Why Would I Buy an SG?

Make no mistake about it, I love 335s and 345s. I buy and sell a few dozen a year and try to enjoy every one of them for at least a month between buy and sell.  I also spend a lot of time with each guitar making sure everything is as it should be-sometimes dipping into the bottomless parts bin for an original pickguard bracket or something that's missing from the guitar and sometimes just setting the action, truss and intonation. Only then do I sell them.  So, why did I score a 65 SG off of Ebay yesterday?  SGs are terrific guitars-great tone-light weight-simple to work on (no pulling the harness required). Up until recently, however, they weren't terribly collectible.  It wasn't long ago that you could pick up a 64 or 65 for around $3000. At that same time, a good original stop tail 64 ES 335 was approaching $10000 on its way to around $22K at the peak. SGs, especially Les Paul SGs from 61 through 63 went through the roof and peaked at $20,000 or more. The very desirable late 63 through early 66s shot up too-well over $10K and as high as $15K for a good one. Well, they've dropped back to some pretty reasonable levels and I picked up an early 65 with all the 64 specs: nickel hardware-fat wide neck-short neck join-what the aficionados call the "Harrison" specs since George played one like this for a while.  I played an SG back in my late gigging days-in fact it was the last guitar I owned before giving up gigging and becoming a bedroom player. It was a late 68 or early 69 with a neck so big, I could hardly wrap my hand around it. the intonation, however, was awful and it wouldn't stay in tune. Friday afternoon example, no doubt. I had a couple of SG Customs since-a 63 and a 69 but neither spoke to me and they're long gone. But by next week, I'll have another one to play with while I wait for the 64 ES 335 I just bought that's only 23 serial numbers away from Eric Clapton's. How cool is that? Gibson confirms it was built AND shipped the same day as ECs. I'll let you know when that gets here. Why buy an SG? Because it's there?
                                        




Right: George's SG
Below: My SG