Really! That car sold for 123,000, and the builder was not happy with that? If he spent 254,000 to build it, he's a fool. I don't believe that cost for one minute. There's fudge in those numbers
It's really easy to get over $100,000 in parts alone. They added in labor to reach that value, and it's reasonable. If you pay someone to build a really nice car it's going to take a long time and cost a lot of money. I couldn't have afforded my car if I hadn't done the work myself, but it took me 10 years.
There's a huge cost difference between building a car back to like it originally was and building a custom car that looks like an old car.