I think that this is an "interesting" question--we live in a society that is way too weird and materialistic about everything, and, unfortunately, this has permeated our particular area-- New or Vintage, good instruments cost way too much, and, are played way too little, they tend to be "collected" buy an aging population of players who have a lot of money to buy instruments, but little time(or inclination) to play them--

It is true that there are some amazing "luthiered" instruments out there(as well as many more "luthiered" instruments with amazing hype), but the fact is that the average young musician(the ones who eat sleep, and live to play) hasn't a hope of getting one--

These vintage instruments that some of you think don't hold a candle to the new stuff, sounded great, were well made, and could be still afforded by an aspiring musician--

I am rather fond of archtops, and the very few who make anything approaching any of the old Gibsons in either playability or sound are so expensive that, unless you are a concert player, you wouldn't dare take it out to play gigs--and there are no new archtops available for beginning or intermediate players--