The sky isn't falling, just Musclecar prices....

Had an argument with a guy the other day about Musclecar prices. He was in disagreement with me that prices have finally peaked(on all but the rarest of the rare)and are actually,and finally, coming back down :shock:

The economy suck's, the housing market is a buyer's market, and the same is happening with the old car's.
$3.19/gal for regular isn't doing much to help the value of my wife's Yukon right now either, hard to find a good deal on a Dodge Neon

But back to the topic, I say that the market is flooded right now, car's that are nothing more than $1,000 part's/project car's that have been on the market for month's overpriced at $4-5k are getting back where they belong,and for all but the mega-dollar trailer queen Musclecar's, the mainstream driver quality and on-frame restoration's are dropping in price :Smarty: Hey, it had to happen eventually, What goes up, must come down, and we are seeing it right now :TU: It's about time the hobby started heading back into the hand's of the true enthusiast's :3gears:

Look's like I'm not going to get my money back out of the Firebird, Guess I'll have to trade it for something of equal value o No:Anybody have a nice clean Yugo? :laugh: or a 66 L-79 Nova would suffice :eek2:

 

Tom, does that mean you can now buy a Hemi Cuda for less than $2 million? :error:

Hemi clone cars were going for over 100k.

The cars at the last Barrett-Jackson auction I watched were still too much for me to buy. :ball:



Mike

 

You are correct

Being in the business so to speak....Tom is the guy observing what will happen as gas goes up and housing goes down. Now would be a good time to try and get a bargain on that car you have been waiting to buy.....BUT....Hold on for another 6 months to a year..And you will find willing sellers at very much below asking or appraised price.....Speaking with a bit of experience(OH the dealers are gonna hate this).......If you are a CASH buyer and I'm not talking about the guy who uses his home equity....I'm talking the guy who has the real green stuff.......That man or woman will in the next six months to a year...Be able to make an offer.....well way below the appraised value........Get the crystal ball out that is my prediction.....same thing happened in the mid seventys and mid eightys.....

 

Let's just hope we don't go through the double digit inflation and interest rates pushing 20% like we did in the late 70's. That is murder on us fixed income people.

Tough state to live in, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Been pretty good here for a long, long time.

Going to be a lot of people stuck with some overpriced cars out there. Always happens.

 

Hey guys, you've definitely hit the nailhead on the head (to use a Buick expression). I'm pretty sure the peak has been reached also. The housing downturn has pulled a lot of the easy money out of the hobby. Now if I can just recover a year or so ahead of the crowd, maybe I can find the Olds, Ford, and AMC I've wanted, but couldn't afford, gotta stop losin' $$ first, the LS6 Vette goes to auction in Carlisle in 2 weeks. Starting to see some good deals out there, on run-of-the-mill cars, cars that I would buy in a minute, if I had the cash. We'll all know how it turned out by this time next year.

 

I got dibs on Tom's Nova when he sells........

 

The Auction sale prices are laughable and by no means a barometer of real life.

I've noticed the trends of cars being for sale a long time (1-2+ years) projects being dirt dirt cheap and a glut of desirable styles now for sale.

In the latest Auto Trader if you want a '68 to '72 Chevelle pick a year driveline and practically a color! :laugh:

 

Hey Donny,

Make Hodges a deal on the Vette that he does not have to pay sellers fees at Carlise. He could make delivery on the car on the 17th of Sept!! :TU:

 

This was part of my decision to let the 66 go now, rather than finish it (maybe someday) and try to get the big $$$. I think I'll enjoy the hot rods more, certainly sooner.

 

I would hope prices will go down so I can buy me a Buick GS or Pontiac GTO / Trans Am. :laugh:

 

Forget Barrett-Jackson; that's Neverland. the other auction prices I've seen reported in magazines the past couple months (which means the actual sale was even longer ago) are indeed lower. I still see plenty of people asking high prices, but the cars aren't selling.

We've definitely peaked, but I'm not sure I want to predict the bottom is going to fall out or anything. Let's face it:
1/ Musclecars are still very popular with many segments of society.
2/ They ain't making any more of them (the real ones, the classics).
3/ The population is growing.
So maybe we'll see prices pull back 10 - 20%, but I don't think it will crash.

I walked past a mansion for sale in my town the other day and decided to check it out on-line. I'm surprised to see it listed for $2.3M; I would've guessed at least $3M. 10,000 square feet and a garage bigger than most houses, sitting on several acres. Local realtors say they're seeing just as many listings as in recent years, but only half as many sales.

 

i don't think it's peaked at all.

it's all about demand,supply,and quality of product.

want an example??

prospective buyer of the w31 i have for sale called me in January,asked me about the car,and said i was asking too much for it,and that he'd keep looking.

wouldnt you know,6 months later that same guy flies here from out of state last week to check the car out.

he hardly looked it over,and drove it like an old lady.

tried to bad mouth the car,saying it needed 10K worth of parts. o No:

he then offers me 20K for the car. :shock:

why did he wait 6 months?because he found out that most of the w31's for sale out there are rough,needing paint and body and engine work,or that the numbers matching ones are 35K and up..


what is funny about the whole situation is in january,i would have taken 20K,but not now. :moonu:

 

I totally disagree with most of these posts. The super high dollar cars - $100K+ likely will take a slight hit (10%) in the near term due to the overall economic conditions affecting personal cash flow. But, overall I seriously doubt a crash on muscle car values. It is as simple as supply and demand and as the population ages more and more boomers will still be looking for that old car they once scratched the tires on. Are times tougher right now - sure, but true legit cars are still a rarity and will always capture premium dollars relative to the overall market. Let's see where values are in 18 months - I doubt they will be below todays "inflated" prices.

 

Pick up some classified publication's

Some of the prices may be affected by the demographic area, but overall the market is flooded like I haven't seen in a long-long time. And when there is this much supply, demand goes down. It's a buyer's market right now.
Still lot's of crack smokin' price's on some car's, but those are the car's that are in the publication's week after week. Our latest issue of Michigan Auto RV trader is as thick as a Bible :eek2: Heck the damn Hot Rod's/Classics/Musclecar section alone is as thick as the whole book used to be.
Lot's of job's going over sea's, Loss of income, loss of job's, Houses for sale up the ying-yang,etc. I hope we don't have another Terrorist attack in the State's, or you can stick a Fork in Us :Smarty:
No Hurricane's have hit this season, Yet current gas prices are higher now than after Katrina hit, HHMMM....Somethin' doesn't figure right.
What was a barrel of oil 3 yrs ago when gas was 1.89/gal? Must have been around $25-$30 per barrel to have the current price per gallon vs. what a barrel of oil sell's for now figure out right, huh?

I said above that the high end high dollar Off-frame resto's are still going to exchange ownership for big dollar's, but the people that are buying and selling those caliber of car's at those prices are not your average Joe car enthusiast, for the rest of us supply is plentiful, and when a person can pick and chose between several of the same model, it give's the buyer the upper hand when dickering price.

 

Prices seem to be falling off just a slight bit to me also, but I dont look at the really expensive stuff, im talking about basic 325 and 350 hp SS Chevys, GS455s non Stage 1, nothing really high dollar.

 

I remember in the 80's when the Musclecar market supposedly crashed. Cars that were selling for $10-12,000 dropped to $8,000-10,000. We were told it was all over and to sell out now since it was only a matter of time until they would be totally worthless relics. 10 years later they were selling for $20K.
What goes up must come down and then go up again and then .....ultimately go up. The market will probably correct itself for a few years, but if anyone thinks they can wait a few months or a year and fantastic deals & steals will appear out of thin air it just hasn't happened that way in the past.

Myself I just enjoy the cars and let the values,either percieved or real, fall where they may.

 

O.K., but......

I enjoy them also, drove my Firebird all over today with my Daughter, about 75-80 miles total.
This is not the 80's, this is a whole different era, an era where we have seen an attack on U.S. soil, an on going oversea's War, job's leaving this country at an alarming rate, sky high fuel prices, Mortgage foreclosure's,etc,etc,etc.

Like I said in an earlier post....PRAY we don't have another terrorist attack, or a bunch of Natural disaster's, or God forbid, both :shock:

I don't know where everyone else is located, but Michigan is hurting.
Maybe I'm all wet here o No: Time will tell :3gears:

 

Not quite. Ebay tends to be what prices are judged against these days, not Barrett Jackson, because Ebay is so accesible to the average person unlike these big overblown auctions. That is where the real cars and prices can be found, and many people are now pricing cars lower because nobody will pay them what they want for a car that's still in a seller's market state of mind when realestate and the stock market are becoming buyer's markets again.

 

I agree the market may be a little soft but you still pay big money for nice cars. It is hard to find a nice driver for less than 15k. Sure you can find plain jane and granny models for cheap but they all have issues or need major items. Your typical 350 cars may be a better buy but big motors/customs/modded cars seem to bring plenty of money. Maybe not what people have in them, but I always say if you are in the car business as an investment, you're in the wrong business. If you build a car to your liking or mod one you are probably going to lose money if you sell in the near future. You will rarely recoup part cost and definetly not labor cost. That is just my opinion. I disagree also that there are a lot of nice cars selling for cheap. I don't see that happening at all. Nice cars are still 15-20k and up. I don't think the market is bottoming out especially with the BOOMERS hitting retirement and still looking for their youthful toys with a lot of big pension money to burn. Also, I think all these TV shows just add to the interest and make a 20k car look cheap and a good buy.

 

Stage 1s, LS6s, Hemis, and the like are still commanding high prices. However, as ebay has already been mentioned (thats my main place for browsing and it is usually the cheapest) and I constantly see cars being listed 2, 3, and 4 times before they are sold. And its not just people backing out of deals, its reserves not being met. And sometimes cars that im drooling over, wishing I had 8 K have to be listed a few times when the value of the car is easily that if it didnt have an engine. I noticed about 5 months ago that the prices started declining, although it could have happened before that and I just didnt notice.