Working at a guitar store is dangerous (for your wallet) NGD
Squier Classic Vibe Tele with double-bound alder goodness. $175 out the door in a crappy gig bag.
It's a fantastic playing guitar, and will be the backup to my new fancy guitar coming in the (hopefully near) future. Dead-stock it is pretty decent, but it plays a lot better than it sounds (plugged in, unplugged it's very resonant). The pickups are just dull as shit, but a restring might bring some life back into them. Also the threaded-barrel saddles are pretty bleh, brass might be a better choice but I think a more modern setup would suit me better.
Gonna mod the shit out of it me'thinks. I'm planning on swapping out the bridge and 3 barrel saddles for 6 SS saddles, dropping rails in the bridge position and a full-sized bucker in the neck. Might throw a toggle switch in between the volume and tone knobs for coil-splitting (I don't like push-pull pots), and I'll probably reverse the control panel.
All said and done, it should be a fantastic Tele for under $500.