Best acoustic guitar for around $100 for a beginner?

What you heard is quite correct. You might find a good used guitar available for a price like that but not likely. You didn't mention it but I also suggest taking professional lessons - at least for a while. The lessons will make certain that you learn the correct way to hold, handle, and care for your instrument. It prevents learning a number of bad habits which you will likely never really "fix." In any case, go to your local music store and ask the people there. It's part of their job description to help you find the right instrument for you. Listen to the advice and perhaps even rent an instrument for a week or two when you start taking lessons. That way you be able to better assess how the instrument feels in your hands - and that's the most important thing! Good luck.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ has the best guitars I've found. :) They are cheap, but good quality. You can also get some really nice, normally expensive ones, for a lot cheaper if you ever decide to do that. But, for a beginner, I would recommend the Rogue RA-090 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar for $49.99 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/rogue-ra-090-dreadnought-acoustic-guitar) or if you want one a little more expensive, than the Rogue RA-100D Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar for $79.99 (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/rogue-ra-100d-dreadnought-acoustic-guitar). The sound is awesome, and the shippings free. :) Hope I helped!!

Check out Ibanez starter pak. It comes with a good quality acoustic guitar, a gig bag, an electronic tuner, and an accessory pouch all for about $100. I have had many students get this set up and it is a great value for the price.

I wouldn't recommend the Rogue guitars (although I did not thumb down that answer - just an opinion after all). They're a good $50 guitar if there is such a thing, but they really don't sound or play nearly as nice as that person advertised. For right around $100 I'd strongly recommend a Takamine Jasmine S34C NEX. It's a nice size guitar for a young student and is very well built and plays pretty nicely for a cheaper guitar. It does have a laminate top and the tone is nothing to write home about, but for $100 it's a great guitar to learn to play on. The Epiphone DR-100 is also a nice $100 guitar but it's a bigger bodied guitar with a chunkier neck and also has a laminate top. Some people like them and they are a decent guitar, but I just don't recommend them to young students. I almost always agree with gtarczar, but I've never really cared for Ibanez acoustic guitars at all (love their electric guitars and basses though). I've had a couple students with the Ibanez starter pack and didn't like those guitars at all. The best beginner guitar by far is the Yamaha FG700S, which has a solid spruce top, exceptional tone for the price, and is a very easy to play guitar. Those cost $199 but are worth every penny if you can swing the extra money. You really do get what you pay for though and if there were a great acoustic guitar for under $100 everyone would be buying it. The Yamaha FG700S is the best selling beginner guitar though, it's just a bit more expensive than some of the laminate top options. You should try going to Guitar Center and just strumming a few of those options and see how they sound and feel in your hands. Have the sales guy play them a bit for you so you can see how they sound too. It can be pretty eye opening when you hear the difference from one acoustic guitar to the next. Buying from MusiciansFriend or any other online store without playing the guitar first is not a good idea unless you really don't care what the guitar sounds like or how it feels to play it.