In 1954, I purchased my first Martin, a steel-string 00-18, for $95.00, plus $15.00 for a case. A little over a year later, I started taking classical guitar lessons, and my teacher said that, as nice as the 00-18 was, it would not do for learning classic. So I traded it in on a 00-28-G, Martin's top of the line classic. $175.00.

Now, because of "more demand from an expanded pool of players," the expanded pool resulting from the sudden increase in interest in folk music in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, you could not touch either of these instruments now for much under $3,000.00!!

I have a Spanish hand-made classic (actually, a flamenco) now. A fantastic instrument! But I wish I still had the Martin classic, because a friend of mine has the same 00-28-G model that I had, and his was made at about the same time mine was. He had it appraised, and was told it was worth around $9,000.00!! I could sell it, and that would be a pretty nice windfall!

Some people have noted that because of the increase in demand for Martins and other quality guitars, the various companies expanded production, and as a result (as so often happens), the quality went down. This matter of the diminution of quality, however, is a different discussion.

Increase in demand causes prices to increase. This is—and always has been—a basic principle of economics. If nobody much wants something, the price goes down.

Don Firth