Gold, silver, guitars hot sellers at antique roadshow

By DANIEL HUMAN
Tribune staff writer

July 01, 2009 10:40 pm

— Sharon Carden chewed her lip as she mulled over the $200 offer she received for her husband’s old guitar Tuesday.
Carden was selling the 1962 semi-hollow electric K-Line Guitar at the Treasure Hunters Roadshow at the Travelers Inn on Lincoln Road.
While Carden was contemplating the offer for her guitar, which is a copy of a Gibson, roadshow team manager Greg Taylor relayed the buyer’s critique.
Taylor pointed out that the guitar neck was missing a “K” emblem, which hurt the value, and it was not as valuable as a Gibson would have been.
“If it said ‘Gibson’ on it, it would have been about $10,000,” Taylor told Carden.
Despite being 50 times less than a Gibson, Carden took the offer.
“I’m very happy with [the $200],” she said. “It was just sitting in the closet. Now we can go out to lunch. A really nice one.”
Taylor said guitars are one of three hot-selling items at the roadshow, which runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Friday. The other two most popular things for sale are gold and silver.
Based in Athens, Ill., the roadshow has 20 teams scattered throughout the U.S. The teams travel around their own regions, collecting antiques.
When someone brings an antique to the show, one of the roadshow team members will then take photos of it and get in touch with one of 6,000 collectors in the roadshow’s worldwide network.
The buyers and sellers then negotiate a price, and the roadshow cuts a check to the seller that day and ships the antique to the collector, who then square off their payments with the roadshow’s home office in Illinois.
The roadshow had about 100 sellers come in Monday, and the team expected the same Tuesday. The roadshow will issue totals between $100,000 and $150,000 most days, he said.
“Mr. Obama has a stimulus plan, but he uses taxes,” Taylor said. “We have our own. It is a pretty good local stimulus plan.”
Gold and silver are popular items for sale because of their high market values, Taylor said. Old guitars have become popular because they have characteristics that can’t be found anymore, he said.
“They can’t produce those kinds of wood today, so that tone is unique,” he said.
One man sold an old guitar for $20,000, Taylor said.
“A few weeks ago, a guy brought in a 1957 Stratacastor [guitar] his father bought for him when he was 15,” Taylor said. “He never could play it, so he just stuck it in the closet. It was practically mint-condition.”
• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at (765) 454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.

If You Go:
• What: Treasure Hunters Roadshow
• When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Friday
• Where: Travelers Inn on Lincoln Road

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