If I'm buyin'... I'll pay what I think something is worth. If it's above that, I just won't buy it. If cars are selling for a price higher than you think they're worth, then maybe they're worth a little more than you think. If they're not selling, well then they're probably too high, and if they really want to sell it they'll eventually come down. It's the nature of the beast. Now if I'm sellin'... I take into account how much I have in the car, how much more I could get out of it if I fixed it up a little more; what it's worth to me. I also consider the market value of other cars like mine and price my pile accordingly. I'm not trying to rip anybody off, but I'm not going to be low-balled just because some tire-kicker thinks my price is too high.
Strange Agent, "I'm not trying to rip anybody off, but I'm not going to be low-balled just because some tire-kicker thinks my price is too high." I don't want to low ball, I'm certainly not a tire-kicker. I want to buy - you and I would probably come together real fast if you had what I wanted. No doubt that market value varies, but I saw some stupid high prices. Stupid. (how about 12K for a non-running 4 door 57 Chevy, busted glass, horrible paint, almost no interior and no taillights)
If you listen to the talk at the BJ's / Mecum's / etc. though, they're not getting the coin this year that they have gotten in the past. Disposable income apparently shrank for the gold chainers too.
Haven't done a swap yet, so I don't know how the sales are, but did you see people actually buying stuff? My winter model train shows I did really well at, and stuff I put on eBay to do better on also did well. I had a rough 65-66 GM tilt column listed on there in one of those "good until sold" listings and a guy ponied up $150 for it, didn't even try to dicker. Same one I'd carried to shows off and on a couple years with $75 on it, in fact. So people are buying stuff up to a certain price level. Car wise it's been nothing but tire kickers all year. Even the late model minivan I bought to flip because it was stupid cheap and what was wrong with it took me an hour and $20 to fix, no one's ever showed to look at it. (I priced it the same as what about 10 more just like it brought in the last 4-5 months on eBay, not shooting for the moon, just want it gone).
Unemployment has hit 12 per cent in my state. Granted ... some of those folks are generational " DEAD BEATS " A lot of them are uneducated and do not have marketable skills ... but a lot of good, decent employable folks are out of work and looking ... and looking HARD. Prices do seem to be "STUPID HIGH " in my area for older HAMB friendly project vehicles. A lot of roadders are hurting. MOST of them are upside down in their project. The started with POS and then invested money in to them. They may have changed course directions a time or two That adds to their ASKING price. Others folks see the ASKING PRICE and incorrectly think ... " mine is worth MORE and price their junk accordingly " They then bitch and moan ... when it does not sell. The old standby " STANDARDS " 1932 Fords ( real ones ) 1940 Fords 55/56/57 Chevrolets and the F1/F100 pickups are holding up well in value and are selling. MAYBE not as quickly as in the past ... but if you are " ON THE MONEY " ... they sell. It will be interesting to see what the folks who go to Knoxville and Pate have to say about the prices. And I LOVE ... Pate Swap meet ... I wish I could go this year ...
The economy has improved assuming your not laid off. I work for a shipping Co. and our freight is up over 20K lbs. nightly over a year ago. And that's just at one small location. They are pulling planes out of storage to keep up with demand. Here is what's crazy. A bunch of people are laid off but the ones still working are working 60-80 hrs a week!!!!!!! Things shouldn't ought to work that way......
I was up till 2am last night watching a 2 hour show on CNBC about the Sub-prime Mortgage meltdown. Man, it was bad.
maybe we need to move to Iowa...."Field of Dreams" , in Oklahoma it sucks.....manufacturing is down or over the border...I went to a swap meet last weekend and saw the same...POS for sale for big money....the thing is NO ONE IS BUYING! Hoping things get better all across the nation but there are a lot of people out of jobs and from my standpoint I don't see anything improving yet? Just my 2 cents worth!
I'm sure it will go down again when the few who do pay are either gold-chainer supply types or they complain and say they won't come back because they didn't make any money. Was it me I'd turn around and go home, or buy fewer spots - if I was buying three, I'd only use one. Got the flyer for the Syracuse Nats last week, no price increase for their swap spots. I pay more there than at other shows, but I average about five times what I pay for the spot at most shows, so it works out - I pay more, but I also sell more. Unlike the local all-Ford show, where you're lucky to sell half what the spot cost.
I woulda told ya to pack sand too.... So lemme ask you this? If you can buy em for 50$ why havent you gotten one yet? Cause you want a peice thats not a repop.... Seems to me you got three options, Buy a "crappy" repop for $80, Make a resonable offer on a original and pay the $120-140 or finally, not have a grill shell... I got one response to guys like you.... "Nope" and I walk away, I dont even waste my breath on lowballers. (Especially seeing as all my crap is exactly that....crap and I have it priced accordingly)
It's the internets. Almost everyone has it these days. Even for a dumbass who has no idea what his old crusty field car is worth, the internet is an easy guide to giving him a figure to come up with. He goes on ePay, craigslist, or autotrader and sees a similar car, or even a fake patina car going for $5k...he's too dumb to see that the car has work put into it, or that it's a 2dr hardtop or factory option car. Then he comes up with a stupid price, asks for it...then gets it because of another dumbass with more money then sense. Now, our moron sees the money opportunity and starts picking old cars out of his moron friends fields and asking ridiculous money for them. This same thing goes with parts. I'm not saying making some money on something is wrong. Hey, if I make a few bucks on a part that I removed from my car during my "build" then good for me...it's all about recycling in my opinion, but I'll be damned if I'm going to rip someone off for profit. I've got alot of parts sitting in the shop that have all been taken to swap meets and haven't been bought. I dont think my parts are overpriced and I always thought I had fair prices on them...basically it's worth what I paid for it, or what I'd be willing to pay for it...and my pockets aren't deep. I've put things up that are worth $80...when some guy offers $50 it's his. I don't care...as long as I don't have to load it back up. For the parts that werent bought, I think it's just that nobody had a use for that part on that day. I just sit on them, and the prices will stay the same until someone can use them. I get pretty upset with these yahoos are asking stupid money for a piece of shit car or a rusted & useless part. But there's nothing I can do about it but try not to worry about it.
I disagree...Wait four years and you'll have a hell of a time giving this stuff away. take a look at proposed EPA regs, Cap-N-Tax, more energy taxes...it's coming, gang.
We talk about this a lot. It seems that if you have a job, or steady income like a good retirement, or run a business that is still doing well, then the economy is good. But if you don't fit into one of these categories, it would be pretty bad. Seems like a real dichotomy is developing here, separated by whether you have a job or not. I noticed that very few of the cars I saw in the "Car Corral" at the Charlotte Autofair a few weeks ago were good bargains. I also saw very few "Sold" signs on the cars on Saturday. I bought a somewhat expensive vehicle about 6 months ago. I had been looking for the car for over a year. About 18 months ago, I noticed a drop in the prices for upscale used vehicles that corresponded with the trouble in the financial markets. I believe that some people that were hurt by the financial "crunch" decided to sell some of their expensive "toys". I have kept an eye on these prices for the 6 months since I purchased and it seems to me that the prices have crept back up a little since then. I do believe there is a great variation in the "state of the economy" depending on just where you are. Remember, no matter where you go, there you are!
"If everybody is asking that price, that's market price"... This is not correct. Market Price is the price at which an item readily sells. Anything that does not sell at a given price is above Market Price.
As was explained to us at work this morning, after a couple machinists and welders left for another place of employment down the road: "You'll all have to work harder in the same amount of time to make up for the lower man-power, because our management will not hire until it has met OT costs for an extended amount of time to justify the need to hire more people." If we stay real busy for awhile, they may hire again, but if the roller-coaster ride comes back down for a bit, then they won't. This last weekend, I passed on a truck that I offered $400 for, and he wanted $5000. Couple days later he relisted for $1200. Such a strange business, this supply and demand, lol.
Yup, I was told today that if I (and the other guy in my department) can't do 40 hours work in the 32 hours that they give me a week now, they can replace me with someone who can. No raises for two years, no incentive to work hard and do a good job, a mgr who likes to keep bragging about how big his bonus is and is one of those types who likes to manage by being threatening. And of course, he is NEVER wrong.....hostile work environment for sure. Why even bother anymore?
I'm in a busy place that has TOO MUCH work for the manpower, plus we're carrying some useless people on our backs. They'll hire temps, but the last one they hired lasted 2 weeks and showed up bombed on the 2nd week. I have enough seniority where I should be safe for a while and can take the early retirement if things get crazier. I have some hostile people to deal with, but I can tell them to fuck off and get away with it. My local manager is ok, but he's under the gun too and makes wrong snap decisions. In school, there should be an "Asswipe 101" course to give us some insight in how to deal with difficult people at work. Bob
Can we just end this thread? Georgia (where I live and teach now) has a deficit of over 460 million, half of which they're going to take out of education next year (after they basically raped the system last year). Of course, back in Philadelphia, PA (where I grew up), the the Phillies just signed Ryan Howard to a $125 million contract (25 for 5 years)... Can anyone figure out what's wrong with this picture?
Exactally. I have enough work to stay busy for 40 hours as well, but by cutting the hourly people (3 of us) down to 32 hours a week, it adds a little cushion to the overhead to insure he keeps getting his bonus. That is all that is important. We keep getting told how big of pieces of s**t we are as well. According to him, everyone except him and the office manager are useless. Plus, he thinks that screaming, pounding his fists on tables (literally) make us want to do a better job for the company. If it were remotely possible I would walk......but need the $$$ unfortunately.
Exactly, lets keep the athletes and movie stars making the big bucks while the middle class goes bye bye....what a joke...built a new stadium in Tulsa for a double A baseball team but can't afford for the city to cut the grass on the highways and they can't turn on the lights at night on the highways!!!! What a joke! Priorities are way out of line...kinda like the government huh? Sorry, just my two cents worth!
Agreed....This country is f**ked. No recovering it either. You either eat the rich mans crap or live in the streets. The country is set up for the rich man now days. Anyway.......Back to car talk.
when it comes to buying vehicles or parts always remember: "you didn't pay to much you just bought it too soon!"
I think it just depends stuff in the hot rod mag down here is 3 times what it's worth and a 3.50 ratio 9" Ford track lock center section is bid to 600+ on E-bay but a friend just bought a complete drum to drum 31 spline 3.50 4 pinion track lock from 4x4 truck for $40. Another friend bought 9" most likely 31 spline drum to drum with springs from F150 for $50 I haven't checked it to see if it's an open rear or track lock but truck rear will most likely be 3.50 or lower. A girl at work has a solid 46/48 Ford 2 dr sedan street rod for sale at $10,000 and it hasn't sold I mean the gay paint and SUV interior can be changed over time. There is no work down here hell I talked to a guy laid off from a swimming pool dealer for lack of work in the spring and I had to take a $5 an hour cut in pay to get my current job. I guess free trade has shipped so many jobs over seas they figure they can pay 3rd world pay here now?
Sounds about right, unfortunately. I work for big companies (corporations) from a home office, and they are more enthusiastic about starting new projects across the board. Problem is, they don't have any money. So designers/engineers are financing their product development projects when we're already broke or they already owe us from 6 months ago. Go figure.
I watch cars all the time on craigslist. I then went to a big swap meet about 50 miles away and saw SEVERAL cars that had been listed on craigslist for weeks and not sold. The kick-in-the ass came when I saw what they had written on the windshields!! There was one black 67 Galaxie convertible that had been on CL for over a month for $7,500. It looked good in the pics on CL but in person it looked a litttle ratty. Price on the car at the swap meet???? $11,500!!!!!! WTF??? There was a Corvair that jumped in price $2,500 once it got there too. There was a Mustang that was similarly jumped in price. What assholes.
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