I know this is a fairly old thread, but I felt compelled to contribute something:

I started out with a bottom-of-the-line Ibanez strat (gift from the folks to get me started) and eventually bought myself a Yamaha AES500. When I got seriously gigging, I changed the pick ups in the yamaha and bought an Epiphone Explorer as an onstage back up. All of that gear was purchased for <$1000 each. I would never have dreamed of buying a real guitar.

Until it happened...

My band broke up in 2006 and I'd had enough of the regular rock gig lifestyle. To make sure I didn't give up on music altogether when the band finished up, I decided to commit myself to further musical activities by investing butt loads of cash into a DAW and a heavily discounted genuine Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960s reissue. (This strategy didn't work, but thats another story).

I asked the staff in the store why it was so heavily discounted, and no one was able to tell me. I plugged it in and it was the best sounding guitar I'd ever played. I couldn't spot anything wrong with it, so I laid a deposit on it and went home buzzing.

After I payed the rest and got it home I noticed why it was so heavily discounted: the paint was dented where it had been sitting in the guitar stand (back of the neck and two spots on the base) and in some of the spots it looked worn through to the wood.

I'm not sure what would cause a finish to behave like that and I'm paranoid that regular use will see it happen in other places on the guitar as well. I'm wondering if my guitar is just another statistic in the slide in Gibson's QC implied elsewhere in this thread.