I certainly don't mean any disrespect, but I think you're the only person I know of that feels that way! I hear stories almost daily of the nosedive in the guitar market. I know my friend Brad almost bought a '60s Strat when they dropped down from 25K to 10K, in about 2009. Thankfully he waited even longer and found one for 5K last year.

Just a quick google search brings up all kinds of sad stories:

Edit: from what I can gather, you are correct that the vintage guitar market is currently "holding well". I don't agree with your earlier comment that the economy didn't affect the guitar market, it seems to be common knowledge that it tanked. But from what I'm reading, the market has since bottomed out and is holding current values, possibly even on an upswing.

Bill I never stated that the guitar market wasn't effected by the economy it was, I was meaning in the current economic environment, but as you just stated it is coming back to a normal resurgence or just a leveling out. back in the early 2000 was the high end of pricing. Go to the current Vintage Guitar magazine and look at the price guide in the monthly magazine, not the yearly price guide. Here is the current price guide out of the August 2013 VG. Also go to George Gruhn's shop and buy a pre war Martin you better have one very large bank account they have not been effected virtually at all by the economy since the surgence or price dive.

You just have to look at house prices and business in general in the USA and Canada and there is definately an economic turndown (it's called a market correction in Realestate). The world economy as a whole is fragile - it would not take much to set off an economic crisis of the likes we have never seen in modern times. There are whole Cities on the brink of bankrupsy....scary stuff.

Having said that.....be happy play, fix, collect, buy, and sell your drums and parts and do your best to stay above water and try not to let this very complex world we live in affect you too much. And..... remember where you are...(in that little speck in amongst billions of stars in our moderate sized Galaxy).....Wow!

We had the largest drop in employment starting in early '08 with the economy completely tanked by the later part of '08 and into '09. No matter how you count the jobs lost, there was a minimum of 8 million people who lost work through that period. That trend continued into late '09. Of course that is going to create ripples throughout the economy. The economy has been on an upswing for the past few years, it does take time to repair. This change doesn't happen over night, but it has been a remarkable improvement. I feel for those caught up in this.

This does effect the market for items like collectibles. Of course the high end stuff will always be desirable, and the Gladstones will always command top dollar, but for a warmed over '59 Gretsch, that isn't a must have item for as many people.

I wonder how the Beanie Baby market is weathering the economic downturn on ebay?

there is a whole great huge class out there with so much surplus cash for nonessentials, and frivolities that the market for some pretty peculiar things can sit pretty. i don't know about beanie babys but how about wine( any wine under 20.00 is plonk and is better out of a tin cup or swigged from the bottle than being swirled in barium crystal) but the trendoids still treat it like it was handmade by Jesus ......or going out to restaurants( and therefore spending 100.00+ on decor , presentation and vanity). i don't think the market for culinary excess and in fact any excess that plumps up vanity, has suffered too much at all, in this" tight economy ".

Funny you should say that..

I can think of a few high end restaurants here that almost always seem packed when we go by..but..people are supposed to be hurting?

Drinking $8-10 Cosmos? No problem.....

Unfortunately quite a bit of our American made drums in pristine original condition are either already sold to collectors or heading overseas where the dollar is a bargain. As for the state of our economy, it's only going to get worse, as America is already bankrupt. It's too bad we never built a museum for our American drum sets since they are truly an American instrument with roots from all over the world.

Such an interesting thread! I learned more and fast from you people, about US economy in this VDF, instead all the time I spend reading NYPost and watching CNN!!

Curious stuff isn't it?

Regards from the far south

PS: economy s--ks everywhere!!

No. No it doesn't suck everywhere. And the US situation is getting much much better. It got really bad, it is no longer that bad and has been improving steadily for about three years now. Certainly, the south and midwest has been struck hard, as they rely on more federal spending than many other of the supporting states.