I don't think Foo's Paul costs as much as you are supposing. Looks like a typical flame top. Not cheap, but probably more like 5K I would guess, unless he paid more for no apparent reason, which is quite likely with him.
My personal back story is my Dad was a professional musician when I was born. I got my first real guitar when I was 7 (had a few toy ones before that), and did the whole band thing for years in high school and post high school. Also played in schools band and orchestra on most instruments except percussion. I'm an inept dummer. Proud to say I never played in a cover band ( other than Orchestra I guess!), we wrote all of our on stuff. Tying into the consumption and acquisition themes of the other threads, I was lucky to get that out of the way early. All of my money in high school went to guitars and gear. Like every penny. Had several dozen stomp boxes, rack setup, probably seven guitars at any given moment, a few amps (big). I started narrowing down in my late 20's to the things I really wanted and used. My current lineup is a '57 Reissue Goldtop LP, one of the first the Custom Shop made around the turn of the millennia, 1996 reverse blue burst metallic Amercan Standard Strat Plus with hot lace sensors, 1972 Les Paul Standard Tobacco Sunburst, and my first Hohner acoustic from when I was 7. I also have a an early 60's Gibson Melody maker body I need to fill out with electronics. Amp wise I have a '66 Fender Bassman, a '87 2555 Silver Jubilee head with an angle and flat front cab set, and a Slash Siganture Marshall head, which is exactly the same as the 2555, even made out of NOS components (I can definitely hear a difference though).
The arc of a players mastery is pretty much measured in the amount of gear. It starts small, builds, then is slowly distilled into the essential tools for giving your music a voice. Foo is a classic neophyte who happens to have some money.
