<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> The 50's guards go for up to $2k. These are the same as the 50's guards. I had a hard time with it at first as well, but look at it this way (not that it really makes sense).

You've got an original '56 Gold Top. Its worth $50,000 in all original condition. Unfortunately, you're missing the pickguard because some [censored] (such as myself) took the guard off after they bought it and its long gone now. This makes your guitar worth about $45,000, since its no longer all original. Why not spend a couple of grand to get an original vintage guard? Not very many of them out there, really - and the guys w/ 50's LP's aren't about to strip theirs. What do you have for options? Well, in the end of '68 they reintroduced the Les Paul - they used those guards in late '68 and early '69 - these guitars are worth far less than the 50's LP's, so you'll have a much easier time talking one of them out of a pickguard, especially since the guard could pay for 10-40% of the cost of the guitar (depending on condition).

My guitar, had it been all original, would fetch about $15,000. Hardly anything on the thing is original other than the pickguard, so I'm not worried about having parted with it! It has no effect on the overall value of my axe, but paid for over 1/3 of it!