No fair telling guitarist insider jokes, Javier!

When the major guitar companies got fed up with all the cheap knockoffs of their products, they retaliated by making cheap knockoffs of their own -- oops, I mean, they responded by manufacturing guitars that could be lower-priced than their "upper class" models without appearing to sacrifice too much quality. Thus, Fender, Gibson, Ovation, Takamine and ESP gave birth to the Squier, Epiphone, Applause, Jasmine and LTD guitar lines respectively.

Since no one should pay more than $450USD for a Squier under ANY circumstances, it's more than fair to ask why a Squier when "real" Fender Stratocasters start at only $150 more, and especially since Richie no longer has an endorsement deal with them. If SambOrianthi had wanted to open the bidding at $500, they should have pooled their resources and donated a "real" Fender in the $1000 - $1500 range.