Re: How to protect a guitars finish around straps....
I bet you Jimmy Page didn't care when his Les Paul got buckle rash on it.
I bet you Keith Richards didn't lose any sleep the first time he got a nick in his tele.
I could go on...but scrapes and bruises make guitars cool! Just think about how much some people pay for some guy in a Custom Shop to sandpaper down a nitro finish. At least your wear is honest, from playing and loving your instrument. In 50 years when you're showing off your badass vintage SG, nobody is gonna comment on the paint chips from the straplocks (and if they do, it'll be a compliment, trust me)
Difference being any guitar owned by Page, Richards, Clapton, etc goes up in value no matter what they do to it. Selling a guitar "owned by Andrew Lamprecht" usually won't add several hundred thousand dollars to it's value. Well, not yet anyways, not until he's famous. :14:
As far as the condition of guitars owned by average guys, look at eBay for a guide. The more wear, dings, nicks, & damage the less it's worth. Direct relationship. No one really seems to care if its 'honest' playing wear or the work of a careless person. From what I've seen, buyers shy away from guitars that have seen heavy gigging use, or just a lot of wear in general; for one thing it means that a refretting job is probably needed. Vintage guitars aside, how many guys here would pay the same for a beater owned by Joe Blow, as they would for a brand new one? Would Andrew have paid the new street price for his SG, if it was a 5-year old used one covered in 'cool scrapes and bruises'?
From the local players I know, guitars get bought and sold when better ones come along, or someone needs cash. And when a guitar is really banged up or has a lot of wear on it, they end up keeping it, not necessarily for it's 'mojo', but because they know they can't get much for it. They're stuck with it. One of the professional players I know has had dozens of Gibsons and MIA Fenders over the decades, lots of high-end stuff. He's still gigging, but has two guitars left: a Tele he was routing for a bridge HB and slipped with the router (gouged up the front of the guitar), and a Kramer he broke the neck on. Sold all the good stuff (including vintage) during financial ups and downs, and is left with the two beaters that aren't worth anything.