"Teisco" guitars, which covers a miriad of other "Made in Japan" brands, were the "El Kabong" guitars of their day. They were imported to the US and other countries by the thousands from the early '60's to the early '70's. There is nothing rare or particularly collectible about them. You can find them buried in closets and garage rafters nearly everywhere. I was recently given one that was found in a basement crawlspace.

I read in another post here that someone was going to put one up here on Ebay starting off at a hundred bucks. The seller stated that you can't pick up a "Cheap Walmart Guitar" for that. Guess what, that's exactly what "Teisco" guitars were in their day, sold in places like Sears & Roebuck, with the "high end" models rarely selling for over $150 brand spanking new. They were low end "starter" guitars no matter how many pickups, switches, sliders, or knobs they had. They were known for microphonic pickups, poor intonation, weak necks, poor fingerboard laminations, and an inate ability to fall out of tune rather easily.

There are some dealers, as well as other fine folks, selling some of these fine examples of early Japanese instrument engineering ranging from $250 upwards of $400 +. Here's the kicker. People are paying it!

So somebody, please anybody, fill me in on whatever it is I must be missing that apparently makes these guitars worth that kind of money. And puhleease don't say Ry Cooder.