very good thread. after watching BJ through its entire speed history I registered as a bidder and met my father there last weekend to see things first hand, spend the qaulity time with the man who started initiated my love of cars and I came away with quite a few impressions....
high dollar hot rods just didn't bring the cash. As I stood on stage and watched the locally built ( pinkies is right up the road from me) 29' Rod that I had drooled all over at every local show I saw it at this year, it AMAZED me the hammer hit the block at 190K?????
with this being said... I "let" the 57' Nomad go for 137K because 1) I wasn't prepared to pay that much and 2) I'd be ripping it apart to due it "My way" anyhow and a 137K starting price for a project is NOT the way to go.
I'm still a "car guy" at heart, I'm tied up way more now with my dental practice and our first child on the way, but I'm still going to wrench on my Nomad project as much as possible and pay to have the things done I don't have the facilities to do or expertise. With camaro shells from Dynacorn and other car models on the way ....I think the home built crowd still has an option, unlike my father who would love to pick up a stocker 68 Z/28 coupe to replace the gold/black version he traded in on his 1970 LT-1 M22 car back in 70'.
That same vette with 25K origonal miles, one owner, is worth less than almost all of the 69 Z's that crossed the block last weekend. WHY? because that is the current trend. Many more people plucked down the cash for a 69 camaro than did $5,500 for the LT1 in a vette the following year. As My father and I watched the ZL-1 cross the block. He leaned over and told me that there were SIX in an Indianapolis Chevy dealer back on 1970 when he was lookng for his LT1. They couldn't give them away at double what a stock vette went for....hind sight is 20/20
as midyear vettes (big blocks or not) all get bought up and sold again at other auctions or BJ 07' you will see buyers graviatate towards the stingways and they will due the research to find the "rare" versions...some 427's went across this year.
Just look at how many "factory correct numbers matching" ( I'm sick of that phrase after 3 days at BJ) hemi's cars that were not cudas that crossed the block...most went for less than 100K..if you liked the early cuda body style
Two phrases I heard last weekend hold the most truth...
1) You may have the best "19XX" in the world, but two people have to want it to bring good money.
2) you are only one bid away from paying above market value...