Hey Everbody! I just received my Hemmings,the prices for First gen camaros are amazing. There are #3 diassembled (projects) around 15k! My feeling is that our Firebirds are somewhere around 50% off of these(speculative?) prices.This trend has been growing for at least 2-3 years.GTO prices seem to be hand in hand with Camaro prices.So where are we?, why the big difference in our f-Body partners?
Shhhh - enjoy the low prices while they last if you are buying and if selling hold on and enjoy the car til the prices go up. People will pay a lot for recognizable(equals trendy)name brands and the muscle car market is no different right now.
I understand your comments. What I dont understand is why the Camaro? Is it because its a Chevy, Is it the grille ? is it a beauty contest? I suspect the Camaro outsold the Firebird, this opens up several paths #1 fewer Firebirds mean higher value? #2 the fact that the Chevy was and remains the more desirable of the F-Body! I guess the market will answer the question for us --Happy motorin! MIK
its because a lot more were made,so they got name recognition....everybody knows what a Camaro is, few know a Firebird...
of course 'normally' a lesser number produced car 'should' be more valuable....and it may happen....eventually..the birds ARE going up as we speak...not sure how much Maros are going up, havent compared them lately, but the birds seem to be up about 35% from 4 , 5 yrs ago...
I have wondered about the prices. GTO's are worth more even if they have the same engine. Pontiac probably did promote the GTO in a bigger way so the nostalgia has a bearing.
As far as Camaros, there are just more Chevy fans out there in my estimation. That drives the prices up faster. I do believe that the huge increases in Judge prices will bring up other GTO's and Firebirds so that is the bright side if you want price increases.
On a side note--The Firebird may sometimes not be looked at as a musclecar which hurts its value. Of course the GTO is a musclecar with its 400 engine, but the general public may or may not see 350 engines and six cylinder engines as muscle car engines. It is sometimes public perception that drives prices.
I like all the Firebirds, but cars perceived as muscle cars are the hot cars.
I believe the majority of SS Camaros were equipped with a 350, L48, which produced 295 HP, in 68 and 69 however one could order a big block equipped Camaro, the Camaro SS396, which was available in two horsepower versions, the L34 which produced 350 HP and was the common big block motor and the L78, which was a rare aluminum headed engine, which produced 375 HP and had such things as 4 bolt mains, forged pistons and crank, 11:1 compression ratio, Rectangullar ported heads with ports so huge, you can stick your fist in them!, larger intake and exhaust valves, solid lifter cam and an aluminum intake manifold with a Holley 850 cfm carb.
It's not a case of people not knowing Frirebirds. Production numbers mean nothing as far as value goes. What about an Ambassador Madador? Their numbers are as low as it goes, but nobody wanted them when they were new, and nobody wants them know, if such cars still exist.
The bottom line is that they are not pouplar cars, as in high demand for the cars. BJ auction proved that when they were giving away 69 T/A's for a lot less money than many board members have in their cars.
Because the cars aren't as popular as other cars, the prices are lower, and the prices will never catch up to the Camaro or the goat.
I think that it also has a lot to do with packages and not just engines. Pontiac offered engine options in FGF's while Chevy offered SS, RS, Z28, Pace Car and COPO. They had different stock appearances not just engines and badgings. If you compare these to Pontiac's 69 T/A, there's much more parity. Also, by 69 this was in full swing with Camaros and the 69's appear to bring more than the 67's and 68's. Plain jane Camaros don't nearly bring as much as the others but still more than birds. Just some observations.
First of all, alot of the prices in Hemmings are just inflated values advertised by people who are not seriously hoping to sell their car. Kind of a "looky what I have" type of thing. How many people do you know who have PAID 15k for a basket case Camaro? They did indeed make many more Camaro's. Honestly however, the Camaro's have always been more popular. The value differences are not as large as some would have us believe. But I must admit that I scratch my head when I see a plain jane small block camaro..pretty original...not bad shape...12k ?? I often wondered what I could get for my Bird...NOT that I would sell. 69 350/2bbl/turbo350/29k miles. All original including the paint. Not ashamed to be the only early bird at a show amongst a bunch of Chevy's !
Gar- I disagree. The "personal" ads do seem kinda like a fishin exercise. But the ones that pop the old eyeballs are the ones from Profesional auctions houses. Some of these camaros are outright Converted grocery getter z-28's, and they are represented as such. Yet they are bringin in 20-30 K. -MIK