The guitar industry has long obsessed over vintage guitars and rare relic finishes. These cool guitars, dating up to the early 90s, have helped guitarists all over the world find their mojo while playing great music.
- Purchasing a vintage guitar offers some key advantages over buying a new one:
- Often their wood and hardware is of higher quality than in new guitars.
- Vintage guitars tend to retain their value over time.
- They are inherently rarer, more collectible, and enjoyable.
- Many of these old guitars were produced by hand in workshops.
- There’s no better way to get that “mature” and “experienced” tone.
In most cases, the market for any vintage guitar is mostly online as the local selection is naturally limited. Buying a guitar online sounds simple. Run a search on Google, check out the offers, and purchase the one you want. But there are specific strategies you should follow if you want to get the right guitar at the right price, without being disappointed. Moreover, unfortunately, there are plenty of scams out there and telling the difference can be difficult.
We’ve put together this guide to help you navigate the sometimes confusing waters of buying used vintage guitars online.
Table of Contents
- Set a guitar-buying budget you can afford
- Choose the “right” vintage guitar
- Decide where to buy a vintage guitar
- Find your chosen vintage guitar
- Research and inspect a used vintage guitar online
- Run our vintage guitar buyer 10-items checklist
- Assume nothing verify everything: Shipping options and insurance
1. Set a Guitar-Buying Budget You Can Afford
Buying your dream vintage guitar online can be tricky — especially at a time like this when prices are soaring. The Vintage Guitar’s 42 Index rose 10.7% from 2021 to ‘22. The Fender segment increased 14.3%, Gibson increased 10.7%, and Martin increased 7.1% (source: The Vintage Guitar Magazine). So the market is pretty hot right now.
The average price of a vintage guitar is somewhere around $2,000 and Vintage Guitar magazine uses these retail grades to categorize the guitars:
- Budget: up to $250
- Intermediate: $251 – $1,000
- Professional: $1,001 – $3,000
- Premium: $3,001 – $10,000
- Presentation: $10,001 and up
So, under these circumstances, if you’re in the market for a vintage guitar, especially a popular one, pricing may be a challenge. Therefore, before you get caught up in the buying frenzy, there’s one thing you have to get straight first: How much can you afford to spend on a guitar?
Figure out your budget
First, be clear on what your budget is: How much money you have/make, what your bills are and what is left over. You have to figure out what you truly can afford, either in one payment or installments. Playing a great guitar while struggling to pay the bills is not good for your mojo.
Second, ask yourself does a pricier guitar mean a better one? Well not necessarily. The vintage guitar market is driven by supply and demand and the price is reflecting just that. This means guitar collectors, guitar investors, and popular trends may be driving prices of specific models up or down regardless of the guitar’s playing quality. As a musician, you can still find great sounding vintage guitars for prices that are just around $1,000 – $1,500. However, if you are targeting some of the more popular models then be ready to increase your budget sharply.
Last but not least, the guitar’s condition will greatly affect its price. While you can look for road-worn vintage guitar bargains, beware as it is very hard to inspect a guitar online, and it is even harder to determine whether or not a defect is easily fixable.
2. Choose the “Right” Vintage Guitar
Shopping for and finding the “right” vintage guitar is more challenging than finding and buying a new guitar. When you find a new guitar that meets your needs and budget, you just have to head to the store and buy it. When you buy used, you not only have to find the right model – you have to find one that’s for sale, is in good shape, hasn’t been crashed, and has been serviced properly. Oh, and chances are it will not be local, but rather online. Then, you have to evaluate both the online platform and the seller, ensuring that it’s not someone who’s going to rip you off.
In short, there’s a lot more research involved in evaluating a thirty-year-old pre-owned guitar online than there is for a brand new guitar sitting on a store’s stand.
Selecting a vintage guitar to focus your efforts on can be challenging. Should you pick an older but less popular guitar that’s loaded with mojo and relic, or a newer guitar that has a shiny look and is perhaps in a better condition, for a similar price? It’s critical you consider the sound you are after, the effects and amps you use, why you’re playing, and how showy you want to be. Then, match those needs with your budget. Don’t buy that Gibson Standard Les Paul 1959 (OMG!), for example, if you need to schlep it to practice every day. If you’re playing soft jams in the local community center, buying a 1982 Gibson Flying V Heritage probably isn’t the best choice, either.
An excellent place to start your pre-owned vintage guitar buying journey is at google.com. Assuming you know what guitars you are interested in, run a simple search for “buy [your guitar model]” and see what comes up. Typically you will see results from Reverb, eBay, Guitar Center, and vintage guitar stores. Many of these listings may not be valid anymore, but some may.
Reverb and eBay will offer seller rankings, and online shoppers can compare or filter vintage guitars by various factors such as seller location, price, year, and listing date.
As you begin to narrow your search, you can browse through more than tens of thousands of vintage guitar listings from all over the world. There’s no need to start driving to guitar stores all over town and you can do it all from your own studio and computer.
3. Decide Where to Buy a Vintage Guitar
Purchasing used guitars is different from buying used appliances or other items that depreciate in value or have parts that may become obsolete. If maintained, most guitars hold their value, and vintage guitars may even increase in value. However, one needs to be careful in their selection and the first choice is where to buy the guitar.
There are today almost endless possibilities when it comes to shopping for vintage guitars online. From online retailers such as Reverb and eBay to auction houses and private sellers. Unfortunately, nothing is perfect and everything comes with a price. While buying on Reverb may be the easiest and safest, it is usually also the most expensive option. Buying from an auction house or from a private seller may mean a much lower price, but also a hassle and even risk of disappointment with no money-back guarantee.
Consider the buying options below carefully and choose the one that is within your comfort zone and budget.
Buying a Vintage Guitar From an Online Retailer or Guitar Store
If you’re on a budget, buying a secondhand guitar privately can prove to be a cheaper option. You’ll generally pay more for a used guitar at an online retailer or guitar store, but it may be worth it for the seamless and secure buying process. While you’ll be contributing to the store’s overhead, the commissions, and other administrative costs, they’ll take care of the deal process and usually provide a money-back guarantee.
The most popular online stores include: Reverb, eBay, SweetWater, Guitar Center, and Musician’s Friend. When searching online for a specific guitar, Google will show the available listings and sort the search results based on popularity – aka, the crowd-wisdom. Typically any 1st page result is a solid one. As you get to the next search pages you may get more shady options that you may wish to validate carefully.
As you consider your options, keep in mind that online shopping is global. You can usually trust Google to show you only the top results, even if those are from other countries.
Buying a Vintage Guitar Privately
Rather than pay a premium for using online retailers, many guitar buyers prefer to negotiate with the sellers directly, and Facebook Marketplace is rapidly becoming the place to do it. Marketplaces such as Facebook and Craiglist have many benefits, but the one that sets Facebook above other options for vintage guitars is the public profile of the seller. If you buy from a private seller and they have a genuine Facebook profile with images of them playing guitars, it may be a good sign. If they have a shady profile or none at all, it may be a warning sign.
As you browse the listings of Facebook, use precaution to avoid being scammed. Here are Facebook’s own tips for online buyers:
- Double-check deals that seem too good to be true.
- Do not send deposits for high value items without confirming they’re real first.
- Always verify the tracking numbers that you see on Marketplace Shipped on the shipping company’s website.
- Review the seller’s profile to learn more about the seller.
- Eligible purchases made with checkout on Facebook are covered by Purchase Protection.
- Be sure to inspect the items closely (More on this in the “Research and Inspect a Used Vintage Guitar” section below).
Source: Facebook.com
Keep in mind that search results are geographically limited by radius to your current location. However, you can easily change your location and increase the search radius up to 500 km/ml, as can be seen in the screenshot below. If you are shopping for a rare guitar, or looking for special deals, that’s where you can get very creative and cover even remote regions.
Buying a Vintage Guitar From an Online Auction
Buying a guitar at an auction could save you money compared to shopping at an online retailer or buying from a private seller. But if you’re planning to go this route, it’s important to prepare in advance: Know the rules for buying a guitar at an auction and stay flexible while sticking to your budget.
Auctions are primarily for guitar dealers looking to add used guitars to their inventory. But, many auctions would be online, public, and open to remote shoppers. Most guitar auction houses seem to reside in Europe, they are mostly reliable and eager for online buyers. That however, does not guarantee the quality of the piece you are buying as guitars may come in various conditions.
The more reputable auctions, such as Guitar Auctions at Gardiner Houlgate from England, have their own in-house guitar specialists that will evaluate the guitars, and in most cases, guitar descriptions would be legit and accurate. They would usually be open to remote information requests, at least to some degree.
Last but not least, these European houses tend to charge for VAT which may be exempted if shipped outside the European Union. In such cases contact them in advance and ask about your VAT exemption options.
A word of caution though. It can be easy to get carried away by the excitement of an auction, but if you submit a winning bid, you’ll usually have to complete the deal—and you may have to pay some or all of the costs immediately.
As discussed earlier, take some time to determine your guitar buying budget, and keep that number in mind when you bid. If you don’t get the guitar you want, remember there are always more guitars and auctions, so it’s best to back off, regroup and continue looking until you find a guitar that fits your budget.
4. Find Your Chosen Vintage Guitar
So you have decided on your budget, guitar model, maybe even the color you are after, and you have a preference to where to buy it. It is now time to go online and find a few sellers who offer your guitar, do a little narrowing down, and lock on 2-3 offers that you are really excited about.
So let’s say we are after a 1982 Fender American Vintage ‘52 Telecaster, ash body, maple neck or rosewood board and our budget is $2,500.
Step-1: Ask Google
With a budget and a specific model in mind we start with google.com. The first result is from Reverb (it usually is, as this is the most popular buying venue for vintage guitars). Reverb offers 2 such guitars but not from 1982 but rather 1983 and 1984, priced at $4,000 and $3,000 respectively. Too expensive for our budget, but as we keep browsing the internet we see that the global supply is limited to 5-6 such guitars, all priced between $3,000 and $4,000.
Step-2: Adjustments
If you’ve found your desired vintage guitar model at the right condition and budget, then move on to the inspection section. However, in many cases this is where our optimism meets reality and some adjustments are due. This usually means increasing our budget, going for a “newer” guitar, or a combination of both. Keep adjusting and searching until you reach a point where you find 3-6 sellers that offer the model you are after at your adjusted budget.
Step-3: Narrow down your choices
As you look at these listings, rule out those that don’t meet your criteria, such as the guitar condition, color, etc. Also, rule out shady websites or sellers. At this point you will probably start to have a feel for a preferred option. Keep in mind that you can also negotiate the price, or at least try to. So it does not need to be exactly on budget, but rather in the ballpark. Of course, negotiating is better done further down the road as you get closer to closing the deal.
5. Research and Inspect a Used Vintage Guitar Online
So, ideally by now you have 2-3 good options, one of which is your favorite. We will now move on to describe how to remotely inspect your preferred vintage guitar.
To begin your inspection, ask the seller for relevant video(s), images and written description of the guitar. While some of this information may be posted by the seller already, very likely some is not. Refer to our guide “How To Inspect A Vintage Guitar Before Buying It Online” for more information on what data is needed to run a thorough inspection.
Once you have the information package, go through the steps below to run your inspection. Make sure you have high resolution images and zoom in as much as possible. If the resolution is not good enough, do not hesitate to ask for the images in their original resolution instead of the compressed set.
Step-1: Guitar Headstock Inspection
Look closely at the guitar headstock images. Zoom in as much as possible. Are there hairline cracks at the headstock area? Does it look like it has been refinished? Any such signs may be showstoppers and may require professional consultation.
Then, look at the serial number and check if it matches the guitar description. Checking serial numbers can typically be done at the manufacturer’s website and the lookup would result in the model and production date. You can also use our Fender and Gibson serial number crawlers.
Step-2: Guitar Nut Inspection
Now let’s move on to zoom in on the guitar nut. Are there any visible gaps or cracks between the neck and nut? Are there any deep slots in the nut? Deep slots could mean an aftermarket replacement.
Step-3: Guitar Neck Inspection
Now let’s move on to zoom in on the guitar neck and fretboard. Are there damaged inlays or any gaps in the inlays? Does the neck joint have any cracks or refinish work? Is there a twist or a bow in the neck?
Did you notice any dead notes or excessive rattle sound when played? Are there any divots in the frets or excessive fret wear? Is the neck relief (1) back bow (2) forward bow (3) or straight?
Step-4: Guitar Body Inspection
Moving on to zoom in and inspect the guitar body. Are there cracks in the binding? Do all the switches work properly? Is there excessive damage to the front or back?
Let’s continue the body inspection. Are the sides smashed or broken? Are there any missing screws? Are the pickup rings cracked? Any over-oxidized parts?
Step-5: Guitar Electronics Inspection
Do the pickups seem original to the guitar? This one is tricky. Try comparing the pickup images to other similar guitars’ images. If they do not look the same, ask the seller directly for more information.
Do the volume or tone pots have a scratchy sound? Do the push-pull pots engage the correct functions?
Step-7: Price Inspection
Surely you do not want to overpay, so a thorough price inspection is due. At a minimum, run an online search and determine the market value of the guitar. There are also price guides available and professional appraisal services such as TrueRelic’s. If, on the other hand, you wish to run the appraisal process yourself, you can use our free “Vintage Guitar Appraisal Guide” to get an accurate price estimation.
6. Run Our Vintage Guitar’s 10-step Buyer Checklist
If you like everything you have seen so far, use our vintage guitar’s 10-step buyer checklist to make sure you get the best-quality guitar at the best possible price.
- Did you consider your financing and budget?
- Does your chosen guitar fit your playing needs and habits?
- Are you comfortable both with the online platform and seller you are buying from?
- Did you shop around or just set up on the first option?
- Did you compare prices?
- Did you research your trade-in’s value?
- Did you follow up potential purchases in detail?
- Did you have the guitar inspected?
- Are you aware of your rights?
- Did you consider the shipping options and insurance?
7. Assume Nothing Verify Everything: Shipping Options and Insurance
If the answer to the last question is “not yet” and you are set on closing the deal then it’s time to consider your shipping options and insurance. Naturally the more expensive the guitar, the more you would want to spend on shipping services and insurance. From our own experience, the postal service (EMS) tends to be of lower quality vs. the larger delivery companies like UPS, FedEx, and DHL. Either way, always work with the seller to guarantee proper packaging (a hard case is truly a must!), and insurance for your guitar. Verify everything as guitar damage during transport is unfortunately very common.
Last but not least, here’s a golden shipping tip from DHL: “One of the most important things when shipping guitars… is to loosen those strings before packing. This is because the temperature may fluctuate during the journey, so the strings could tighten up and snap, or even warp the neck of the instrument. Also, make sure you wrap that vulnerable neck area in extra cloth or bubble-wrap to protect it.”
Buying a Vintage Guitar FAQs
You ask, we answer
It is actually fairly simple but one needs to meticulously run through the entire process to ensure safe shopping and a satisfying experience. First, consider your budget. Second, set up your mind on the guitar model you are after. Then look for online listings and narrow down your choices to 2-3 finalists that look credible. Virtually inspect your preferred guitar thoroughly, and finally negotiate the price and confirm the shipment is insured.
It is always preferable to buy locally, at your favorite guitar store, after actually playing the guitar. However, if you are looking for a specific vintage guitar, and most people are, chances are you will only find it online, possibly even from sellers from abroad.
1 thought on “The Ultimate Used Vintage Guitar Online-Buying Guide”
The most straightforward answer is that a vintage-quality guitar’s wood has simply weathered. That’s all there is to it. I think Martin still waits for the wood to fully develop before manufacturing it, which would explain its expensive price, which is regrettably out of my price range. Playing a new Martin vs an antique Martin is a startling contrast. Before making a purchase, one should be familiar with how guitar parts generally function. If you’re intending to purchase your first vintage guitar, understanding the basic functions of the guitar and guitar parts will help you assess the condition of the instrument.