Quote:
Originally Posted by chevy72blu
I think a few things are at play here.
First and foremost is recency bias. For the past 10 years with a crappy economy, the price of "luxury" items like car projects fell through the floor. I was shocked at how cheap even very desirable project cars (chevelle, camaro, GTO, etc) were selling for locally a few years ago. The economy is now improving, salaries are raising (at least according to the news), which is raising the price of these trucks.
They also aren't getting any newer. Every year we lose more and more to rot and being parted out/scrapped. As rarity increases, so will price.
Barrett Jackson and other auctions on TV has led everyone to believe that their rusted out 250 I6 3OTT base model is made of pure gold. That being said, a lot these trucks have been parted out and been donors for rarer/better optioned trucks. Those will command higher prices, while eliminating the lower cost, lower optioned trucks which are cheaper to get into.
Have a beat up truck thats in bare primer? Put on a set of red steelies, and now its a "rat rod".
And last but not least, things are worth what someone is willing to pay. I wouldnt pay $19k for that blazer, but if someone wants to, more power to you. Caveat emptor
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I agree whole heartedly that a major contributor to prices going up, on anything, not just K5s, is people watching Barrett-Jackson and thinking their rust bucket is a gold mine, and watching shows like Fast 'n Loud and thinking they can buy a vehicle, wash it, and flip it for 3x just like they do on that show.
I also agree with another sentiment that I have heard put "there is an ass for every seat", which is both good and bad at the same time because someone will buy that $19k truck, which is good for the seller, but bad for the rest of us who aren't independently wealthy.
I want to relay my own story too, if you don't mind:
When I bought my Jimmy in April of 2014, I got it from a guy in Pittsburgh, sight unseen except for the pics on craigslist, who was asking $4000 for it, but I was able to get it for $2500. When it got delivered, the rust was significantly worse than the pics indicated, but, similar to what stangtjk said in the original post, I didn't feel I got robbed. However, the longer I had it, the more that thought changed, and after almost 3 years of ownership the rust turned out to be more than I could handle, so I just sold it last week for the same price I paid for it. In the course of my ownership, I replaced the battery tray, passenger side ball joints & tie rod end, and almost the entire fuel system except for the metal line on the frame and carburetor. I will admit that when I first started to put it out there I was a victim of thinking I was sitting on a gold mine because I had put $6000 in chalk on the back window. Didn't get any bites at that price except for one troll asking what I was on. So I reduced asking price to $3000 obo, and, as mentioned, got $2500 for it. I had the $3000 on the back window for over a year, but no real bites, and the bites I did get backed out once they saw all the rust + the mechanical issues it had. I put it on FB and had similar results, I even told one guy I would take as little as $1500 for it, for a little over a week before I put it on craigslist and sold it the next day.
The pics in this post are some shots from the guy I bought it from, I'll post some pics I posted when I was trying to sell it next.
EDIT: it just dawned on me that posting pics of the truck how I sold it is not in the spirit of this thread, so I decided not to do it, and I can't delete some of the pics on this post to put one or two in. If stangtjk wants to see more pics, I will post them up. Sorry for the hijack.