I can buy these two cars, the vert for $8500 and the coupe for $10,500 but a piece of junk someone wants 3-5 thousand for.

I hate to say it but unless I find a bargain I'm going to pull a running street car down and strip it, at least I could part it out and end up with the shell for a fair price.

Eh - they're 9's. No one likes the 9's. j/k

Yeah - I don't quite get the prices of the FGF's these days. People don't want to pay top dollar for nice ones, but junkers bottom out pretty high up the chain. I think it's time for a market shift!

those cars are way too nicetoo part out!!! if you want a shell i can find you one for cheap. found one the other day for 500$

That's my point, I haven't been able to find a shell for cheap.
I'd love to find a decent shell for $500, so far nothing but rust junk, overpriced parts or both.

I have found a 69 that's not to aweful bad. Still pretty bad though.

Here's a 68 that one guy offered me for $2800? Unreal!!!

Well, your not alone. I don't get it either. This past Fall I tried to sell our Bird locally for 17k. Granted, I was experiencing engine issues (since fixed) however, my car is all original body panels and not ONE ounce of body filler anywhere in the entire car. Not too mention everything inside the car has been replaced or redone to all original cond. etc. The market for the FGF is really odd. We go to shows all the time and hardly ever see a FGF and tons of Camaros. You would think this alone would make our Bird more valued. Oh well, as long as we all love them who cares!

One thing that makes the market odd is all the 'flippers' in it. The stock market was very odd when all the 'day traders' were in it. Right now the flippers are getting weeded out because they can't make a living at flipping when the prices are not going up every day.

The biggest problem with FGF's is that they're not Camaros. How many times have you seen a Bird turn into a Camaro, via transplanted sheet metal? A lot. Vice versa, not so many. Every swinging chubby with a fat wallet wants a Chevy. The only Pontiac that's considered desireable today would be a Goat.

The Firebird has become an orphan in it's own market. I've only kept mine around this long because once it's gone, my career as a car nut (30 years-plus now) would be over. I don't plan to replace her as times, as they say, are a-changing and not for the better if you want to pilot big-inch gas guzzlers.

500.00 for a fgf?i will buy all i can get for that price.it usually cost me more than that to have one shipped to me

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...

Just a thought...

John

JC, I think you are right. There are so many shows on TV now. However, people are so clueless, they have no idea what it would truly cost to do one of those projects they are watching on TV. They buy the shell for a ridicuous amount because they can "afford" 3-5k sounds great, then they start ordering stuff and it doesn't take long to realize that it is going to take some serious cash to actually finish the job. Little do they also realize how affordable a finished classic car is if they purchase one that is already or almost done. They would be better off taking out a loan for 20k and pay 200 per month opposed to buy a shell for 3-5k, trying to buy parts now and then, getting discouraged after a year or two then taking a loss. It's a vicious cycle basically. Bottom line, people just don't think these "projects" through before getting into them.

Also, people watch those shows and think it is so easy to do. What they don't realize is that ther is an entire crew working on that project when the cameras aren't rolling. Not too mention the bottomless account they are working with due to the adv. on the show etc. People watch and think, wow, that looks like fun or that looks easy. Well yeah, when you are using the best of everything from tools to parts and the magic of the camera, yeah it looks easy! LOL

I would think a semi complete no interior FGF shell would go around $1000-$1500 without running gear, but it should be in decent shape, maybe need a hood, fender, valance, or maybe a quarter skin and trunk pan or combination of some of those. But not all of those. A good body should bring over $2000.
The car in that picture to me is a $800-$1000 shell. If it had fenders and usable front bumper parts, or had been media blasted, maybe $1500, not $2800. That's a redicules price to start a project like this with.

Repo body parts alone will run into the thousands. Why buy a rusty hulk when I can buy a running car, part it out and possibly sell the good stuff to someone building one of these rusty hulks. I'd save thousands on body panels and body work.
But just thinking out loud, I have no intentions at this time to part out a running car, for now anyway.

The only way I see it as these prices being a non issue is the fact that in the end, paying $1000 more for a shell than it's worth is peanuts in the grand scheme of total restoration cost.
Maybe that's the problem. But I'm not restoring this car, I'm building a race car, therefore I can't pay what some would consider a restorers fair market value for a shell. Nor can I justify buying a car that needs doors, fenders, full quarters and floors, those are the most expensive and time consuming body parts to replace. If I get a car that needs all that, it needs to be cheap as the only valuable part is the front subframe and roof.

Find the middle ground in the current wacko market. Its all these TV auctions that are skewing the price/demand dollars.

If you are a buyer, stay away from the rotted crap AND the BS highs, look for the mids that are clean.

If you HAVE to sell one of our blessed FGFs, clean her up and get what you can.

We FGF owners are always in that middle ground. What we all want are SALES of clean birds that go for big bucks.

check out canadian auctions... -it seems like it's more reasonable up there..

don't know why..

Aw Clause, I did not want to hear that....not that I'm sellin anytime soon!

Here's a candidate;
/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=96953#Post96953