Projects What the heck happened to asking prices??????!!!!!

I think the guy who listed it may have had a stuttering episode when typing in the zeros.....

 

$5800........does come with the windshield. Just missing a door and everything else.

 

I'm an Old Timer now and dealing with people is an experience for sure with buying and selling anything including hobby cars. There's always the low baller obnoxious asshat, the buy/flipper/resell guy, a used car salesman trying to make a buck. In my adds for selling my hobby cars I always wanted to state in ad and did a few times, Do Not need any help selling, No Trades, Car flippers/ Low ballers, Cash or Bank wire transfer only and If you have to ask Wife/Banker or Mommy, Do not call and waste my time and yours, Thankyou. In my many years of experience the hobby car and in general the world has changed, courtesy/respect/common sense/integrity has gone in the crapper in general particularly in the buying/selling area, the art of making a deal is dead IMO.

 

Mark Twain once said the best 3 businesses to be in were coffins, toilets, and food, lol. I'm in food.....

 

I keep telling my wife that, but it never seems to happen. I’m not paying 78k for a 1968 C10 pickup….no matter how bad I want one.

 

I used to religiously look at the H.A.M.B classifieds every morning. Like its been said ,the prices are 99.9% totally ridiculous now.
Now, maybe once every 2 weeks I browse through them. Why bother. It's just a waste of time. I buy projects off Facebook market place now. I can afford them.

 

The recession will hammer these crazy prices. Also, losing customers to the graveyard.

 

How many on this topic in need of excess Kleenex actually has stuff or a car/cars? Does the bump in value anger you?

 

As I see it, I've got cars and car stuff. There can not be only one in my life, it's a hobby where addition and extra is like peanut butter and jam.
I have one of those garages where you walk in and say, holy shit, you got a lot of cars and car stuff. It isn't pretty, clean or well organized. But it's mine and it's payed for. It's a life style choice.

But to clarify, when I say cars and car stuff... I'm reminded one's junk is anothers treasure. I seem to hold on to my treasure where others sell there's? I just add to it. And I throw it away. Guess when I try to sell it's my perceived value of it for what it had taken to achieve and aquire.

Not a bit of anger. I'd call it more a disappointment. Like when they stopped pumping gas or asking if they could check your oil, clean a windshield kind of disappointed.

Up or down, as far as prices go, maybe the attachment or loss has to do with ones perception from if you went to work to pay for it or you actually got the garage full of crap that showed you didn't fake it to make it? Going out and buying the best damn car you can find is one thing, but when it comes to fixing them, that's the investment to be recovered.

 

Fairly rust free '55 two door wagon. Yep, that's market value.

 

That isn't a 55 two door wagon. That's a wagon shell. But it seemed to me that the issue is "market value" today.

 

This is an unusual thought, to throw it away. Some "stuff" is worthless, but do you scrap a 4" flathead crank because you have nothing in it? Market rate is $350‐400. Is the guy who gets that for his a shithead? Just 1 example, theres many. Anyone priced 3W interior moldings lately? 32-36? Almost any prewar V8 dash is at least $400-500, some way more. I'm happy I got stuff, sad to buy stuff, the goal is maybe balance out sold and spent. I'd be a liar if I said prefer the spent.

 

I always wonder what all the people who bitch about high prices,price their stuff at when they go to sell stuff.?

 

I'm sure some one needs that crank, just not me. Not yesterday, today or in all likely hood, tomorrow. But to me if I'm being honest...it by weight is still worth something.
Unless the cost to recover that little bit of something exceeds the expense of getting it there, in which case...it will be gone eventually.
I don't cry when I see the guy loading his truck up after the swap meet because it didn't sell, yet if he did choose to toss it, I couldn't promise to see more then scrap value from it? But we all like a freebie.

I'm sure however if your the guy who need one and buddy says $350-400 your going to think that's maybe a good deal... but for more I would suspect that could be a deal breaker towards buying a SBC.

Buddy just took ownership of a 39 deluxe for a yet undisclosed amount. We all agree, nice car, lucky bugger, and we want to know how much? Ok...I want to know. But I'm sure you do to. Because we then get an idea of asking and selling prices, even if it is specific to one geographic area.

Now if you did sell your crank, one for that crazy money, I wouldn't call you a shit head. I'd call you a lucky sob. Cause you found the guy who needed or wanted it bad enough to pay the price. I don't think however they'd be lining up like they would for that coupe to buy the crank.

Maybe there is and maybe there isn't a base line on prices. Or what they will do eventually? What there could be is a tide. In and out, with a high, a low and a slack?

 

A lot of Speculators in the hobby.

Nothing screws up pricing like two Drunk Millionaire's in a pissing contest at Barrett-Jackson.

What works for me is making an offer in person with cash in hand. I always ask first, "can I make you on offer?" If they seem offended I remind them that they said I could make an offer and I started as ridiculously low as they are ridiculously high .

 

I hope context or spirit is not misunderstood here, but in a convo like this I find it better to remove one's self from it. Do I need a 4" crank? No but we had one, it didn't last a week. Gone. Should I have asked 1/2 the going rate to "keep folks in the hobby"? Not to you but that sentiment is expressed often as well. And of course we can't have a discussion on this without insulting successful people at auctions and calling them drunks or stupid. Again not at you but having spent years on the floor of collector car auctions I've never met a drunk dumb fuck. Some of them are pretty sly about what they buy, some just like it and can afford it. If it drives the market then so be it.
Please note that I do try and remove my needs from my opinions on such things.

 

Years ago when I was into air cooled VW’s I had amassed a crap ton of parts .

when I sold my last one and bought my 53 Chrysler I went to a big swap meet just for VW’s I blew everything out .
My prices where decent , and after lunch I took whatever I was offered !!

pissed a lot of guys off there selling . I could not of cared less , I just wanted it all gone !!

by the end of the day I had 2 boxes of random junk left I sold both boxes to another swapper for 10 bucks .

I went home with nothing and was 3 grand richer . I


Other then some really rare stuff , you can always find it again , even if you pay a bit more for it , is it really worth hanging onto for an unknown amount of time to possibly , maybe need sometime in the future .

not for me .

 

I always price my stuff to move. I don't have the patience for tire kickers and lookee loos, and not having to deal with that nonsense for weeks on end is worth something to me. I tend to buy stuff on good deals, so I also like to pass my good fortune along. Already enough crooks and liars in this hobby.
But man the fun tax is real these days. Everything cool is way expensive.

 

Heres something I don't think anyone mentioned. How about trading? If this veiled aversion to money is so prolific we can rejoice in the fact that a good ol barter is more possible now. Maybe some of those most oppressed by this rise can add cash to salve their feelings?

Ok, ok. I can't remove my sarcasm but the ideal is good, no?

 

I wish more people would barter, honestly. I've done a lot of parts trading, it makes things easier.

 

From what I've been seeing lately, prices are going down, or I just spend too much time looking. Lots of liquidations happening.

 

I've been seeing this trend as well. A fair amount of estate sales has released a ton of good parts and projects in the last few years, specifically in CA.

People seem to flock to trends, which means some parts and cars get a bump in interest while others decrease. I'm sure anyone keeping track can give examples

 

Price something realistically, and it will sell.
For what it's worth... I put a car in the HAMB classified, had a few inquire, put it on Facebook Marketplace, and it sold at asking price in seven hours.

 

Cost of food & fuel is climbing each month. Price DROPS in these hobby arenas will result. Huge drops by fall.

 

Check out Ebay, a 34 Ford grille, $4800 when I last checked, 4 days to go. These guys must have lost their mind. Drake needs to start repoping.

 

Been thinking and came to the conclusion, if you have and want to spend it, you buy. You can't afford it you might well substutite something else in it's place.

We can mostly agree, there is no shortage, just a convienence and the expense to buy that limits us.

As far as selling goes, well convienence and our needs limits us. Buyers are out there and want to spend. If they want, it's not affordable, they'll find the substitute.

From that, a guy like me can come to a few conclusion not based on fact. lol. I think I should ship mine to California to sell.

 

I think a lot of it is the TV car shows and the Barrett Jackson/Meecum auctions on TV. True story. I am into the 69-72 Chevrolet trucks and especially those years of the K-5. Recently the prices are just out of this world. Barret Jackson had one go across for well over $200K. Courtney Kardashian is sporting a 72 K5 that is in that $250-300 mark as well. Thos numbers trickle down and for whatever reason supersede actual value. Craziness.

 

It's not the value of the car that's in question, it's the value of the dollar that you are negotiating it with that has changed. Think about it.

In 1932, a brand new Ford brought a whopping $525.
Today, a brand new '32 Ford will only bring 6 digits...

 

My former boss, after spending some time with a guy negotiating price on a new motorcycle just to have the guy say "Well I have to ask my wife if it's OK to buy it" had the best comeback- "You're right. I better ask my wife if it's OK to sell it!"

 

Ten dollars in 1932:



0.484 ounces of gold.
That gold is worth $908 today.

Puts prices in perspective.