On one hand, I think the 59 Les Paul would be valuable to people who collect those sorts of rare things regardless of whether they actually intend to play it.

On one hand, I think the 59 Les Paul would be valuable to people who collect those sorts of rare things regardless of whether they actually intend to play it. On the other hand, I could see that for some successful performers, the purchase could be a sound financial investment if fans are just a bit more excited about hearing their favorite musician playing a rare instrument live than they would otherwise be. One might be able to recover the purchase price of the instrument through increased ticket sales.