Event Coverage price of cars seems down

I might buy a 32 in 10 years or so if the prices keep improving

 

In the summer of 76 I was driving a 56 ford Pk and a 56 ford htp, the HTP was a 390 with 411gears. and I was browsing at a car lot. this guy had lots of muscle cars. they weren't selling the 4 cyl and newer cars was where he made his sales. I spotted a 65 Pontiac lemans. Green with black interior console & bucket seat's. Opened the hood and it was a 215 six, coupled to a turbine 300 2 speed auto. no air or power brakes. I bought it for $175.00 no rust no dents. put a new battery and 4 new monkey ward tires. drove it a year and my wife somehow ran off the road and it was a steep bank and she rolled it over one time sideways. it landed on it,s wheels and still ran. broke the back glass and skinned up the roof. So that ended the dream of a V8 and 4 speed for it. Those monkey ward tires went on to outlast the next two as my wife called them (victim's). The lemans body went on to become a stock car.

 

I hope I still alive in ten years!

 

My wife and I have downsized and moved into a new housing development of a mixture of retirees as well as young families. This is a big development of about 1000 new homes. There are no street rods or muscle cars except for a few new Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. We were the second family to move here 3 years ago. It is evident times have changed. But there is still an interest in specialty vehicles in this development. Tricked out golf cars, some costing $10,000. You see them everywhere loaded with the whole family on their way to a cookout at a neighbors house.

 

Yes car prices are down and parts prices are up!

 

Well just my 2 cents but 66/67 Chargers have never been a popular body style and if you throw an engine in and it is not the original hemi or even another 426 hemi it probably is not adding much value to the car. If it was a 68 through 70 than you are playing on a totally level of interest.

 

Biggest issue I see with project cars is that with prices down on done cars it's cheaper to buy one someone else put all the resto/hot rod money into and is selling cheap.
Often times you couldn't build a car for less than the cost of a done one.
Hard to sell a project for $5K when a nice driver can be bought for $10-12K

 

Think about as hoarders pass and their family sells off the stuff
Your collection of speed parts and cars are worthless to ya when your gone
Wonder how many widows sold their husbands collection for what he told her he paid for them
I just checked out some cars a guy inherited from his brother. Nice rare stuff. But only worth a fraction of what they were when they were fresh 90s styled street rods.
Moral of the story ....... drive em and enjoy them Spend time with the family and less time worrying about an automotive “investment “

 

It's the start of the big decline. It's been apparent for some time now. Every year for the past 25 years or so, I've attended the Antique Truck Club of America's national show in Macungie, PA. For the most part, it's now just a sea of gray hair...mine included. It's hard to generalize, but It feels like 95% of the crowd is 70+...me included. Yes, there are scattered youngsters, but for the most part, they're just mechanically following their grandparents, hunched over their phones. As interest wanes, prices will fall. It's that simple There will always be people that will carry the torch with the dying flame, but the wave has already crested. The golden age for junk yards & swap meets is done & that's a good barometer for the car hobby across the board. It's no different with antiques of all sorts. Have you seen any of the recent Antiques Road Show episodes where the expert tells the person that brought in their treasure that they should have sold 15 years ago? The good news is that the small percentage of youngsters that do have any interest will benefit greatly.

 

The heck with selling and worrying about who's going to buy it/them.......
My cars are going on the shelf in my niche next to my vase!

Whadda mean they won't fit!

 

Ive overall made a bit of profit on my car -hoard hobby. But I always bought really cheep. But the same money invested in land would have returned twenty fold or better. And We have bought & sold land and always at really big profit. I don't consider vehicles to be a sound investment. My wife reciently bought a 1000 sq ft house on a 150 X75 foot lot on a state highway in Ash Flat Ark. Tax forfet sale. Cost her $417.00. That's a Investment that will make money. Gotta redo the plumbing and bathroom and it will be ready to rent or sell. If your into vehicles for the money your most likely to be disappointed.

 

Here is my 2 cents worth. There are more collector cars every year but there are fewer people interested in them every year . It seems that there is not as many young men interested in cars and mechanics as there was wen I was a teenager . I am a baby boomer and my interest in cars is dwindling. Times a changing .

 

Yes back when we where teens. it seemed like every home in town had a car up on blocks that some one was fixing up. Shade tree wrenching was as American as baseball and apple pie. Now the do gooders and pretty police in many places will not allow that sort of activity to exist. The same with junkyards and hoarders. they want all the old stuff to be crushed and made into Chinese junk. No wonder the younger folks are not being bitten by the old car bug.

 

I see this hobby correcting itself from decades of over pricing
and people are changing
a fox body stang is an old car now
those sell like hot cakes here as well as any 70s-90s Japanese car
just went to a car show yesterday, the majority of the cars were 80 up and the owners were 20-40 year olds
the hobby is changing more than it is dying
swap meets are different due to 2 reasons, people hording parts and what an old car is now
I see a good bit of 70s and 80s parts at swap meets, watched a guy get excited about scoring some fox body stang parts.

 

The scenery and events are changing , people get bored in the early 2000s my income was almost the same as now, gas was 1.50 gallon and motels were 35.00 a night it was affordable to go on road trips and fun now gas 4.00 gallon (in CA) and motels 70.00 night makes it less inviting

Model a coupe prices haven’t gave in much there is always a cap on frivolous spending, in the 90s 32 Ford prices went up at least 10% every year, now they are out of sight , common people can’t afford it . as much as they would want one ,so either they build from scrap or go to the next thing that’s close or they like

Prices are going to fall , there is still lots of interest in smaller numbers but you have to think about financial feasibility, people now defiantly. Don’t have the money to burn as the baby boomers of the past and honestly aren’t equipped with the skills of having shop classes in high school either

 

As one of the few younger guys (currently 26) that is grew up with the old stuff and loving it. I have lately seen that the 28-40 Ford market locally has been slowly flattening out, but just out of reach of the everyman. Tri-Five 2 door chevy's have done the same thing. The 4 door or wagon market has exploded, due to the 2 doors being so out of reach. Also the 70's and 80's cars have shot up in value. A 79 Camaro for example used to be usually around 9k for a really clean car only a couple years ago. Now that's a very rough project price while a survivor is a $20k car. When ever I go to a more "youth" event in either my 33 Ford P/U (older street rod) or my 68 Camaro (restored stock) the common theme I see is when they like an older car they prefer the 4 door over a 2 door version, also if anything is from the 20's or 30's its automatically a rat rod and with muscle cars it needs a modern LS, 5.0 or Hemi in it with over 800 hp. Hopefully there enough other younger guys to keep the torch going forward.

 

Interesting thread.. simply because we have historical data going back to 2010.

We get replies from different areas of the country with varying age groups, educational backgrounds etc... even if your reply isn't responded to its still paints a larger picture of a fairly complex landscape.

Old car shit is not a good investment unless you are willing to actively turn and burn everything, that gets old real quick. Hanging expensive shit on your wall as a retirement plan is goofy unless you bought the stuff when it was worth nothing, or inherited.

Sent from my SM-N910V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Just got back from a trip in the DeLorean. 2028 is not looking any better.
Prices have hit rock bottom for anything that runs on gas, drinking water is $75 a gallon.
Goober (Google/Uber merger of 2020) controls everything and the infamous border wall now serves to keep us out of neighboring countries.........so don't sweat the small stuff.

 

I don't seem to see these falling prices. What I see is that labor costs are quite high but not being able to get out of a car what you spent on it because of labor costs does not equate to a falling market. It just means you spent too much.

 

Solid original steel, none reproduced/ 75,000 +

 

Stand /

 

I still see some occasional good deals on finished cars, but not many. Partially completed projects seem to have the best deals. Most builders are way over priced. I'm seeing a lot of even low demand shit boxes priced at 4000 - 5000 bucks.

 

I don't mind being kept out of neighboring countries. Too many foreigners there.

 

Hand up, I fit that demographic..... haha...

But I think we are finally seeing the Discovery Channel bubble pop, Crap Monkey Garage is declining in view I think, or I hope.... Cars were huge investments that a lot of folks got out of motorcycles and got into, dumb muscle cars are on the rise, and I'm sorry I never have owned a "muscle" car and probably wont, About mid 60s is the last of the style and grace. But the consumers still drive the market, So the inflation is finally curbing and its good for the standard folks. Now for the parts suppliers to get the memo. The TV show hype made everyone who sold a car in the last 5-10 years some better money... now its time to return to normal prices again. Maybe a 20s-30s Packard or Dusenberg will be become affordable finally....

 

Let's face it gentleman are beloved hobby is dying off as we are dying off, so I'm going to enjoy it till the end and just remember how lucky I've been to have born in the baby boomer generation.

 

It's hard to even watch the Mecum Car Auction shows on TV !!!
I saw some really beautiful cars getting sold for a lot less then it cost to build them for sure.

I know someone who builds street rods for a living and has done it for years. He does first class work and everything coming out of his shop looks beautiful. He prices for a complete car are around $59,000 depending on options.

With really nice street rods selling at the Turkey Run Car Show for between the high 20's and $40,000 I asked my friend how is he doing building new cars for customers and he told him every year it's getting harder to find customers. He also said the selling prices of cars right now is really hurting his business.

I think the problem is there are fewer people ever year who really appreciate the older cars.
There will always be a market for street rods and older cars but it will be a much smaller market in the future.

Just my opinion. Jimbo

 

We just sold the house for $3500. and only had $1500 invested. that's hard to do with automobiles.

 

Car shows like Gas Monkey, Misfit Garage, Vegas rat rods and others make it seem like you have the car projects going for $6,000 and up , then sell for $40,000 to $100,000. And showing that people buy them or have the cars built and everyone wants the same money . With shop labor rates and paint jobs it is just over the top. Good if that's what you want and have the money.

 

3,500 house seems like an impossible feat in this day and age!

 

You nailed part of the problem.
Those TV shows do nothing but inflate prices for the uninformed.
Look at the Goodguy's ads as well. Asking prices are a joke but people read them and think theirs is much better and ask more.
Reality is setting in. The hoarders, flippers and gougers will be sitting on a lot of iron.
The market will balance itself eventually, everything is cyclical.
Nice early cars will always be in demand, it is good that some of the air is being let out of the balloon.