Was watching AZ auction when I could this week. A nice 70 Stage 1 with dog dish hubcaps went for $88K. And a beautiful yellow 70 GSX 4-speed hammered at $185K. With the 10% buyers premium that’s over 200! Has to be a new record! Wow!!
That's damn good money for the X. They are getting to the point of the regular guy not being able to afford one. Of course a 100k is pretty much out of my league LoL. This makes everyone's Buick worth more!
Was the GSX 4 speed, a Stage 1 ? So...wondering if a GSX Stage 1 auto would bring more than a GSX non-Stage 1 4 speed...everything else being the same? Huuuum?
Mecum last week had a non-Stage 1-4 speed go for 134K plus the fees, was a nice resto as well. Was nice to see the X beat out the mopar Super Birds yesterday, as well as the Judges and Hurst Olds. About time!
It’s a viscous circle. Everyone wants a 50k concours 70 GSX 4-speed Stage 1, but then that devalues what the car’s true worth should be. Then one brings decent money, and woe is me, “gone are the days when I could afford a ..., out of the common-man’s reach”, etc. The premium Hemi’s, Boss’s, LS6’s, ZL1’s, Judges, W30’s, etc AND the premium GS/GSX’s SHOULD be out of the reach of the common man. Sorry to throw a wet blanket on reality, as least that’s how I see it.
There are lots of clones and non-original “X’s” out there that can be had for 50. I think the TOTALLY ORIGINAL supply is very small, and demand for what is out there is what’s driving all of those up. It’s guys (older?) who always wanted one and didn’t have the $ till now and, face it, are running out of time? The other side of the coin is the guys who bought them long ago and just held on to them ... and your hobby is becoming your 401k.
And the fact that no "average Joe" can afford these things anymore means the death of our hobby. "Average Joes" built these cars, either as a labour of love or as an employee of some high dollar body shop. I'd wager that not one of those high dollar buyers ever laid eyes on a wrench and probably thinks a screwdriver is an alcoholic beverage. These people do not represent the epitome of a healthy hobby, they will destroy it by putting out of the realm of affordability for the average guy. Every time the speculators and the trophy hunters enter a specific hobby, they end up grabbing the best for an outrageous dollar and then pricing the rest out of the market by artificially manipulating the demand. They've done that to the art world, coins, antiques, stocks and now cars; buy in, create a hyped up demand, and then dump it once their money has been made and just as the market peaks. One thing that was shocking about this year's BJ was the fact that 30s to 50s vintage cars have tanked in value (most of them) and customs or restomods have climbed through the roof. Soon it'll be most of our cars that plummet in value as the average guy, now well frozen out of the market, either is too old to do anything about it, and his kids or grand-kids who would normally be interested in old cars have no frame of reference with the cars and the concept of the hobby. (They were always told "don't touch" or only saw them when dragged away from the phone to go to a car show with Gramps, and then again it was "don't touch"). Our hobby was built on the idea that a guy could take a cheaply acquired used wreck and turn it into something nice again, not for ugly fat old guys with oodles of money and no mechanical ability to trophy-collect or relive their non-existent glory days all over again. Some guys got lucky and held on to the right car and dumped it at the right time; notice that most never drove them or they belonged to someone's high dollar "collection" and were never driven. A car as an "investment" is a bigger crap-shoot than a lottery; there are lots of people who hung on to interesting and rare cars that today are still not worth a damn. If you're looking to make money on your car, sell it now. I for one will drive mine until they get banned and by default become worthless.
Spot-on, Tom! I think that if it can be proved without a shadow of a doubt that it is “100% born-with numbers” as mentioned, not an accumulation of “period-correct” or re-stamps, or even authentic Stage 1 parts from donors, it should be worth more. A true survivor or a true concours resto by a reputable company or well-versed DIY should bring top dollar.
I don't get it we cry when the cars cost too much and we cry when they don't bring enough. Which is it ?
Oh by the way 185K X was not a frame off that Has to say a lot about how clean this car really is. A well-known boardmember did the work everything but the paint.
Guys a lot of us cant afford a $185,000 car and the insurance on said car . Plus we probably would not enjoy owning a trailer queen, and not being able to enjoy said car.
It seems that many resto-modded cars brought more money than restored originals (i.e., Corvettes). I'm guessing that restoring cars to OE condition may become a thing of the past. Sad.
