1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 Sold at Mecum today for $40,000

gzig5 said
There are a LOT of people that don't have the skill, space, knowledge, time, etc to restore/rebuild one of these cars from a "reasonable" starting price for the project. Paying $40k for a car that is done and can be driven, whether it's really done right or not, is a big money savings over paying someone to do all the work. Considering a new stripped base model truck starts at $45k+ and nicely appointed is $65k tells me the entire vehicle market has seen massive inflation. Both new and used. Classic cars are along for the ride. To your point, the hyped up selling prices at the auction houses don't help at all.

I agree that auction prices are inflated to a amount. That's Why Barrett gets the wiskey flowing to drive them up. But some cars are done correct and cost huge money to Restore. So people want to try to recover most of the cost. If you spend 175000.00 0n a restoration you don't want to see it bring 45000.00. And I've seen at auctions cars are beutifully done and worth good money, But also seen Cars appear to be done correctly, And under the lights of auctions they bring stupid money.