The vintage market is largely based on supply
and demand. Starting in the early 1960's with the Martin guitars,
based on the fact that bluegrass and country players came to the
realization that the newer guitars sounded different from those
of the pre-war guitars of the "guitar hero's" they grew
up with.
 The demand
for these guitars was greater than the number of pre-war guitars
made. As there was a limited supply, this drove up the cost. A
similar effect happened in the early 60's with Gibson guitars.
Michael Bloomfield went to England playing a Gibson Les Paul.
The guitar greats who heard him (Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff
Beck, among others) fell in love with the sound, and started getting
rid of their favorite guitars in favour of the Les Paul. This
again, increased the demand for guitars that had been produced
in limited numbers, driving up the cost.
For collectors, there are a couple of factors that
influence the vintage guitar market. One is that as the "Baby
Boomer" generation gets to the point in life where they have
the resources to purchase the guitars that they watched their
idols using in the past.
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