I think one reason the shells are going for such high dollars is a lot of people are on the resto kick. They want a project car they can restore to their own liking -- not a car someone else has already started or brought back to life. There's a lot of middle-aged, baby-boom guys like me with time on their hands who had muscle cars back in high school! LOL
ALL the parts companies seem to be doing very well and even small vendors seem to be doing pretty good. In my opinion, it's because there are so many restos going on. Heck, look at all the TV shows too...