Hi polgara,

You need to contact a high-end guitar dealer to value your instrument. The prices on 1950’s Les Pauls vary considerably based on details that most mortals have difficulty discerning. If you have a Les Paul Custom we are talking prices between $10,000 – $20,000 depending on these “details”. Now, if you are off by a year and what you actually have is a 58 Flame Top we enter the realm of obscene amounts of money. Most of these instruments are known by their name rather than their serial number and fetch up to a quarter of a million dollars in today’s market. Clearly a game played by people that have so much money that price is no longer a primary consideration.

I don’t know where you are located, but in the US I’d get in touch with people like:

http://www.vintageguitars.net
http://www.rumbleseatmusic.com
http://www.gruhn.com

If it were mine, I’d shop it to several dealers before making a decision to sell. Good luck, sb

One of our contribs, SB, runs a site called http://www.vintaxe.com that is well worth paying the small subscription to, particularly as you have a high-value instrument. The more info you can match to your guitar, the more comfortable a buyer feels so you should get it back in an increased selling price. Feel free to post a picture up.