeftyLoungeLizard said:
Yes, I noticed that trend as well with the used market.

It's monkey-see-monkey-do. "Hey that dude is trying to sell his Epi LP for $3K! I'm jacking up my price too!"

You could also argue, "Hey why toilet paper so damn expensive? Fuck it, I'm putting my Charvel So Cal on reverb for $1000 more than the market would bear!"

You could also argue, "Wow, Gibson's prices are insane! As a supermarket owner who sells toilet paper, I'm going raise my prices too!"

It's a shit storm domino effect of epic proportions, and everybody suffers.

Non-used-market-guitar-wise and speaking for myself, I point the finger at Gibson for starting a very ugly trend even before COVID hit.
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It seems, paradoxically, that people can afford more stuff - they usually don't need - . How do they afford them? Have no idea, loans?
There used to be a balance. People were more careful with their spending. SH market was way more accessible due to that. Regular companies had to play by those rules. Now it's chaos. That said I have no idea who ( or how ) do people buy all those super expensive boutique/custom guitars ...
Still, everything is not lost, I'm starting to see more sane prices, for amps especially. I'm also seeing overpriced items on Reverb sitting for months/years.
Sometime ago I got this hunch that companies themselves post overpriced items on Reverb to skew the market.
 
Lest any Fender employees defending the co. here think otherwise, speaking of Fender from personal experience, I do believe that certain Charvel lineups (So Cal etc) are good values for the money in today's crazy economy. And yes, I own one. However, the last Fender Strat I bought (American Standard) was way back in '01 (so I cannot speak for that line from personal experience in regards to current times/value/prices).
 
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SKU said:
It seems, paradoxically, that people can afford more stuff - they usually don't need - . How do they afford them? Have no idea, loans?
There used to be a balance. People were more careful with their spending. SH market was way more accessible due to that. Regular companies had to play by those rules. Now it's chaos. That said I have no idea who ( or how ) do people buy all those super expensive boutique/custom guitars ...
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Not sure, but I'm sure most people know that a majority of Americans are heavily into credit card debt.

Also, I know this forum called rigtalk where all they talk about is buying gear and then flipping it a week later. :rofl
 
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