I wish we had a Chargers for sale archives.

[skip68]

To bad we can't go back for fun and see the cars for sale back in 05 and up.  Be kind of cool to compare side by side equal cars and prices.  
I believe the prices started going up in the summer of 05 because of the Dukes movie.      
If I was buying the same car today that I bought in 05 I'd probably be paying 3 times as much.  Maybe 2 and a half times.   This is what $5,000 could get you back then.   A solid rust free car needing engine rebuild and interior.  

[Baldwinvette77]

Lots of things seem to make chargers massively overpriced, use in movies, use in video games, dodges new commercials.. the fact that its just a badass car doesn't help much either 

[tan top]

  I use to save all the old hemmings mags from the 80s  , but gave them all away sometime ago , it made for some interesting  looking / reading , in the 80s there were lots for sale  ,  & pages of mopar parts etc  , 

you can look at old ebay auctions  below  , just need to sign up ( its free)    ,   I check ebay for chargers at least once a  day , every day    , there are some that get sold i never get chance to see ,     & they are  normally  the best  projects     , anyways back to the below site ,  it only shows the pictures of recent years though

http://collectorcarpricetracker.com/

[Brock Lee]

My brother was keeping close track of selling prices online from around 1996-2005. I will ask and see if he has any of that info left.

But prices were already steadily increasing well before 2005. 2005 is when there was a brief extreme increase in prices. An artificial bubble.

By late 2003, on average (deals are always out there, even today), $5k would not easily buy you a rust free car. Most non-R/T's that required some common rust removal and general restoration were usually selling in the $5K range. I recall in 2004, a clean, rust free baseline 1970 Charger I could have bought locally, not online, for $8K. It didn't last long, maybe a week before it was bought by a flipper marked up and resold quickly for $13K. So, you got a good deal and could have flipped it for more on the spot.

Back then, there certainly were more cars on the market that were in need of restoration, but not the basket cases you see today.

Edit- I found the records for a 1969 I bought on eBay 12/2003. 318, driveable, in primer, new quarters hung, wrong seats, but the rest was original. $5800. I remember being a little more interested in that car because of its new quarters. I dreaded the idea of cleaning down a body and finding hidden rust issues in the lower quarters. Still have it. Threw a quick paint job on it and drove it 10 years before having to do any major mechanical work to it.

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

In 1996-1999, I could buy all the R/T numbers matching cars for $15k or less. Those were in nice, "driver" condition.

Then, around Y2K, things started to climb. By 2005/6, they were out of control. It had more to do with the housing bubble and refi-HELOC deals. How many lost a home over a car or other high end purchase, we'll never know. 

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

FWIW, I paid $1,400 for a 68 Charger w/ 440, no major rust, just a few spots in the lowers, which were already taken care of. Bought in 1990, sold in 1991 for $3k and it was a buyers market.

[Back N Black]

I bought in 2005 and over paid, but was a good deal compared to what people are paying today.

[Lord Warlock]

chargers have been up and down for 30 years.  in the late 80s the RT's and Hemis were hitting 35k to 70k for nice examples, 8k to 15k for projects, basketcases were still 1k to 4k.  The market went down, then it came back in the early 2000s, then market tanked and economy has sucked for 8 years and the cars are up again because you can't hold a good thing down forever.  Eventually the cream will rise to the top.  Its why I've held on to my Y3 Cream puff.

[birdsandbees]

Is that your kid in B5 Blue Chuck?? 

[skip68]

Yes.  We gutted the interior and started sanding it.   What a mess.  The car was originally white but had been painted yellow, green and then blue.   

[Mike DC]

   
It wasn't the Dukes movie.  It was a few different economic factors in the 2000s and the ongoing effect of inflation. 

Look at the price of almost any long-term-steady commodity over the years. 

[Lord Warlock]

Whatever it was, I am thankful.  I am always glad to see when values of old muscle goes up.  May have to sell car in next year or two, and would be nice to get something back for holding it all these years.

[Brock Lee]

The Dukes movie did have a temporary impact. It may have lasted 6 months, tops. And it began before the movie actually released, when the trailers started running in the spring, peaked in the summer, and tapered off in the fall. Anything painted up like a GL was going for way more than it was worth. Many of the GL fanboys that had been around a while sold their cars off in that era.

Aside from that. Easy credit really helped push the values up as well. Hell, even Pay Pal was dishing out thousands of dollars of credit just for the asking around 2004-2005. I saw it affecting everything collectible, not just cars.

[Kern Dog]

I bought mine in March 2000. It was for SALE (NOT for sell) for several weeks. The price was $2500 in the first run of the classified ad, then the seller (NOT Saler) dropped the price to $1900. The car is a 500 model. It came with a 318/904/8.25 and 4 wheel drums. Console, buckets, A/C. Minor rust around rear window. Perfect grille. I paid $1700 and drove it to work 130 miles daily for a month while the engine in my work truck was out for a rebuild.
Even then I felt the price was cheap. I knew of cleaner driver quality R/T cars but didn't have the $8000 buy-in. Didn't matter that this one wasn't an original R/T. The pedigree of original performance cars isn't a big deal to me since I had plans to modify mine anyway. I've owned over 40 Mopars in my life and the closest thing to a "pedigree" car I've owned is a 73 Dart Sport 340 and a 74 Duster 360.

[skip68]

   I fixed the sell to sale Kern dog.  Just for you.   

[Kern Dog]

Hey... I wasn't pointing fingers at anyone. Random Grammar correction is just one of the many services that I offer....

[skip68]

 

[TPR]

http://collectorcarpricetracker.com/

Great resource Tan Top. 
TPR

[six-tee-nine]

I paid around 12K in 2006 for my 69 R/T project. Prices were really trough the roof back then.
It was a complete car that was missing engine and trans. Needed trunk floor and lower rear quarters. Spare door and grille came with the car.

I must add this to the story, I am in Europe and bought the car trough a contact person who had seen the car and who's opinion I could trust.
The purchase price included container sea freight and 21% import VAT and handling fees. So If I exclude that I guess the buying price I paid was around 8K.

I could saved some money on buying one, but then I would of had to make the time to fly over and go road-tripping and then I would needed to arrange all the shipping myself.

[TPR]

I bought mine in March 2000. It was for SALE (NOT for sell) for several weeks.

Here's one for you Kern Dog, second line in the description.  
TPR

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dodge-Charger-R-T-/221945563190?forcerrptr=true&hash=item33acfc8836:g:7FsAAOSwT4lWTkJs&item=221945563190

[Kern Dog]

A regular scholar there as well.   

[b5blue]

  It would be interesting to map the advent of internet on pricing and things like the growth of eBay's effect. 20 years ago I scrounged up 1,500.00 for my 70 Charger within weeks of finding it. It had sat for sale for about a year. While the cars have gone up the parts have generally gone down greatly through market competition.