When choosing a guitar in shops or through online guitar stores, there are many ways on how you can determine guitar values. Knowing what guitar values are is important, especially if you are very much into guitars and are collecting rare ones as a living. Usually you can tell how much a guitar’s worth based on three things: brand, model, serial number, and the condition. Since the brand and model are determined through the serial number already, experts would usually suggest checking the condition of the guitar more.
There are three types of conditions that you can use to check the value of your chosen guitar. These are 100% new, excellent, and average. If you have a Gibson, a Fender, or a Martin that you think is worth a lot of money, check first if the condition is at least excellent since the lower the condition, the lower it’s value. Here’s a thorough description for each condition:
- A guitar that’s 100% new usually has the great values. 100% new means the guitar is made with new factory materials and sold with complete items such as an owner’s manual, warranty card, etc.
- A guitar that is excellent usually looks brand new but has been used a few times already. The guitar may have minor scratches, dings, or dents but overall, the guitar has barely been used.
- An average condition usually costs less now since guitars under this category have several dents, small dings and scratches front and back.