Art & Inspiration It's a Buyers Market once again... What are you buying?

In the old ford game they are indeed getting cheaper. The Early Ford V8 Club is bleeding off membership at an astounding rate. Membership at the national lever has dropped from close to 20,000 to just under 6,000 (website quotes higher but I know the truth as a Regional Group President) in the last 10 years all from members dying off and no new blood entering. The early V8 cars were so expensive for so long that they lost their enthusiast successors to, what at the time were, more affordable rides. Now those once cheaper mid 50's-70's cars are astronomical and the cycle starts over again. At some point the early cars will be so affordable compared to desirable cars that they will attract entry level buyers, that will be the bottom and we are not there yet.

 

I’m in a similar boat. My father (81) has his 1st car, ‘29 A, but no one in the family is overly interested in it. It’s stock, yellow, and worth probably half of what he paid for it’s rebuild more than 20 years ago. I also recently spied a ‘46 Chevrolet for sale for about $18,000. It’s not moved. While I have a “driver “ quality one I’d let go for a little over half of that. Tastes change. ‘60s and newer are where it’s at.

 

would like a 32 ford PU & an A roadster or phaeton on 32 rails or full fendered .prefer Ford power if somebodies taking orders cheap . I have been watching stock model A prices thinking find a nice restored car that has sat a long time but still looks good build a new ch***is & go. unfortunately I have other projects & a wife who thinks I have to much stuff now & is probably right

 

Here is what I saw that is HAMB friendly. I created a separate thread with more photos.

 

Bought As They Fall From The Sky....No Regrets...

 

This is Kevan Sledge's old car. Was sold in 2018 at Barrett Jackson for $82,500 sold again this year for .....$82,500. John D'Agostino bought it.


This was a Bill Ganahl build and has been done for less than a year. @Hot Rod Ron was this for sale or just in a car show there? I can't imagine paying to have a truck like this built and then selling it less than a year later.

 

4th car down, I restored that car in 1993. The blackwalls were not an improvement...

 

yeah, that's the kind of car that wide whites look at home on.

 

I'll brag just a little, that car has held up extremely well all this time. I last had hands on 2007, we had to re-glaze the exhaust manifold and do some minor ch***is touch up, it promptly went out and got judged 100pts. I'm certain if I had it for a month or less it would do it again. Reports are one of the collections used the car weekly to go to the beach and hang out, somewhere out east. She's been pampered, sure, but still used. I've done a lot of these 32-34 Packards, this one is my personal #1 pick.

 

Am I the only one who thinks prices are still high?

 

No, but perhaps inflation has touched everything. Priced collector car tires lately? And, shop rates are so high now just to survive and stay in business. The better a car is, the more fresh, more new parts like tires, the ask will always be up there.

 

If the prices are down, we should all chip in and buy the Uncertain T. Then we can donate it to Moriarity.
That would be a happy ending......

 

Good for me though, maybe some day I'll actually be able to afford a 32 roadster

 

I was finally able to afford an early Corvette, but mainly it was just realizing that I wanted it.

Maybe one day I'll realize I want a 32 Ford. A friend just bought one last summer, after all these years.

 

A buddy of mine set an early week sale record at BJ for a 6 figure, black Chevelle, BBC ragtop. He said the money was in attendance this year! Another friend bid on one of those crazy "Erkel" BMWs with the opening front. He bid to 30k, it sold for twice that. Wow!

 

IMO it’s the age of the buyer, I’m 79, and love roadsters would I own one now ….no. The older guys who have them now with a lot of money invested are dying off.
Do guys at 50-55 with their kids educated and out of the house want one? hell no! They are looking a stylish cars of the 50-60-70’s with AC and comfort to take the grandkids out for ice cream on a Sunday and they have the $$$ to find the right one. A 36 Phaeton at any price won’t even be looked at.

 

Hello,

In looking at prices at various places, I did turn on an auction site one day and was floored at the prices. So, it may be that some are coming down, but then again, perhaps, they were too high to start with in the beginning.

We have not gone on a long road trip since the pandemic started in early 2020, so technically, we have spending money saved from 3 going on 4 years of no cost traveling. The longer the road trip with more stays in resorts or jet service to a spot, rent a car and then tour the area is also a good chunk, so, that was also saved, too. Estimated cost per long road trip per year, depending on location and time: $5000.00+ So, the spending money is still holding a space in our accounts, ready for a off the wall, nice hot rod station wagon purchase for our last hot rod garage.

Jnaki

How, apropos that I am posting this on Valentine’s Day. It seems to me that we have been together since 1966 and all of this time, we have always been on the same page. She thinks together, we make or have made some great decisions on everything. So, when it comes to owning a new car, we looked at these as a replacement for her 11-12 year old station wagon. 11 because it is a 2013, but 12 because we bought it in 2012.

Even our granddaughter being in college is already paid for due to us saving for her from the way back time machine. So, there is a growing stock pile for one last purchase. But, being as old as we are, it would have to be close to finished or finished to enjoy driving around for our daily trips or coastal cruising.

So, even though it has 300 hp, fast when we need it to be, the current daily driver is so comfortable for us and has taken us to the PNW, all over California, and the Southwest on our road trips. It is going to be hard to replace. When any car is so reliable, comfortable and starts every time, it does not matter what kind of car it is, that is the car to have.

But… Here are the ones we have looked at for a possible buy or at least see it as one we would not mind spending money to finish.

In looking at this build, it is top notch. Some of So Cal’s best folks have put in their $.02 cents worth of skills and mechanics in to the build. It would still take a little more money and time to finish the project, but there are the same folks to keep the build going. No loans needed, just moving around some investments and accounts. Yes! A convertible my wife has always wanted…

We have liked sedan deliveries, but that right side panel was always a hard thing to get over with the blank wall stare. This 56 Chevy is set up nicely and it has an unusual way to get around the blind spot driving scenario. Nice looks, and all it takes is an A/C unit and off we go.. it might be a great road trip back to So Cal from Ohio.

This red 32 roadster is the epitome of a nice hot rod. Start it up drive to the S.F. Bay Area, relax cruising around the coastal cities and then a nice Highway 1 road trip home to So Cal. We have always liked Jack Stewart’s 1932 Red Roadster.

This one is close to the same style and build. Just put in some gas and off we go down California’s coastline, the inner mountain highways and it would find our home just fine. Of course, we would definitely have to sell one of our daily drivers…

Note:

Bob Joehnck is/was a legend from Santa Barbara. To own something that has some historic facts ***ociated with the build and racing would be something. But, we would probably make it street drivable and not just a recreation for museum display. Bob Joehnck owned an auto repair/build shop in Santa Barbara and took care of our son’s car while he was in college. So, there is that connection. If our son saw this car later on after it was finished, it would give him some memories of his 20 something days, up North.

Perhaps, he might get the urge to start driving it around to show us that he was interested in old hot rods… creative as he is/was back then… YRMV

 

I’m still getting stuff for $0.20 to $0.22a pound.
Sometimes less.
Holding steady at my s**** yard.
RWD Japanese cars are going up.
60s -80s trucks seem to have leveled off. I e seen some good deals for those lately.
X-frame GMs are strong.
I should have bought sun visors years ago.
A running and driving 34 Ford 2 door sedan. 350/350 early 90s style build only brought 24k at an auction near here. All steel car. Very nice body.
Merc prices are strange. I’ll see a nice driver in the mid 20s and a solid project for 15k

 

that seems to be a trend, there aren't many cheap projects, but out of style finished cars are not worth much more than the projects

I'm off to buy a wagon today....again....I first bought it 35 years ago

 

Wagons are all over the place.
Nomads bring a premium.
others are just like the Mercs.
Time wise I should have bought better wagon for the wife. Money wise I did great with the car she got.
The car she will end up with is mid to high 20s for a driver. Old original paint with updated drive train.
we won’t be no where near that.

 

the wagon I'm getting is kind of like that, 58 brookwood, painted in the 80s, abused and neglected since, but got a crate 350/350 ten years ago, along with front disks and ac. And the interior redone. So who knows what it's really worth? slap some modern wheels on it, take out the springs, someone could pay a lot for it

 

Don’t forget to drop it.

 

Yeah, I said take out the springs

 

It used to be that you could sorta gauge sale prices based on asking prices, but with these goofy TV shows, there seems to be little correlation. Guy asks $10K, Mike says I'll give you $5K. Seller says OK. That didn't seem to happen much before.

 

Hard to figure. I'm 81 and had a stroke a while back so can't build until I get a bit better. Early stuff seems to be going down but BJ just sold my old 40 in pic here for $95 and a nice clean stocker just quickly sold for $45.

 

Yeah, I am not buying anything else either. But.......when the C1 Corvettes are fetching about 10 grand, someone wake me up!

 

Anything that I'm interested in sure hasn't come down much in price if any at all.

 

[QUOTE="K13, post: 15125371, member: 15356"

This was a Bill Ganahl build and has been done for less than a year. @Hot Rod Ron was this for sale or just in a car show there? I can't imagine paying to have a truck like this built and then selling it less than a year later.
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I can if your 6’ ….. with a straight back seat….no way to get comfortable driving

 

I would ***ume Bill knows how to build a vehicle that the customer can drive.