It wasn't the couple that caught his attention but rather the guitar slung over Paul's shoulder: an original-style, single-cutaway Gibson Les Paul model with a gold finish.
That was in 1966. Soon after, Hembree saw a newspaper ad for a 1952 Gibson Goldtop Les Paul. He paid $100 to a country music fan for it and later sold it to a musician for $400, a profit that helped cover tuition at American University, where he studied accounting.
"He had no idea, and I didn't really either at the time, what these were worth," Hembree said of the transaction. "I just thought they were cool." That sparked Hembree's decades-long hunt for vintage guitars to buy, collect and sell — often at a profit. Today a 1952 Goldtop in excellent condition is valued at $15,000 by Vintage Guitar magazine, which publishes an annual price guide.
The Aug. 13 death of Paul, whose innovations transformed popular music and paved the way for rock 'n' roll, has spurred fresh interest in vintage guitars. Collectors consider certain models with Paul's signature on the headstock the grand prize; the guitars often are sold in private deals featuring authenticators and incredible sums of cash.
Rare guitars are among many items whose value has surged with the explosive rise in wealth late in the last decade that inspired investors to sink cash into goods such as art, rare coins and antiques.
Like any investment, collectibles have potential for great gains and for a steep slide to oblivion (think Beanie Babies). Timing is everything, and even investments with lasting value (homes, for example, and, yes, guitars) can get carried away in a bubble.
Financial planners caution against speculating on collectibles. "To make 10 or 20 percent on your collectibles," said Michael Walther of Oak Wealth Advisors in Deerfield, Ill., "the piece probably has to appreciate 50 to 100 percent from what you paid for it."
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