Sore hands, back

influx of 90s to 2000s Les Paul STDs

Can't help but speculate that these things are related. Hopefully the "heavy guitar equals sustain" myth will die off and people will continue making and buying lighter guitars. I still see people turning up their nose at the concept of weight relief.

Anyways, the new and used prices for these American guitars from Gibson (and Fender to a lesser extent in my experience) have been arguably unreasonable for what you were getting. This doesn't feel unexpected to me. A while back I was considering purchasing a Les Paul, and every used one I checked out was so close to the new price of the modern ones in local and chain guitar shops even if they were beat to hell.