Korean Guitars As An Investment

[sillypuddy]

Due to the conflect in Korea I wonder if it may be time to stock up on those guitars you always wanted.   How much will a Pre-Nuke Epi Les Paul or Squire Tele will be worth when the dust settles.

 

 

Spoiler

 

[photon9]

Doubtful, but if you have no need to sell might as well hold onto them and see what happens.

 

[guitaristSD]

"When the dust settles..." lol.

For the benefit of all, I hope your Korean guitars don't rise in value.

[kayd_mon]

Seriously. Big +1, guitaristsd

[Grantus]

Sounds riskier than investing in Facebook these days.

[stormin1155]

Regardles of what happens in North or South Korea, Korean built guitars are very unlikely to go up much.  Several reasons, primarily that there are tens of millions of guitars built each year, and the market is reaching saturation... supply/demand.  Secondly, the build quality from other places, namely China, is fast approaching anything that comes out of Korea.  I think Korean guitars may hold their value better, but standard production guitars are not going to become the hot collectors items.

[kayd_mon]

I'll preface my comments by saying that I really hope nothing happens to South Korea. Yes, North Korea is probably just making empty threats, but they are distracting others and drawing their attention. They could be drawing military resources towards themselves so that they are drawn away from another place belonging to one of North Korea's allies. Things could be scary.

 

On to guitars, I am of the opinion that MIC, MIK, and often MII are all about the same. Massive factories with the same CNC machines. The quality is almost indistinguishable. I have both MIK and MIC Epiphones, which are compared often, and they have the same (good) build quality. The country-of-manufacture debate is mostly just internet snobbery. My MIK Epi Les Paul didn't have bonus mojo for being made in Korea until they started making them in China, and people said the old ones were better. Whatever.

 

Will they be collector's items? No. The argument that the market is over saturated is probably right, and they will remain as popular as they currently are. MIC is the next one to be proclaimed "better," once production is moved to another country.

[honeyiscool]

Really it amazes me when people who have never even thought about the two Koreas thinks it's going to blow up any second. For sixty years North Korea has been puffing its chest and not doing much.

[kayd_mon]

Yes, but it's all over the news, making everyone think about it. And given their recent missile tests and their outright claim to launch a nuke, it makes it possibly more concerning than past events.

[BG76]

 

Maybe. I'm not a fan of Asian made guitars. From the Korean and Indonesian cheepies to the Edwards and Japan made Gretsch (that are supposedly "better" then their USA made competition.

 

Here is the question - could a factory in another country make a comperable instrument for the same price? I would think China, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc... could. If that's the case then I doubt there is a market. Unless there is one particular original design that has something about it that can't be replicated.