Would you trust it? I'm having a severe GAS attack after playing a '78 Les Paul Custom at the local GC. While it's in decent shape and plays like butter, I would prefer a '76 which is my birth year. Now I haven't really dug into searching the local area for one, a quick once over doesn't show any in the area I could actually look at first hand. Has anyone had experience buying vintage instruments through ebay? I'd gamble on a less expensive guitar, but these aren't going cheap. I know deep down I'd prefer to play it first and have probably answered my own question already.

Check out reverb.com you might get lucky

My dad and I are both guitarists... neither of us play out regularly anymore, and I've condensed my 'collection' way down.



He, on the other hand, has bought probably 50 guitars on ebay the last three to four years.



He's had a couple of bad transactions, where items came not as described. He bought an older G&L described as mint that was rough and not the same guitar pictured, and he bought a 1990s USA strat that had the factory wired pickguard pulled and replaced with something chinese/korean (ceramic bar 'magnets', cheap pots, etc).



He's also bought some guitars that showed up with perfect setups and sounding great. I'm currently 'holding' a mexican strat of his that is probably the best feeling and playing cheap guitar I've ever handled.



The third side of the coin, is he's bought a couple new/like new guitars that were just 'duds.' They were as described, looked good, were obviously genuine, but just had no mojo.



My advice to you is to buy the local guitar that you can put your hands on and know exactly what you're getting.

Done it twice. Mixed bag.

Done it three times. I still have two of them. I sold the twelve string but not because It wasn't a great guitar.

This would be my first choice if I couldn't find one locally.
Another option would be to troll guitar centers used pages and wait for one to pop up... Return policy is good, but pricing is hit or miss.

I've done it, and gotten fantastic deals.  I only buy from people with 99% or 100% feedback.  My 12 string was a $2k guitar, and was listed as a "12-sting".  Paid $187, the seller tried to back out (no reserve) and ebay held him to it.

I'm calming myself down for the time being and holding off for now. I'll be able to check around the Dallas area early next year when I visit my brother and may get lucky. Thanks for the replies, I'm just skeptical buying something this old.

I have only bought one guitar on eBay so my experience is limited.  I bought a strat that is 20 years old.

The listing said it was ready to go and, "plays like a dream."   The guitar I got was a little different.  The strings were so high off the fretboard I thought the guitar had been damaged or got wet or something.  It was really bad.  I emailed the guy, and I could tell from his responses that he didn't actually play guitar.  He was just flipping one.  

It ended up ok.  It needed a set up by my luthier that required a lot more than I was comfortable doing.   The guy offered to pay half though.  It is amazing now, and the best sounding strat I have personally played.  I am definitely glad I bought it.  It will need a fret job before too long though which will be fairly expensive.  

If I were to consider a high value LP or something I would definitely exchange a few messages with the seller to gauge their knowledge.

I've done it a few times (on some fairly high-end guitars). I've always had good luck but I made sure that I bought it at a price that I could easily flip if it wasn't doing it for me. I'd be a little weird about a les paul though, especially an older one. There's a lot of stuff that can go bad on a set neck guitar. If you do buy one online, make sure you get plenty of good pics along the neck, down the neck, and right were the angle breaks over at the headstock just past the nut. These are problem areas on a gibson.

A friend of mine used to do it and had good luck. But IIRC, he mostly just went for the fixer-upper type stuff.

Bought a new "blemished" one on eBay once.  Came perfectly set up and plays like a dream.  $500 gamble and I got lucky.

Thanks for the good advice. I stopped and looked at that '78 again. Man, it's calling my name. I've bought way too much stuff this year already though. Then again, 2015 budget year is right around the corner.

I've bought 3 guitars off two dealers in the past. Both had 100% feedback
I guess I got lucky as all 3 guitars were actually better than described
Here's a couple

i would buy the guitar I know I like rather than gamble on ebay.

I would also watch the classified ads on MyLesPaul and The Gear Page.  I've bought lots of stuff on both sites with zero issues.

A few months ago I got a serious case of GAS for a Les Paul Custom.  I watched MLP like a hawk and scored a 2007 Gibson 57 RI Custom for a killer price.  After a pup swap, it has replaced my might R9 as my #1.