What's wrong with the muscle/classic car market??

[moparmaniac59]

Hey folks, 
I love this site and all you Mopar happy folks. Great bunch of people and a great source of valuable info. Maybe I'll get to meet some of y'all at Carlisle this year. I am a little confused with the car market. I have a Canary yellow 1968 Barracuda notchback for sale. I've listed it with a color photo in the Old Car Trader. The car is not a number matching or a show car. It's just a nice, fun driver. The car was completely redone (by previous owner) about 4 years ago. It was repainted. had some body panels replaced, new trunk & gas tank. completely new drivetrain with a beefy little 360 bored .040 over with a lot of goodies such as MSD ignition, all braided fuel lines, 12 gallon fuel cell, a very mild NOS sniper system, forged pistons, just a lot of quality high performance stuff. It's not too radical for the street as it still has a 7 1/4 rear end with interstate gears, new (automatic) tranny (904) with shift kit, entirely redone interior such as reupholstered seats, new carpet, headliner, door panels, dash pad ect. The car has some minor issues such as some bubbling on the paint on the lower quarters. The console has some scratches on the chrome, the dash was cut out for a modern stereo system. The usual stuff one might expect from what was NOT a high dollar custom resto shop frame-off job, but very nicely done. It is a VERY solid car, very quick and just fun to drive. The drivetrain has less than 5,000 since redone. I'm not going to list all the new crap on the car, but just to give an idea of the conditon and major things done. Here's the thing. I realize it's not a high dollar show car, but there is well over 10,000 bucks in this car and I am not asking a fortune. Only $9,500.00. I've gotten a TON of calls , but no one has come out to even look at the car. So it's not like the folks are coming out, looking, and deciding it is a piece of garbage and then leaving. They're just not coming out at all. Many SAY they are coming, but then don't show up!! I just don't get it. Has Barrett-Jackson messed everybody up. Do they now all want a hemi clone for 100k?? Anybody else had this problem just trying to sell a nice, but not show car?? I do know that it started it's run during December which most folks are trying to buy gifts and not cars, but the same thing is happening now here in January?? I'll try to get a pic here on this thread to show y'all that it's not a bad looking car!! Any ideas?? Maybe I'm not asking enough?? Believe it or not I has a friend who was trying to sell some high end race parts real cheap & everybody that called wanted to know what was wrong with the parts because they were listed so cheap. There was nothing wrong, he just wanted to sell the stuff. I told him to double the price and who'd figure, they sold the next week at double the price!! 
                                                                 Matt B.

[4Cruizn]

Where do you have it listed for sale??  Looks like a sweet a-body!!   

[cuda]

Nice looking car at a more that fair price id say. 

[vinb]

Not a bad looking Cuda. It seems your in the right range. I can't figure people out anymore either. Hey keep it, like you said it a real nice cruiser.....

[jeryst]

Where are you located?

[71340RT]

Nice looking Barracuda and I would say that the holiday season has a little effect on the sale but I still think it should sell soon.

[moparmaniac59]

The car is located in Portsmouth VA. For those not familiar with the city, it is about 30 miles from Virginia Beach, VA. And although my wife probably won't like the extra car (we have 5), I may just keep it. My daughter may want it when she's old enough to drive (only 3 years now) . I'd have to take the NOS off for her & make it a little less peppy!! Keeping it is looking more & more like the thing to do. I really hate to part with it anyway, it's just a money thing, but keeping it wouldn't break the bank!! Heck I've got two motors in the garage, one a built & ready to go big block 383 that was in a '68 dart that ran low 11's in the 1/4. Hmmm, that sounds good!!
                                                                 Matt B.

[Bonkers]

I think the classic car market will collapse in the next couple of years. Because 99% of banks will not give a loan on a car older than 7 years nor do they give unsecured loans over $10k the recent market surge was from people using home equity loans to get serious amounts of cash. With interest rates steadily rising that source of income will evaporate leaving the $100k Hemi Clone a thing of the past.

Also if you are using solely the internet to sell you're up against the most competition you could have possibly gotten yourself into. Unless you are scraping rock bottom on your car's value (regardless of how nice it is) internet people will ALWAYS find a better deal. When I look at cars online I find one - call the seller - analyze the price - then immediately go try to find something better.

So if your asking price isn't insultingly low you're best bet is to try to sell offline locally to people who haven't "discovered" ebay yet. 

[ChallengerGary]

Traditionally, December and January are always the worst months to sell a muscle car because unless your car is a steal, most people have other things on their minds.  December is spend, spend, spend. January is OMG look at those credit card bills! Wait until February and then you'll have more people "in the market."

[Madmax440]

You mean there are actually people out there that haven't discovered ebay as of yet

[hemi71]

Traditionally, December and January are always the worst months to sell a muscle car because unless your car is a steal, most people have other things on their minds.  December is spend, spend, spend. January is OMG look at those credit card bills! Wait until February and then you'll have more people "in the market."

 

Traditionally slow between November and Feburary. I think we also now have the Barrett-Jackson effect where everyone waits to see what happens there as that effects the market for these cars.

Getting financing on these cars is easy, there are quite a few lenders out there and the rates are competitive. I've done it several times. The benefit of using an equity loan is it's tax detuctible.