Where can I find an inexpensive acoustic guitar?

[kestrell]

I used to play guitar, and I want to take it up again. New acoustic guitars are so tremendously expensive that I am reluctant to spend that much on a beginner instrument, but I see cheap beginner guitars on Amazon for $25 or $50. Where can I find something in between these two extremes?

Here is what I want:
a folk and blues acoustic guitar
steel strings
bell-like ringing tone
traditional flat back (those rounded backs just seem wrong to me)
new or as good as new
solidly put together (as in, the neck should be correctly aligned and the joinings should be neat)
an option I would really really like: one of the smaller scale guitars (I have small hands, as in, I can wear kid gloves)
Price range: $200-$300

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I would connect with a folk music group locally. Somebody in those circles will be selling a guitar like that. It won't be made in the USA, that's for sure: a guitar meeting those specs would be $2000 new. In my personal experience (4 bought & sold), good used guitars are more expensive than new ones.

(The round-backed ones are made by Ovation, and I find them totally annoying as well.)

Other possibilities: Craigslist, pawn shops, and posting a "wanted" note at Berklee (hmm, no more cork bulletin boards, but there must be some way to do that these days).

If the neck has a steel rod, then repairing a really high action is quite possible.

Kid gloves. Hmmm, I will call on you the next time I have a delicate negotiation.