House next to mine IS being sold for less than was paid some 4/5 years back. Well, they're trying to sell it anyway....




Just bought the wife a 2009 Cadillac STS w/Northstar V8 last week. It went into service (sale date) 7/09, and has 24,000 miles. Sticker was 61K new and I got it for 30K cash....


On the other end of the spectrum, I just sold my old 1998 BMW740il w/163K for all of 4K cash (more than I actually thought I'd get)

 

[QUOTE=KTKelly;1574456630]House next to mine IS being sold for less than was paid some 4/5 years back. Well, they're trying to sell it anyway....
QUOTE]

For decades we saw homes increase in value. Then came the practice of ANYONE being able to buy a home no matter what job,colatteral,income etc, they had. Like 99% of the peps here, we did the 20% down payment thing in our days.
It crashed b/c of the reasons above. No one can provide evidence to the contrary.
My question to everyone is this? When you buy a new auto & drive it off the lot, you go immediately "under water" if you financed the car. Why is this different? If you're buying a home merely to profit- those times are gone. Thank you to the peps that brought about home ownership with nothing down, no job, no income ,etc. I know by now we ALL KNOW who did this. Remember that this November. But I also know I'm preaching to the choir here.

 

You would think with the economy the way it is, the restoration parts houses would drop thier prices by 10-20 % . A piece of the pie is still better than no pie at all. ( i hope they saved me some lemon merange in my kitchen)........I am amazed that the supply houses are holding thier prices at last years price point, knowing theres 15-18% real unemployement.
Many of us could use a break on the parts. Or maybe just hold on to what we got until things get better? I take the latter approach on this one.

 

I agree that there's people so delusional in the values of their cars that it really shows up in times like this. NADA is pure unadulterated fiction, and 99% of the "appraisals" people hand out are not worth the paper they are printed on, and only the naive believe them.

I think there's another issue at work here... there's less people that are as clueless on the market as there used to be. I used to teach a How To Buy class at Bloomington for years, and a lot of the subject matter that we discussed that people often had no idea about, is very available of forums such as this one, as well as the NCRS site and other sources. I think there's simply less suckers out there.

Also, EVERYONE... government agencies, private employers, etc are using "the economy" as a catch-all excuse for laying people off, cutting resources, jobs, hard-lining offers, etc. There are so many people making lowball offers because of "the economy" and so many fools that are panicking and selling crazy low, that it makes for a spooky environment. people who are patient do not panic-sell, they just wait. Stuff gets sold.

And regarding ebay... please dont get misled by the lack of sales there. People that know what they are doing FIND cars on ebay, but buy and sell after the auction or work a deal that ends the auction. You will find no useable information by trolling ebay results. They arent listed.

And yes, the idiots in charge at the White House can keep the "change" and I can only "hope" they get fired.

 

Hey, Don't blame me, I voted for the American.

Being in construction I been looking at forclosures and bank owned properties to fix and sell. No deals, they ain't letting them go cheap enough to make a days pay fixing and flipping. Banks must be holding out for more Oboma bucks. To top it off you got the EPA with new lead paint regulations on pre '78 housing. More government BS.
Just sold a Chevy dually with a Lance camper and kinda felt like I was giving it away but it had to go.

 

It does suck and I do feel wicked badly for the people laid off and having hard times,
I do everything on a budget having disabilities I am of limited means and do NOT get any gov aid, what I have I do work and earn.

I have noticed lots of people want to blame the prez...( I didn't vote, both runners were clowns )
People need to face the fact that the prez is controlled by congress...if congress are a bunch of clowns then so be it,
I hate political discussions invading unrelated forums I use to escape such tripe,
So I will end that by saying if you think the government is doing a horrible job then stop ranting and whinning about it on a forum and go show me how YOU can do so much better.

Back to cars..
I bought my 69 Convertible in Dec 09 for about 1/2 or a bit better than the same car would have sold for 3 years back,

I have noticed when hunting my car many people are in a "must sell" situation ( my seller was not )
I have noticed this had caused many things like lots of total junk with high prices and then the sellers who are so pissed at the world about having to sell so they are all but impossible to deal with.
Then of course are the clueless dreamers,

The fact is it's a buyers market if you are lucky enough to find a buyer.

 

I bought my 68 L71 (has NOM 454 but found the tank sticker and it is a L71) for $7500.00 last year. I felt bad for the guy selling, but he set the price, and I didn't bother haggling with him even though I'm sure I could have probably waved 6500 or 7000 cash at him and he would have taken it. Of course 5 months later I got laid off, so now everything's on a shoe string for me also, but the Vette will not be going anywhere. The people really getting hit are the "just bought the new house and new car" crowd. I'm not sure when it's going to get better, but no time soon from the looks of it. Even when the economy picks up, it'll be a year or more till people really start spend money on "toys" again.

 

Unfortunatley I'm in the same situation. I have a very nice 81 that I've been trying to sell for a month with 2 calls!. I'm an Air Force pilot so I displayed the car on base at the base "lemon lot" . My theory was that there are hundreds of airmen deployed to the sandbox for 6 months at a time. These Airmen return with thousands of dollars in thier bank accounts cause there's nothing to spend money on in the desert. Couple this with the fact that they're mostly young, single guys and it should be very easy to sell a nice Vette?? Wrong!
I fear it will get much worse as well when the Bush tax cuts are rescinded and our free health care taxes start kicking in next year!!
Praying people vote this november.

 

Let me give you a perspective from a "parts house"......How can they drop the prices?Did their manufacturing,or advertising cost go down?Are the using inferior material to make the parts to save some coin?Does it take less employees to runa outfit?Did your people give up their families,and their life when the economy fell apart,so they could adjust?
I am a very,very small restoration shop,and sell used/new parts.My overhead here at my business hasn't went down,changes,etc.My pricing hasn't changed.If I don't meet my yearly total with my supplier,then my discounts change,and I am even worse off.When the economy took a hit,alot of the companies related to Corvettes only that I was a dealer for came on board to these car forums,and offered the same discounts to the masses as I had with a dealer account set up,so that bumped me.I still have advertising costs monthly,also.So what do you suggest?I am all ears,and would LOVE to have someone with some answers,and apparently smarter than I come on board with some good solid concrete answers.For real.
It costa me around 1800.00 a month to keep my doors open,the lights on,and advertising.I made 6.00,100.00,225.00 so far this month in parts sells,minus paypal fee,and minus approximately 30.00 of that in shipping.My suppliers haven't dropped the cost.My paint suppliers haven't dropped their prices.
I'm not being a smart azz here,but I am all ears.I hate this situation as much as the next man,and hell no I didn't vote for who runs this country right now!

 

....I sold both my Silver coupes in a four week period. Got exactly what I wanted out of them, not a nickel less. The first two people that looked at them, bought them. They were two great cars for the money. $28K for the '68, $8K for the '75.

...heard "Silver" was going down.

...still got the Blue '68 convertible & '74 coupe, the two I've owned the longest(23yrs & 22yrs).

...need to change my sig pic if I ever get around to it.

 

You bring up a good point, and I too have seen that in my line of work. Body shops aren't slashing prices, in fact, they are raising prices in order to make more money. I think they are cutting their own throats by doing that (IMO) but I can understand WHY they are doing that. But it in turn has a negative impact. I go to body shops that would normally be swamped, and they are dead. It's really, really "spooky", to use Bat's term. A buddy of mine is also selling (or rather TRYING to sell) a really sharp 79 Vette, but there is no one around with the cash to buy it. It's just a very uncertain time that we are in, and I too hope we can dump that sorry excuse for a president and get someone that actually KNOWS what he's doing. We need a little more than community organization here.

Just think...if they would have taken that stimulus and written a check to every person in the US....I've heard that it would have been something like $125k per household (or something like that). THAT would have stimulated things more, I think. People would have had the money to pay stuff off. You wouldn't have the home foreclosure rate that we do now, and people are a LOT more inclined to go out and spend, spend, spend when they have money in their pocket! I know....probably wouldn't have worked out that way....but a guy can wish, right?

Deja

 

The greater concern , to me, is the quality, (or lack of) the electorate that catapulted the prince straight to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
All I can say is get out and vote. We need some folks at the helm that possess a decent amount of common sense. No experience is preferred!
The fabric of small businesses throughout our great land is tattered and torn. Many are barely holding together. Believe me, being a small businessman, in these times is not, I repeat, not fun.
Regards,
Chuck

 

This guy alone did not cause the mess this current economy is in. The fact that he was even elected though is really scary. What does that say about the people in this country who elected him?

Everything in life has consequences and too many people have been doing things that they should not have been doing for a long, long time. Criminality, corporate greed and ignorance to the basic difference between right and wrong are all bringing this country down. We need to start electing politicians from the group of good, smart people out there.

We the people also need to clean up out own act and start putting our own economic houses in order. Try to buy American, spend less than you make and save for tomorrow. Just my 2 cents.

 

One thing you've got to look out for on Craigs is the scams. Last month I contacted three adds for motorcycles, where the prices were real low. I wasn't really in the market for a Harley cause I already own an Indian, but I figured if I could get an 07' in good condition for $2800, (1 of the examples), what the hell, I'd buy it and flip it. All three adds I contacted were attempts to sell non existent bikes! Craigslist is quite the sewer.

YV

 

If you change the pic, how can you top it? I for one enjoy it. have a good one Paul. mj.

 

Catalog prices may not have been going down, but I have noticed more offers of forum specials and weekend discounts.

In addition, even storefront companies have killer deals that can save you a lot of money. Advance had a $20-off if you spend $50 through an online purchase; I ordered up $51 worth of oil, filters and detailing supplies online, selected in-store pickup, and a half-hour later came home with only $31 more debt on my credit-card.

I've got to order a few small things for my '71; I can get along without them, but when I do order, it will likely be from the first place that offers a free-shipping special, or a discount code on those parts.

Those also tend to be the first places I call when I *need* something for the car and can't wait, which is where they make their money off me.

I do find amusement in statements like "nobody is willing to pay what it is worth"; unless the fundamental laws of free-market economics and supply-and-demand have been superceded, I always thought that something was worth what somebody was willing to pay for it.

 

the other day i found a yearone parts catalog from 2007 for my 1979 pontiac firebird trans-am (which is for sale btw) and almost every part in there has gone up $10-$25 bucks from the 2007 catalog to the present day prices for the exact same item (the part ID numbers were still even the same)

 

Well said - I wouldn't mind see those prices come down too. I wonder which vendors are really hurting?

 

at least at ecklers you get a discount when you buy at the storeroom in titusville (which i guess is only nice for us floridians)

 

Not quite that simple...you are forgetting the other half of the "market value" equation. The seller has to be willing to sell it for what the buyer is willing to pay. If I tell you that I want $50K for my car, and you tell me that you are only willing to pay $10k, does that make my car worth only what you think? Not having to sell, I have just as many choices as you do. I can look for another buyer or just wait. Not having to buy, you can look for another car or just wait. Without undue stimulus being applied (either party having to do something) the true market value will surface.