cockroach wrote:Well, the difference then was that people actually used these guitars to play music, they were not seen then as part of an asset investment portfolio or auctioned on e-Bay or hoarded by collectors who seldom if ever played them etc
In about 1970/71 my mate had a beat up Fiesta red 1962 Strat which our drummer stripped and had repainted black for him, I had a 1963 sunburst Fender Esquire, and we used them on gigs playing hard and loud in rowdy pubs with jugs of beer being thrown around...other guys butchered their old Strats and fitted different pickups etc
We sometimes reminisce, and speculate about how much they would be worth nowadays, but...that was then and this is now..
If everybody had left their guitars in mint condition, they'd be worth nothing now, there'd be too many!
It's the people who DID vandalise them in various ways, who ensured higher values for the few mint ones that are left now.
Just like the people who repainted their Corgi cars, threw away their Star Wars figures, etc ...
