The most obvious disadvantage of buying online is that you cannot actually try a guitar you see online. This is what turns most people away from online shopping for guitars, even though there are huge savings to be made. And it's only sensible to try a guitar before you buy it, because that Wizard II neck is only as fast as your hand likes it to be. What I personally do is that I look up all guitars matching my musical tastes and style and make a list, and then contact respective dealers of those brands in my town and look for a store where I can go and try the guitars that I liked online. This seems like a simple thing to do, but it really is a lot tougher than it seems. Online stores also have concrete return policies (at the expense of shipping, however). Remember that online stores these days all give free shipping to customers in the USA and Canada, and that is a huge benefit. While it obviously isn't "free", because nothing is, it most certainly saves you the hassle of wondering if it would be a lot more costly once shipping is added to it. I have also never heard of anyone returning a guitar bought online due to bad production. Most returns are by people who do not invest time in looking for what they want and then end up not liking what they get.
- Even more savings are warranted when you look for items that are marked 'Scratch and Dent' and such, which usually have a bit of an aesthetic loss but play and sound exactly like a perfectly new model. If you're looking to get that awesome Razorback that sells for a $1000, but you've only saved $800, look for one with a marked 'defect', you could still get that very Razorback. These defects are only visual and never really affect playing.