John, figuring out the value of Fender instruments is a job for a much smarter person than I, and I have over thirty of these "boards". I call them boards because, basically, they are machine cut and just bolted together, wherever they are made.

Mexican made Strats, Tele's "P" and Jazz bases (bottom of the line with a Fender name) are in the $500.00 neighborhood. Squires (made in the orient) are in the $2-300.00 range.

American made and Custom shop instruments go in the $800 up range.

Some of my favorites are Squires.

A 59 Strat (I have my original one) is worth about $29,000.00.
An 82 reissue of a 52 tele is worth over $4,000.00. A Broadcaster is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (have one of them, too).

After playing a 64 Jazz bass 6 nights a week for 20 years, I wanted to preserve what's left. After looking for a year and trying out lots of alternates, I bought another Jazz bass made in Japan. Other than being coated in poly rather than varnish, I could tell no difference. The old pre-CBS Jazz bass is worth about $8,000.00. The new(1995) Jazz cost about $550.00. The Japanese instruments have their followers, and just turned down $1850.00 for mine.

As an investor, Fenders are hard to figure.

They're lots of fun to play, though.

Russ