Years ago I started restoring Oldsmobiles. At that time (over forty years ago) prices for replacement parts were reasonable in price. Over the years the price for certain parts have gotten out of hand. I realize some pieces are as scarce as frog hair but now I see an intake for a certain year of Olds Hurst model priced at $12,000. Really...

 

Simple combination of supply, demand, and inflation. Back then for $12K, you could have bought TWO complete and well-equipped 69 H/Os.

I used to have a spare H/O intake many years ago I stumbled upon and picked up for cheap. Sold it to a guy in the H/OCA for either 400 or 500 bucks. Can't recall for sure.

$12K is an asking price, but the selling price is what actually matters. I used to buy and sell D and F heads here and there and back then, 600 to 800 was the average prices for useable heads. Now they're probably closer to $6K for a decent set.

 

I agree , restorations are not cheap, and if you use available parts chineseum instead of unobtanium, then there’s a stigma with that,

I remember buying my 69 drop top GTO , 4 speed from original owner for 600 bux those days are long gone .

as was said the supply of parts are being consumed and the only new are repo or unobtanium

inflation etc
what will happen imho folks will move on from classic muscle and move into easier and cheaper muscle mustangs canaros challengers , these cars can walk all over a vintage muscle car, get 30 mpg, with the air on, look how popular last swaps are , why? Because for the price of a “ correct” set of d heads you can do the entire swap lock stock and barrel


anyway time waits for no man , just saying

 

Yup it's crazy. I remember when I started on misc sites. We used to hook each other up. The mighty dollar takes control of so many.

Don't even get me going on how little we used to pay for cars. One of my brothers bought a true 440 6bbl 69 Roadrunner complete for 750.00. He still tracks it. It is fully restored out there now.

 

The used parts just don't existing anymore. Even 15 years ago you could find basements full of vintage Olds parts for reasonable prices. In the last 10 years that market has virtually dried up.

 

You guys are going back to a time when these were just old cars and parts were just old parts.

 

I think there are stashes of parts out there. The people that have them see the prices being asked and decide to keep their stuff. Those people will sell a part to a friend that needs one at a reasonable price or trade for something they need. Those people stashes will sit quietly and not divulge what they have or how many of them.
Generally if a part is posted for sale at a cheap or reasonable price, a "parts flipper" snaps it up. They relist it later at double, triple or more of the price it was purchased for. Thats what changes a hobby to a costly passion.
Date code, chalk mark and paint dabbers sometimes pay more than a reasonable price for items and that jacks the prices up. When someone sells a part for the asking in a hour.....he deletes the price in the ad, and will list the next one for a higher price because that one sold so fast. Mecum and BJ contribute to the problem.
......Just my two cents worth.

 

Thinking of parting this out

 

You get it. Well worded. There are plenty of people with plenty of stash that don't flaunt it.
You see it in all hobbies not just the car world.

 

I see the same happening in the air cooled VW world - I've been stashing and selling parts for them since the late '80s. With fewer cars of the vintage around undergoing restorations the demand for parts new and used has declined significantly in the last 10 years, and prices have gone up...skyrocketing in some cases, like the pre-67 vans. I like to think I'm aware of most others in my area with any sizeable parts stash, but there are always sources coming out of the woodwork - and I'm sure most marquees are similar in that regard.

As far as deleting prices after sold...I do like being able to find past prices as a reference point when I'm trying to sell something similar, but that can also bite you in the posterior. I have one regular who will take note of ten year old swap meet prices marked on a part try to get it for that ten year old price, or reference a similar part sold in the past as a price point while ignoring variations in condition and so forth. So I understand some of the reasons why people might do that.

I do try to keep my pricing fair, along the lines of what would I want to pay for a part, but I'm also not selling uber rare parts. I noticed in a facebook group this week that someone had posted a common part in nice condition and someone else told him he needed to increase his price (guess he was worried about his own parts prices having to drop). That kinda bugged me.

In the end, people with what many consider outrageously priced parts will reach one of two conclusions - either reduce the price to something reasonable, or continue admiring the part collecting dust on their shelf.

 

I've said this before in a similar topic thread, but it's not just cars and parts. People drag sh*t out of their sheds and think by calling it vintage, that it somehow magically increases the price. Just look on FB Marketplace for old minibikes. Stuff that is questionably even a $100 bike will be listed for $400 or more. Same with goofy old jetskis that, as recently as 2018, could be purchased for a few hundred. Now, $3500 and up.

Meanwhile, I guess I am guilty of pricing stuff too high, because my Starfire is still sitting in my garage, unsold going into year 3 now.

 

All of this is true, but the prices of parts is why these cars are so high. An average guy will never be able to buy his dream car at todays market. Reminds me of the story about a purchaser ordered a million pens for a penny each, but they came without tops. He went back to the supplier for tops and had to pay a dollar each for tops. So you decide whether to pay for the tops or scrap the whole order. If you buy an incomplete car for cheap, you better get ready to pay out the wazoo for missing parts.

 

lol I had a chance to buy a puke green super bird same combo , the guy wanted 1500 bucks and I had recently bought my gto for 600 , told him he’s crazy going to have to spray it to get that ugly egging green off it lol if I only knew , that car sat at a local Chrysler dealer well into 73 I think bought as a left over geez Louise

 

This is the same old argument regurgitated every decade. You cannot compare anything you could have bought in the 70/80's or even 10 years ago to today.

 

I know that prices have gone up and I'm not saying that this is the way for everyone but it's how I could afford my little hobby...

Instead of getting everything at once, I've spent the last 9 years getting my Olds to the way that I want her. During the year I'd set aside what I could and then every winter, I'd pick up something here, something else there, stockpile them, and then work on her come spring.

 

I mean anyone could talk about prices in the good old (get off my lawn) days. Of course prices have gone up! But it's all relative.
I bought my 1st car in 1985, a '69 El Camino SS for $1200. Now that sounds dirt cheap now, but back then to a 16 year old, that was expensive as heck.

 

I bought my first car in 75, a 1967 Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe for under $500, I bought the current one I'm driving in 2009 for $5000.

 

Saying that a 100 thousand dollar 442 is comparable to the prices they were is ridiculous. To each their own. Prices have priced normal Joe's out of the game.

One other thing to note is that back in the seventies and eighties you couldn't give these cars away.

One more quick old story. My friend had a brother that worked at a Chrysler dealer. Old lady traded in what I think could have been a one of one Hemi 68 Roadrunner. White. Green mod top and green mod interior. Bench seat. Column shift. So ugly. He bought it for 200 dollars. Pulled the motor put it in his 70 Charger. Sent the runner to the crusher. Zero body damage perfect interior etc.

 

anything or any car that had a mod paisley top and interior deserves the crusher lol damn you would need to sneak up on a glass of water just to get a drink lol ewwww

 

With the prices 4-4-2's/W-30 cars are going for, it's no wonder the prices for parts, especially for those models, are becoming unobtainium.

The thing that really puzzles me is how quickly this has happened. I bought my '67 4-4-2 in the fall of 2019 at a price I thought was very fair and reasonable for a very nice driver. Based on what I'm seeing out there now, it's almost doubled in value, of course someone has to buy it at that price. However, we are now seeing many people paying that kind of crazy money, and it is reflected in the valuations put out by Hagerty and other insurance companies. I wouldn't have been able to get my car at the current prices. My biggest question is, what has driven this very recent escalation of Oldsmobile prices? I'm just really glad I bought my car when I did, and equally scared about what the hell I'll do if anything major breaks!

 

I remember when bread was a nickel

 

The recent rise is probably due to the escalation of the more popular A bodies. Have you priced Chevelles?

 

So funny you brought that up. At Kisseme there was a major Chevelle player. He loaded up on his LS-5's and LS-6's. Oldsmobile's smoked him.

For me I am transparent. Someone that buys a car for the sole purpose is to make a dollar? I hope you lose your ***. I am not saying he was by the way. These Oldsmobile prices are going to crash hard. Look at everybody trying jump that wagon. Look at that black non W car 71 442 ragtop. Sure it was restored by absolutely one of the best Olds restoration companies out there. Thornton's. That car sold for 200k once. Recently sold for 75k less. That a bath I don't want. Look at what happened to the Mopar investors.

PS: No better 70-72 A body than an Oldsmobile. Period. Oldsmobile on...👍

 

And bubble gum was a penny.