You arent missing anything. The economy sucks so people are finding different ways to accumulate instruments rather than buying them. I'd sooner give myself an air embolism by jammin an empty pen in my arm and blowing before I paid that much for cbu...
I've seen cigar box guitars for comparable prices...but in all fairness, the only thing that's better between that and a $300 (even $150 for that matter) are maybe nicer pictures and a bunch of smooth-talking bullspit. I've seen alot of cigar box guitars, and w/o a doubt one of the best builders still only sells his for about $100 and its guaranteed awesome AND its acoustic.
cigar box instruments started shortly after cigars began to be imported into the use circa 1840...first proof of existence is in the 1870s. If you want to understand cigar box guitars/instruments...go throw all your instruments away, quit your job and burn your money. When you're sittin at home with no instrument to play and no money to get one...necessity becomes the mother of all invention. Before things were mass produced, instruments could be hard to come by since they were made by hand...that means, they were more expensive than lots could afford.
Cigar box instruments are grass roots instruments...rustic, old fashioned, simple and awesome. People try to gussy them up to look like every other manufactured instrument...thats kinda missing the point. People try to sell them for hordes of money...thats even more missing the point. The only way to justify that $$ for a simple, DIY instrument is to make the entire box from flamed-out Brazilian Rosewood, put some gold-plated gibson pickups, pots, toggles and tuners, with an extravagant neck and ornate custom inlay, and a truss rod cover that will sing your name whenever you say "whats my name?" ...and then have Don Ho and Iz sign it after playing together at the Grammys.
You should not be paying more than a few hundred for top-line cb instruments imo.
