How To Find Vintage Strats, Share your stories or suggestions Options

[Tom Watson]

RichusRkr asked in the recent topic, Vintage Market Madness, how dealers find their vintage inventory.

While I don't think any dealers are going to step in and divulge a lot, no harm in the rest of us swapping tales and techniques.

I actively pursued vintage Strats from the mid-to-late '90s and was fairly successful at it. Three things worked in my favor - I lived in a super large metropolitan area, eBay was a little more naive than it is today, and the vintage market wasn't quite as competitive as it is now, though things were definitely heating up back then.

The nice thing about living in or near a big city is access to large classified ad newspapers, magazine, and online services. I used to subscribe to a classified mag that was both online and print. I paid them a little extra for "premium" service and got the new listings several hours before other online subscribers and I think it was a day before the print edition came out. Of course, I was on the phone as soon as the new listings hit and in the car with cash and my vintage pro a little later. Put a lot of miles on the car, but I'd guess we'd score about two decent instruments a week, and pass on many, many more.

eBay was a lot more fun back then too. Many uninformed sellers would have below market Buy It Now prices listed and I got alerts from eBay - and spent some quality time refreshing my searches.

Toward the end of the '90s chasing down classified ads for vintage pieces got kind of funny. We'd show up and there would be either a buyer or two already there or a few would show up while we were talking to the seller. Sometimes that got interesting.

From time-to-time I'd pick something up from a dealer or at a guitar show. There was a time when dealers were reluctant to enter the online game and I could get more money for their pieces online than what they were charging me. It really helps if you know how to take good photos and write good ad copy.

Oh, and there was one other technique that I used around 2000/2001. I'd buy some great deals at Guitar Center, put them on eBay, and if they didn't sell, I had the option of returning them to GC within 30 days. This may seem a little sneaky, but I did it with my GC sales rep fully aware of why I was buying the guitars. He didn't care. In fact, though, I don't recall ever having to return one. I figured, and it worked out pretty well, that here's an intersting guitar this GC doesn't seem able to sell, I have a 30-day-no-questions-asked guarantee, and I bet there's some player sitting out there somewhere without access to a guitar like this, or even maybe without access to a Guitar Center, who would be willing to pay a few dollars more than what it cost me. Even though I bought "good deals" from GC, my final markup wasn't as good as it was with guitars I found from classifieds or eBay, but there was profit in it.

Tried the garage/yard sale thing, but ended up spending too much time with too few finds.

[Tom Watson]

Looks like no one wants to share their trade secrets.

I noticed that in the post above I said we'd score two decent guitars a week. That's true, but, unfortunately, I didn't mean two decent VGs a week. I wish. Locally, I'd pick up two or so decent trade deals a week, usually more recent model Strats at below market that I could turn over quickly on eBay or through potential buyers I knew. I may have averaged 1-2 vintage pieces a month. Sigh. I was paying about 5K for relatively pristine, all original '65s and a couple grand more for earlier models. I usually had a buyer in the wings. Don't want to think about what those guitars would be worth today.

[tjokskalle]

I was hitting estate sales in little towns.I always found some thing cool to buy and kept
my eye out for any old guitars;thats how i got my pristine 54 strat and a early 50s airline
f hole guitar.

[strat028228]

Pix of the 54?

[Strato Strut]

Tried the garage/yard sale thing, but ended up spending too much time with too few finds.

Quote, cut short. I've tried this as well, i did find only 1 nice 67' i believe it was from a yard sale. I never come across any vintage strats that much anymore. Maybe it's a fear that they are fake, or don't have enough money. I still look when i can, but i usually find my-self buying Custom Shop strats now a days.