The Market for Guilds Has Died: What do you think?

I sense a gear glut /"buyer's market" that I'm guessing will probably only get worse over the foreseeable future. Partly demographics, partly economics (higher cost of living = less disposable income available to use for "non-essentials") partly psychological insecurity brought on by volatile geopolitics/numerous hot and cold wars in progress simultaneous around the globe.
 
Yeah, we don't want to veer into politics, but in general, I think it's going to be a bad time to sell non- Gibson/Fender items. Pick any of your favorite brands, the people with money are going to buy the primo examples, but idk about the player grade instruments.
 
I think another reason for the solid body Guilds, may be that they were generally small manufacturing runs of 350 to 1700 units and they are in small collections like mine. Back 25 years ago, you'd see more Guild solid bodies out there from the 70s, 80, and 90s on eBay and Reverb. Not so much anymore.

Then you have those who buy them and "part them out" on eBay :(

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com
 
steveintampa said:
I have seen a lot of Guilds show up on Reverb in recent weeks, and the deals all sold pretty quick.
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Yes, @drc had a screamin deal on 2 of his Detonators that I was trying not to look at!! I almost opened my wallet on the white one, but held firm (with a bit of regret).

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com
 
I have found the resale market quite a bit slower than a year or two ago. And not just for Guilds. I get two or three trade offers for every actual buyer I hear from these days.
 
Well like any business it seems, they don’t have a realistic long term plan for peaks and valleys in the market. When times are great, they operate as if it will be the long term norm. (Not saying Guild….but in general, we’ve all seen retail stores spread themselves so thin under a good economy that I don’t get why anyone is shocked when reading about a thousand locations closing up shop when there’s an economic slide.)

As for guitars…..sales spiked by 200% during the first 2-3 years of Covid. People were handed 2K checks and had too much time to kill that it was only natural for folks to attempt taking up guitar. Manufacturing basically stopped and guitar store walls were bare. Then Things started to normalize and the used “like new/barely played” guitar market got flooded by the 95% of the folks that tried to learn guitar during Covid and gave up. Manufacturing started back up and builders needed to restock store walls. Today, things are actually were they should be, realistically…right back to the downward trend that has persisted since the end of the 90’s. Sadly, and going back to my first paragraph, some builders may have only seen the Covid sales spike and reopening manufacturing through rose colored lenses, and didn’t think realistically that the generational guitar playing public started to wither decades ago as most popular music kids listen to today is completely void of “guitar gods” that have traditionally spawned guitar sales.

Just my 2¢
 
I dunno, my D25 just sold no questions on Reverb at a fairly higher ask than I felt it worth, and I only had it so high in order to cover those extra fees. It did take longer than expected, so I would agree with the sentiment that it’s not just Guild, guitars in general are not moving like they did. Lofty prices are soon brought back to earth when it sits for months with no bites.

As a for instance, I just saw a Larrivee for $900 on Craigslist, and really never saw them below $1k in the past.
 
Uke said:
I recently put my Starfire 2 on consignment with a local used guitar shop. The owner took the guitar along with him to the Asheville NC guitar show recently. He reported that some folks (in the "know" ??) said that the Guild market "has died." What do you LTGers think?
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steveintampa said:
I have seen a lot of Guilds show up on Reverb in recent weeks, and the deals all sold pretty quick.
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Yeah, I think the referenced "some folks in the know" were gaming for a lower price on your Starfire 2. :p
 
Midnight Toker said:
... the generational guitar playing public started to wither decades ago as most popular music kids listen to today is completely void of “guitar gods” that have traditionally spawned guitar sales.
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I feel that this is one of the biggest factors. Many of us started playing the music we were hearing on the radio or purchasing. Local players and garage bands were everywhere. Today the guitar is not the dominant instrument it used to be.
 
Agreed, Rick. I definitely think the generational differences play a part. There are a lot of younger folks, who are happy to making music with a pile of digital stuff and a laptop, rather than the focusing on instrument mastery from incredible players like we grew up learning from.

My son doesn't care what brand a piano, guitar, bass, or drumset is, as long as it plays well enough to record a decent basic sound. And with technology providing inexpensive, digital tools, crappy sounds can then be manipulated through processing to sound decent enough.
 
Uke said:
...some folks (in the "know" ??) said that the Guild market "has died." What do you LTGers think?
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Disagree. Many vintage Guilds have doubled or tripled in value, over the past 15 years or so.

Other Guild models are more obscure, and or made in very small batches (Guild amps also). There's vert little demand for a guitar that nobody knows exists, no matter how great it is, I will
give you that...but that's not most Guilds.

Overall I see more people learning about Guild, and joining this forum, and the many FB Guild groups. Hans' book is sold out and hard to come by, people asking high prices for those...

Sounds like some of those vendors at that guitar show could use a refresher on closing deals!
 
mavuser said:
Disagree. Many vintage Guilds have doubled or tripled in value, over the past 15 years or so.
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So have all other brands, really. Guilds are still the bargain brand when comparing to their big name counterpart, be it new, used, domestic, import, or vintage.
 
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