Why the discrepancy between Elitist / Gretsch Hollowbody values?

Steadfastly said:

From what I have seen here, I don't think I have ever seen a negative remark about a Gretsch, That cannot be said about Epiphone guitars in general.

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What is your own personal observation from checking out multiple examples of both companies? Or do you just go by what you read on the internet "in general" about Epiphone and "around here" about Gretsch?

You generalized opinions you've read online, but can you share your first hand experience comparing them? I've spent quite a bit of time in the semi-hollow room at Long & McQuade on Bloor St. doing just that. I don't claim to be an expert, but holding the guitars in my hands and playing them side by side, even with my limited knowledge, I can see the similarities and differences.

I've found the lower-end Gretsch Streamliner guitars that I've seen in similar price brackets to Epiphones (let's say, the Casino, Dot and Sheraton between about $500-$750) at the same level of quality, construction and finishing. In fact, comparing those head to head, I preferred the Epiphones over the Gretsch offerings. Epiphone makes some lower-cost, lower-quality entry-level guitars, but once you get into the $500-$750 range, they hold up well in comparisons to Gretsch in similar price points. Gretsch definitely has a good thing going in the MIK Electromatic hollowbody lineup, but those are usually above $1K. When you're talking Electromatic, I'd pick the Gretsch over the Epiphone. Of course, at that price point you're paying about $500 extra, so you'd hope to get a bit more for your money. The Electromatic lineup are a homerun for Gretsch, I think, as they have a great balance of quality to value for money and they look and sound great. I've had some serious GAS for a G5420T or the G5422T.

Also, if you look at the Epiphone "packages" or "signatures" in around the $1000-$1200 range, where you often get Gibson pickups and a nice hard case included, they are very good guitars at that price (eg. the 1955 Les Paul Custom Package, which I was very close to buying). At the high end of Gretsch their guitars compare favourably with just about anything I've seen, but you're into multiple thousands of dollars.

@jtdo you have a very strong point above. I travel a lot for work and tend to rent a guitar whenever possible (about 20 different guitars so far in two years) and spent 3 hours at Cosmo one night and here is what I found personally.
Epiphone: some are excellent, some feel like crap to me. Recently had a Epiphone dot 335 that was terrible to play and not comfortable at all, whereas the Joe Pass Emperor II was sublime and I really wanted to bring it home from Winnipeg.

Gibson: same thing here. Did not like the SG I rented, loved the feel of the ES-195 but the Bigsby bridge on it put the guitar out of tune daily for the 5 days I had it (also had a small Hughes and Kettner amp that was neat). I would love to own the 2011 ES-175 I had the pleasure of playing at the 12th Fret, probably one of my favourite guitars ever to hold and play.

Gretsch: Tried the cheap ones all the way up to the expensive ones, did not like the feel of them, but oh the sound that came out of a Chet Atkins was excellent. Bigsby on that felt awesome and stayed in tune. But they just aren't comfortable to me.

PRS: Again tried cheap all the way up to $4000. The under $1K ones felt "wrong" to me, and I asked the guy not to tell me which ones were cheap and which were expensive. The $4K one was awesome, but not $4K awesome. There was a CE Custom 24 that was really really nice, and likely a guitar I will pine for a long long time. The $1200 ones were nice but in that range there are a lot of guitars I like.

To the OP, anything used is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. That market is even more artificial than the new market in my opinion. Try selling a race car some time, you can't even get back what you put into it for the most part, unless your name is Rahal