Time to buy? I just finished up going back 15 pages in CARS FOR SALE cleaning up and deleting some posts that were missed marked as SOLD. I counted 57 cars and pickups FOR SALE posts that were marked SOLD since September 2025. Not knowing how many vehicles have actually SOLD here I still find that is a large number. Your thoughts?
Did you note how many of those cars were ready to hit the road or otherwise how many were projects . In other words, did you notice buyers are still prepared to get their hands dirty on a project or is the interest more in a driver car.
Looked to me a slight lean towards done cars ready to drive. I can say this that parts have slowed down selling.
Just marked my shoebox as sold.....every person that inquired seemed to be over 70 and all were interested in it as a running driving car that was ready to go - I advertised it on the high side of the market and I never dropped the asking price, but I ended up taking a reasonable offer I could live with - 3 different people (including the buyer) told me they were looking for their "last car" and didn't want a project. I've recently sold several parts on here too - some for initial asking price - others didn't go until I dropped the price way down.....
Parts are indeed slow to sell, along with project cars. My buddy has a 59 Fury, primed and ready for paint, loads of parts including all chrome. Nobody wants it (according to some of his responses) because they are overwhelmed even at that stage of re***embly. Most seem to be gravitating to "mid-range" drivers, needing odds and ends, but ultimately can be on the road easily. From what I see and know, "field cars" are almost obsolete for buyers because unless you know how to build, or know what the car is and how to find parts, it's easily p***ed on by buyers. And for whatever reason, the customs seem to be selling faster than the hot rods in my area. Cl***ics too.
I'm in the business of selling parts and I'm not really seeing any slowdown in parts sales, but it does seem like projects are much cheaper and/or slower to sell. I do seem to notice a trend a**** cars for sale that they're either very high end of the marked priced stuff (fully restored, only put 12 miles on it since completion, probably never had the bugs worked out of it), or projects with a LOT of needs. I very, very rarely see anything for sale that's ready to drive anywhere, roadworthy with a lot of recent miles to prove it. Most everything I see for sale would fit under the category of "I don't want to spend the time or money it would take to finish this" or "I spent a fortune on this thing and never use it and am trying to get a big chunk of that money back".
I'm still seeing a lot of overpriced projects, some of them are more than finished cars and really not that desirable. Old trucks are insane, I went to look at a '48 Ford that was original, paint,engine,everything and it was a nice truck but not running, the man wanted 20 grand,I made him a reasonable offer, but he said that price is firm. Too rich for my blood, I'll keep waiting and watching. HRP
The people with the money, that like Hamb era cars, are for the most part older. They want a car that they don't have to do much to, to be able to enjoy it. Also if you can't do the work yourself, it can cost an awful lot of money to get things fixed. If you can find someone competent to do the work.
@Royalshifter you had a blue T Bucket for sale a while back, I couldn’t believe it didn’t sell on day one, no way could it be built for the price asked
I recently found Carter Auto Restyling on you tube from the Hamb. He dropped a good video today on the collector car market , costs involved and younger generation interests. Worth a look.
I think it’s a buyers market right now and it’s not going to turn around. Simple demand/supply equation. Demand side…look at our youth and what drives them. The rebel spirit at the core of most hot rodders and custom car builders just isn’t that prevalent any more. Not only have we raised our kids to be much more compliant and accepting of everything around them as our parents tried to as well, but a Honda civic of today is a lot quicker than the buick station wagon that my dad drove ever could be. I remember well the days when building something to go +100 mph was huge, and now a piece of **** will do it. And god forbid anyone expresses their individuality through a car (or motorcycle) when hair color and tattoos can do it. So long story short….the need for speed and individuality can be met much more effectively/efficiently today than in the days of yore. Supply side…look at the amount of aftermarket product that was made from the 80s til recently to make up for all the hoarding going on. I see way more 32 grille shells and inserts hanging on walls than on hot rods out in the wild. And as the hoarders are now dying off, more stuff is becoming available. Sad but true. And don’t get me started on the number of brookville and fibergl*** bodies built in the last 40 years. Yoikes.
One thing I've noticed more in the past few years, is the desirable/or flavor of the week etc. are still selling , it seems people that are still spending the big dollars are fine tuning their taste and mostly only willing to buy something that is desirable to them, rather than just buying what they can afford or buying an old car just to have an old car. projects, well ,people are pricing them to the point its cheaper to buy a done car ,imho
I'd say he nailed it right there. Real popular body styles with the right engine and paint combo sell but from watching one of my buddys try to sell a nice driver quality 40 Ford two door black with flames and a 351 Windsor under the hood some combinations can be a hard sell. That car went to the Spokane area for way less than what his original asking price was and what he actually needed out of it. It wasn't fancy but I wouldn't have batted an eye at doing a quick service and throwing our gear in the back and heading to Central Texas to visit the sister inlaws and go to Roundup in it. I just turned 79 two weeks ago and what projects I have are it. anything else I will have to buy or trade for or pay the young dude down the road to build for me. If I won the powerball I'd be showing up with a ton of parts and a "here, take this stuff and make it look like this" and turn them loose. Parts wise, I'd say that a lot of us are looking for "that part" at an honest price rather than gathering parts for future projects that they "might build" I need to wean out the "might use someday" parts and engines and get some coin for the 48 or the OT project.
I think it's always been cheaper to buy a done car, but I do agree on the flavor of the week/trendy stuff though. There are certain cars and parts that are super easy to sell and bring a very strong price, even today. In the pre-internet days, if you wanted an old car, you kinda had to go with whatever turned up in the paper cl***ifieds or wait all year to go to the one big swap meet and pick something out, maybe leave a note on a car you saw in a parking lot. Now, you can have any hyper-specific thing you want as long as you're willing to pay the price, and trends move much faster. The stuff that isn't trendy, or isn't exactly 100% what the good buyers are looking for, is going to get left behind, good deal or not.
Well, to answer the post rather than another Collector Car thread, I've noticed the HAMB has kept a lot of SOLD ads over the years when i venture over there. Example, I search Cars For Sale for 1923 and there are some from 11 years ago. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1923-t-bucket.924890/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1923-ford-track-roadster.927092/ Since the ads aren't deleted or timed out after a set period, I had ***umed that it was a case of keeping the info for market or seller reference, since it would be just as easy to delete the thread as it is to mark it sold.
Hello, This is a standard question from all the way back to the late 50s. If a buyer is ready to get a hot rod, most want one that is ready to drive. Now, that can be barely getting back to your own house or completely finished with the ability to drive from So Cal to Canada. It all depends on what stage of the hot rod buying/driving game one wants to step into and enjoy driving. Most of us searched cl***ified ads in most local papers and periodicals. If we had the money, then it was fair game on what we found. Some were far away as the ads were in national magazines. They were also two to three months old at publication. So, there is that. The choices were similar to the HAMB ads. We were all in the buying mode and the cash in hand equaled what was in that category. There was no trend on what was selling, other than what the car/hot rod looked like in the ad. If we were willing to drag home the parts to get a build started, there were plenty of those ads. But, most were looking for the next finished or semi finished hot rod not too far from home. Those were still available and the choice was there for the money ready to spend. There were two ready made finished 1940 ford sedans for us. they were 4 door models. At the time, our granddaughter was a toddler and we thought a cool hot rod cruising around to her endless places she needed to go, with her friends was going to be fun. No giant SUV like 90% of her friends. A custom 4 door sedan with all of the creature comforts of SBC power and A/C. The center opening rear door would have made the constant in/out of the car seat(s) so much easier… We had been taking our granddaughter around to all of her activities. School was the main drop off and pickup. But our two door sedan was not the most handy for in and out of the back seat area. She still had to use a car seat until she was large enough to sit in normal rear car seatbelts. So, our choice, as she was growing by leaps and bounds, was to get a 4 door 40 Ford Sedan for our secondary car, but for ease of access, no more two door cars. Now, we could do both, have fun driving around in an old 40 Ford Sedan with an SBC motor, A/C, and easy access to the rear seat for our growing granddaughter. We had a choice, buy one already made and/or a 4 door station wagon. The second choice with 4 doors, but the same power. But, they were all sold upon calling. Anyway it was a choice that also got “nixed” by her mom and dad, who were not hot rod folks. YRMV Jnaki The ads in the HAMB are very similar to other ads in other websites and places. So, it happens to have a limit on what type and year that is advertised. That is zeroing in on a specific year limitation. That is good in that no one wants to scroll through 100s of 85 ford sedans, etc. It is one way to zone in on the traditional parts and look that other sites just jam into the amount of ads posted. Specification of the HAMB ads is good, so don’t change it. With the holidays coming and going, the sales are slower. Just like homes for sale, as the summer is going on, parents are looking for homes in a specific neighborhood/schools areas. As the september deadline is fast approaching, homes sell fast. Every0ne wants to be ready for the school year. Now, the holidays is the only thing that lowers the sales of homes and in this case, cars/hot rods, etc. Also, hot rods are in a cl*** separate from the Hondas and Toyotas readily available everywhere. So, that cl***ification takes time for the varying different ads in the traditional hot rod market. Note: When my wife and I were searching for our next hot rod, we wanted one that was somewhat ready for cruising and road trips for our business. We had several in mind, saw them and made a choice. Then as we were looking and driving home, we noticed that the just purchased hot rod needed a lot of work to make it safe and secure in handling. For the next seven-8 months, we worked on it and with the professional help of a friend, got it to the perfect running/handling mode. But, if money were no object, then there were those cars that required little to no work to get us on the road. So, as twenty somethings, the market shows what will be sold. We found out that most parts and especially finished cars command prices that are a little to a lot over priced. But it is their choice as to how long their stuff remains in their garages or backyards. We all go through that.
Another thought - the guys from iron trap seem to be killin' it - it's not add money from YouTube either - they buy and sell TON of parts and projects - in fact, that all they do - they are not a shop, nor do they sell many running cars - yet they are expanding, hiring employees, etc. they do a great job with their "lifestyle" content and are young (for the hobby) I'd say the hobby, specifically early Ford hot rods, may be changing, but is doing just fine....
Absolutely, I’ve bough quite a bit of stuff from them. Good dudes and making a big impact. I’ve noticed that Traditional Cars seem to trade in small circles. From my perspective, that market is strong.
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