I just checked the Web for dulcimer prices. Good news & bad news. First, the bad: prices for all-solid-wood dulcimers and even solid-top ones have gone up by at least $50-75 since I last bought my Black Mt. back in 1998. The Model 58 Deluxe, which is the least expensive good-quality, well-styled all solid wood American-made dulcimer (spruce top, cherry back & sides with rosewood backstrip and fretboard, modified scroll peghead, vertical geared tuners) has gone up from the $160 I paid to $230, adding $40 for strap, pick and gigbag (and $60+ for a Baggs undersaddle transducer pickup). Folk of the Wood no longer sells dulcimers, just straps and instructional materials. You have to go through Black Mt. itself (and they've since introduced the "80" series larger-bodied performance-quality instruments for $270-300). BUT there are some decent all-laminated wood beginner/student models. The Apple Creek student hourglass models are made in Europe and have been getting enthusiastic reviews, and can be had for $65-75 street price (list $98). By contrast, my first dulcimer was a no-name Korean model with bad friction pegs and it cost $70 back in 1980! Go to Woodwind & Brasswind (wwbw.com). The unbranded model Target sells on its website is $95, strap and bag included. Not specified whether any part of it is solid, and the site says "Made in the USA or Imported." Apple Creek also makes a laminated birch teardrop-shaped model with nicer styling for $119, and the solid-top version is $169. (also at wwbw.com) Check out eBay--but caveat emptor. Safe to say that if an ad doesn't mention "all solid woods" or the 6th-1/2 fret (or you can't see it in the photo), then it's plywood and/or lacks that fret. You can spot older McSpaddens, like my first all-walnut hourglass (solid top but plywood back & sides) at good prices ($200 or so), and it was my ONLY dulcimer for 18 years! I paid $150 for it in 1980 at Jean's Dulcimer Shoppe in Cosby, TN. McSpadden now makes all of its dulcimers with only solid woods, and its prices ($300-600) reflect that. Blue Lion all-solid-woods stage-quality models start at $375 and average $500 on up. (Back in 1999, I got my Model I W--cedar top, walnut back & sides, "shepherd's crook" semi-scroll peghead, dot inlays, planetary gears--for $300 at a music shop and had to ship it to Blue Lion to have the Baggs transducer installed for another $125; then I spotted the fancier but no-better sounding Model II W (true scroll, bookmatched walnut back, finer grained spruce top, brass-and-abalone rose inlay) for $395 on eBay--it had been a gift to someone who never wanted to learn to play it. I had to have a local luthier install a Fishman pickpup, also $125. My McSpaddens range from $280 for the soprano "Ginger" to $380 for the redwood/cherry 4-string baritone with pickup (both bought in 1999 and probably more today), to $375 for the unamplified bass model and over $500 for the 6-stringers with pickups I bought at the factory-store in AR in '07. You can add custom options to a McSpadden or Blue Lion that'll raise the price over $1000 or even $2000. Then there's the Lamborghini of modern handcrafted dulcimers, the Bear Meadow. Depending on model, they'll set you back $3500-12,000, and you will have to wait 1-2 years. But they are extraordinary instruments, analogous to boutique-luthier custom guitars. Don't spend that much unless you are sure you'll remain an aficionado!