JohnA said:
We should also put these 'high prices' in to perspective, they seem high for an old Japanese Guitar, but for a vintage, rare and top quality great sounding Les Paul it's still quite a bargain
Although I have made good experiences with vintage MIJ guitars so far, I just don't think you can say it's good just because it's old. There are top sounding guitars today and there were in the past. It is all so subjective. Talking about that (vintage) vibe and feel (equals: sound + playing pleasure) it all depends on what the individual player likes. Is there really something like THE Les Paul sound, THE vintage rock sound? I have come across some factory-new guitars so far and instantly felt like I'd been "at home"" for many years, felt the "vibe" and just love it. I bought the guitars that gave me that feeling, and I am still happy with them. I do not think this kinda feeling is just true for old guitars that have been played a lot so that their wood is sort of broken in and more resonant because of the constant playing.
So I don't think you can call it a bargain. There are bargains out there on every age and price level, you just have to be lucky to go to your next dealer, pick a guitar and say, hey, I really like that! I for one would rather be afraid of buying that 1200 at such a price and have very very high expectations (because of the price and because of all the raving on the internet about these guitars) that might not be fulfilled, not because the guitar is actually bad in any sense, but because my personal likings might not fit to that particular guitar, because the expected sound in my head is just not the sound of this one guitar, and you usually can't check it because the seller is located somewhere else. So I personally limit myself when buying on the intenret to a certain price level, although, of course,I am also kind of tempted when seeing an offer on ebay like the one in question
So I have to restrain myself and hope that the Burny RLG90 I recently bought from Villager will make me smile at a reasonable price level