I have a 1966 olympic white Fender Telecaster that is in pretty good shape. When I try to go to a guitar shop or music store to see what it is worth, the prices they seem to give me are kind of low and they want to buy it. I heard from a friend that there is a show called the Texas Music Expo in October that will have Heritage Auctions giving free appraisals. Will they give me a realistic value or will I run into the same problem I have been having with guitar stores. One of the stores that gave me a high price said my guitar is worth around $2500, it is all original, even the case. Any suggestions on the value or where I can find out what it is worth?
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-75479.html
guitar stores buy used guitars and resells them to make a little money. when anyone brings a guitar in to trade of another, they should expect to pay whatever the store is asking for the guitar they do want. they should expect to receive less the the true sales value of the trade-in. that's my experience.
there can be exceptions. when a guitar is truly rare and valuable then it is in another class and evaluation and sale should work differently.
do your homework and scour all resources to find an estimate of value of a guitar as similar as yours as possible.
these links may be a start.
Simple answer, its worth between $3,000 and $6,000 depending on the "Vibe". You see a big drop off in price at '65's because after that they are completely CBS made. '64 and '65's still had some fender carry overs with the pickups and everything. The big price points are going to be very light examples, blondes and other desirable colors, nice sounding (some of the pickups from that era are not very good) and maple caps. It's not really a collector believe it or not so you're going to get the most interest from a real player. And that's the problem, at that price range there is a lot of competition in custom shops and boutiqe builders. 5 years ago it could have been worth $12,000 and in another 5 years it could be worth twice that - but for now I would expect to pay $3,000 to $4,000 for an all original '66 in good shape with no repairs or re-fin's and the same price for a '66 missing everything but really cool.
i'd hold out and try to get something like ten grand for it, even if you have to wait a year or two for the economy to recover. there's one selling on ebay for 13k, although who knows if they'll get a buyer.
Any provenance?
You can add a few grand to the asking price if you can prove somebody famous played it.
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