Cheap Old Corvettes

[Wayne W.]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes - You be the judge

Some of my first ones, From 70-75 or so, `63 convt. $1100, `63 split. $1200, 66 conv. 350 HP with T. Tele. $600, `58 $1000 `58 $1700 and in 1978 `67 conv. 427-390 AC,PS, PW, PB, Tele., Leather, H. Rest. T.Tops for $3800.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes - You be the judge

Wayne,

How'd you get T-tops on that 67 convertible?

Patrick

[Wayne W.]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes - You be the judge

Two Tops

[Tom Freeman]

Tax man

Hummm,
Bought for $150.00, sold for $45,000.00. I assume that you reported that on your income taxes

[William V.]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes

I think many ar looking at late 1960s and early 1970s used Corvette prices through eyes focused on the 2003 dollar. I paid $2200 fo a 66 conv in 1972 (Very nice low milage car)and rember how hard it was to come up with the cash.

[Ralph E.]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes

September 1969 bought my first Corvette. A 1968 L89 Convertble. Paid $1850 sold it in Spring 1973 for $3500 thought I was making a killing.

[Mike Yager]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes

Bill:

There is something to what you are saying. I lived in a suburb of NYC and my first Corvette was purchased in the fall of 1975. It was a '63 convertible 327/340 hp car with new top and paint. Traded the '40 Ford Deluxe Business Coupe (389 Tripower, M22, 411s, etc.) for the Vette plus $500 cash. The guy was asking $2K for the Vette and I figured the '40 was worth $1,500. I had paid $800 for it the year before and put some money and work into it. The guy wanted to use the '40 for a dirt track car. Drove the heck out of and raced the Vette and sold it a couple of years later when I went off to college for $2K. Thought I really did well.

As I recall, my parents bought a new, fully loaded Cutlass Supreme at that time for a bit under $4K. A good salary at the time was $15K to $20K a year. Mortgage payments for the average home were $200 to $300 a month. Of course that average home had 1,500 sf, one bath and one garage.

$2K for a used twelve year old Vette was not cheap. Friends were buying good used late 60s muscle cars at the time - Road Runners, GTOs, etc. for $800 to $1,000. The demand for muscle and performance cars dropped with the gas crisis in 75/76.

I remember a local body shop trying to sell a slightly damaged '67 two top BB convertible for $400 and no takers in '76.

Times have changed in many ways. New Corvettes were mainly purchased by guys under 40. Now they are primarily purchased by guys over 40.

[William V.]

Please don't say the "T" word *NM*

[Chuck R.]

Re: Ok I'll jump in

In 82 I purchased a very straight 69 350/350 four speed coupe needing work for $3,500.00

New brakes, exhaust, tires, carpet, upolstery, body work and paint.

Worked all winter on it, drove it all summer and sold it that fall for the whopping sum of............yep $3,500.00

I was told by the local New Brunswick law enforcement officials that if I set foot back in Canada with that car, the next time they would throw away the keys!

I loved that car...........so did the girls

[Larry S.]

Re: Ok I'll jump in

So just think in 25 years from now the folks on this board may be discussing the great deal a fellow got in 2003 purchasing a low milage l88 for only 615,000
Or that the B/B midyears were selling under 100 grand and you could purchase a new corvette for less then 60,000

WHO KNEW?

[Verle R.]

Re: Ok I'll jump in

Unless we succeed in generating the interest of younger people in our old cars, old Corvettes will go the way of Model T's as that crowd is dieing off.

People tend to be interested in and restore the "interest" cars of their youth, and the very young today are driving and racing "rice burners".

Go recruit some new members under 50!

Verle

[mike cobine]

Re: Ok I'll jump in

In 25 years, the '50s cars will be some of the lowest, the '60s will be dropping, and the C4s and C5 will be the high dollar cars.

Why?

Because all the old guys in their 50s and up today into Corvettes will be in their late 70s and up, if even alive, and they are the ones that keep the price up. The poeple in their 50s in 25 years are the guys in their 20s today and they mostly hang with the C4s and C5s and can't relate to the C1 at all.

Look at the Model A and T crowd. While some of those do retain value, the demand on those cars of 20 years ago has decreased incredibly today. and while many are at or above in price today, that is mainly due to people having salaries of $20,000 in 1983 and $60,000 in 2003.

Now prices in the last couple of years on all old cars seemed to have gone nuts in climbing, but a lot of that can be attributed to 9/11, stock market dropping, tech stocks crashing, economy in a slump, and so on. Cars seem to always do well as hedges when those things happen. But when it normalizes again, prices will go back.

[mike cobine]

Re: Cheap Old Corvettes - Prices?

True, I think some have forgotten the condition or the situation in which they got those prices.

From Dec. 1974 St. Louis Post Dispatch:

'71 T-top, 4 sp, air, PS PB, AM-FM stereo, $4300
'64 coupe, black, excellent condition, $3000
'69 427, 4 sp, $2500
'73 t-tops, power, air, leather, tilt, $6000 obo
'69 350, 4 sp, conv, new paint with flames, $3000
'63 coupe, 327, 4 sp, side pipes, good condition, $2300

There were a lot of others, but no prices or simply "make offer" or "taking offers".

This was a time that assembly line workers in the high tech industries in the area were making about $3 to $4 an hour, depending on level. Technicians in the area good paying industries were making about $4.00 an hour starting, $160 a week, or $8320 a year.

Figure that most of these people were bringing home $100 or less a week. That '63 coupe which we'd all cut a body part off to get for that price today would have taken 23 weeks of no rent, no food, no gas, and so on to get.

[Mike Yager]

Re: Ok I'll jump in

The only difference I see in keeping interest in Vettes is they represent an era and the cars are still fairly modern. I can drive my 40 year old car today and safely keep up with traffic. Although not as plush or refined, it has pretty much the same interior appointments as a new car - roll up windows, electric start, windshield wipers, radio, hydraulic brakes, etc. A Model T does not. You cannot do that with a Model T.

Corvettes are unique and great looking cars. I think other muscle car brands from the 60s are at greater risk than Corvette but the trend is worrisome. Kids just don't seem as interested in cars today as they were when I was growing up.

[mike cobine]

Re: Ok I'll jump in - Kids and Cars

> Kids just don't seem as interested in cars today as
> they were when I was growing up.

A lot of factors in that. First factor - Today, most 16 year olds expect Mom and Dad to spring for a new Mustang, Camaro, Honda, or Toyota. And they do. When I grew up, you worked your butt off after school and weekends to buy an old third- or fourth-hand used car. So to me, a nice Camaro or Corvette was nearly unacheivable, the goal to reach for. Today, 16 year olds get them handed to them automatically.

And two sides to that - on one side, I would NOT want my 16 year old daughter in a car that may break down 20 miles from home at night. Not that I would want her to be there in the first place, but reality in play, she'd find a way to be there or further regardless of what I want.

On the other as someone who worked for it all, I don't want mine to be spoiled and everything handed to her. So I think she should have to struggle to appreciate what she has. And that is harder and harder with grandparents being better off than ever, ever expanding extended family sending money for gifts, and so on.

Second factor - when I grew up, we went to the drive-in (both types) and we were seen in our cars. Today kids go to the mall, and their car is just one of 10,000 in an ocean of cars outside, rarely seen by any of their crowd. Cars for us were an extension of who we were. The mall monster today is barely associated with their car. So the latest tattoo, nose ring, distressed jacket, or hair color has much more social impact than the wheels that got them there.

Third factor - social conscience. Most of them still don't have one, but in an effort to claim one and throw off their parent's values, such decadent lust of earthly possessions like wasteful cars are scorned. An economical 40 mpg Honda is admired over the 1 lateral G, 11 sec sculpture in fiberglass.

Fourth factor - how often do you take your kid to a car show and let them actually see and touch these cars?

On that note, the fifth factor. When they actually do see these cars, what happens? The owners yell at you not to touch, not to get too close, stay away. Half of them are cranky old men who we as kids would have thrown rocks at and ran from rather than try to talk about their car with them in such gruff and nasty moods.

One thing I have always done when at club events or at the races was when the kids were around, I let them see the car, sit in it, be close to it. IT IS A CAR and THEY ARE OUR FUTURE. Which is more important?

Who do you think voted for removing the old junk cars from our world? It wasn't us old car enthusiasts. And there gets to be more of them and fewer of us every day.