Way before Craigslist, back in the classifieds, swap meet and local swapper days. I bought a 1969 Camaro base model with 73k original miles for $2,000, had a 307 with a powerglide, drove it a bit, sold it for $2,000.


Looked at a 1970 Charger 440 4-speed about that same time, ran ok, thought it was a stupid buy, had rust, they wanted $2,500, I passed.




Passed on a 1969 Roadrunner back then, 383, 4-speed, $3,000, seemed like too much money then.




A friend tried to sell me a 1969 Bronco with a 289 3-speed sitting in his yard for $1,000, needed a coil, passed.




Several CJ-5 and CJ-7 Jeeps, who really wants a 304 with a 3-Speed, ridiculous to pay $1500 for that.




Would have eventually put way more into them than they would be worth now anyway but they were some cool vehicles and they used to be cheap











 

I never passed on a great deal like that, but I know my dad had a couple of Mopars when he was a young man that he wishes he would have kept.  His first car was a brand new '71 Challenger in Hemi Orange w/ a 440 6 pack, shaker hood, and factory cassette player.  After that he had a Charger with a 440 Magnum.  My grandpa (his dad) was a high ranking engineer for Chrysler at the time so they could get great deals on any Mopar, though they were strongly discouraged from getting the 426 Hemi due to the cost.  If my dad and uncles had kept all the Mopars they had during that period and maintained them properly the collection would probably value in the high 6-figure range today.

Test drove a 1970 Challenger 440-6 4 speed in 1982. Passed on the $900 price tag.

I had a 72 Mustang Mach 1 back in the late 80s-early 90s. My Dad and I spent a bunch of time restoring it, and it was in killer shape. Black exterior, black leather interior, 351W...



I moved to CO from FL in 92, and stupidly sold it for $2000, thinking I'd only be able to drive it 3 months per year in CO.

Back in the early 90's, I had the chance to buy a 1966-67ish Mustang in Arizona for $3000. Didn't have $3000, but probably could have scrounged it up. It was red.

Around 2001ish, I had a guy interested in trading a 66 Corvette convertible for my newly built rigid custom motorcycle + a couple grand boot money. Paint was rough, and I really didn't have the garage space for another vehicle, so I declined.

Kick me in the balls for both of those.

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Stardate 2007.  

Could have bought 2006 Jeep TJ Rubicon. Last year of 4.0 inline with 6 speed manual. Dana 44 front and rear. All wheel disk.

Dealer sample said 24k....salesman said $20k out the door.

Today... 9 yrs. later....same Jeep with 130k miles.....$24K fuckin dollars.

The year was 1988, I was a junior in high school.  Went to this guys house to buy a set of rims (for my '67 GTO) that he'd advertised in a penny saver. While I'm there, i notice a car on his lot that's under a cover. Curious, I ask him "what's under the cover?"  He peels the beat up car cover off, and reveals a '67 Vette (427 cid). I ask him if it's for sale.   He hesitates for a second, and says, "yeah,.....6 grand".  Now, I never really had the money in the first place, and the car definitely needed some TLC, but to this day, I get a sick feeling in my stomach whenever I think back about it.

69 Firebird 400 convertible. automatic. $4000 cash. my dad said id kill myself.

Throughout the early 90s after I started driving...

73 Charger 318/727     had been freshened up,  overall good condition,  no rust on torsion bar mounts   $1500


70 Mustang Fastback  302/auto   Nice condition  Not a real Boss302, but was grabber orange with boss stripes  $1200


72 Challenger 340/4sp   Body and engine restored,  interior needed finished $2000


Dont remember the year 71/72ish Chevelle/Malibu  in beautiful condition inside and out.   Was a fake SS with a boring 350  $1800.



I ended up buying a 69 C20/CST  396/TH400  $1500



A few other notables


64 Impala   had been sitting a while,  but complete and ran  283/auto   granny car    $300

64 Falcon  ran great    I6    $600

60 F100   had a 390/auto  in primer  $1200

Handfuls of 68 to 70 mopars in the $1000 to $4000 range circa 1989. I was a broke ass high schooler. Did buy a 72 Mustang 302 auto for $700, rust free too. And a 1968 Charger 383hp, 3.91 for $1200.

In 1986 I had the chance to buy a white 1970 Plymouth Superbird with a 440 6-pac and auto tranny......it was a huge sum of money
at the time.....$8000.........it had 60,000 or so miles on it........I always regret not getting it.....

(I did buy a 1969 Coronet R/T with a 440 4-V for $200 though........running.....in 1984)



I haven't kept on prices but that Superbird would be worth over half a million today........

Let the context set you free. Somebody wanted $8k in 1986 dollars for a 16 year old Chrysler product, which was teetering on real, actual, shut it down bankruptcy around that time.

But yeah, if we had crystal balls...

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I owned a 68 chevy caprice as a kid and had a friend who wanted to trade his 67 camaro for it. I told him to pound sand. Biggest mistake. But had I made the trade I probably wouldn't have kept the car as an investment and would have gone through it like all my other ones When I think of cars I trashed it makes me sick.

1992, I was about to ETS from FT Benning GA. me and another guy used to cruise the back roads of Georgia & Alabama for old cars.. We found a1966 Impala with factory 396 and 4 speed(non SS). Price tag of $300. I passed since I already had my 1970 GT6+ I needed to trailer home. Dumb.

Still have my gt6 though

Passed on a split window 66 Corvette 327 Fi engine on a lot in bout......1976 for the ridiculous price of $2100.00.  

Now you can add a zero to it and in some cases double it.

I was in the US Army from 1975 to 1979.  There's a tremendous number of cars (at least back then) being sold/swapped as guys get shipped out and can't take it with them.

I missed, by 15 minutes, a 1965 GTO Convertible with a 455 4 brl and automatic transmission my room mate was selling for $650.  Beautiful car.  Black, gold metalflake paint with a white top and black and white interior.  Ansen Sprint slotted mags. all the way around.  I went to the credit union to get the money, walked back up the road and into the barracks only to have him tell me another guy had just bought it.  Then, the other guy took it out, blew up the transmission and refused to pay him the rest of the money.

I almost bought a 1969 Olds 442 with a 455 and a 4 spd.  A Texas car, original paint, factory 8 track tape player (in those days they were in the dash but separate from the radio for some reason).  I took a ride in it but my "buddy" told me he could hear a rod knocking.  He told the seller the same thing, talked him down from $850 to $150 and bought the car and then took it home and re-sold it the same weekend.  Not my "buddy" any longer after I heard about that.

I considered re-enlisting (only for a few minutes, or maybe hours) and was looking at a sweet looking 1959 Corvette a few blocks from the post that was $3500.  I figured I'd use my re-enlistment bonus to buy the car but decided to go to college instead.  Yeah, I know, when you enlisted back then they told you that you could go to college part time when you got to your permanent duty station.  However, it was a recruiter telling you that.  When I got to my permanent duty station and asked about part time college I just got a funny look and a loud laugh and further confirmation that most of what the recruiter told me was not true.

In later years I saw a nice looking 1959 Austin Healy Mk3 for sale locally that had a 1958 Corvette 283 with the 2 four barrel carb set up and the Corvette 4 speed installed in it.  I was leaving for a business trip to England/Scotland and didn't have time to check up on it.  When I got back it had been sold already.  I think that would have been a neat car.  Oh, $3500 was the price for that one, too, about 20 years ago, or so.

My dad passed on a Shelby mustang, it had sat in a garage since the son who it was bought for died in Vietnam. I was on the way and the money was supposed to go for my Mom to stay home longer. He wound up buying a set of McIntosh speakers with it anyways. I never knew the true story til fairly recently after his death last year.
Daniel

Early 60's, my dad passed on a very restorable SS100 for 500GBP. It's been 50 years, but he's almost forgiven himself.

A guy I played pool with was in the process of restoring a '68 Hurst Olds.  I had no idea at the time how valuable this car was.



From Hagerty's:  The 1968 Hurst Olds 4-4-2 had a 455-cid V-8 putting out 390 hp and 500 ft-lb of torque. The engine
utilized forced air induction and a Turbo Hydramatic transmission. Just
515 of the Hurst/Olds were built in 1968, and the cars were good for
0–60 mph in 5.4 seconds.



He had taken everything off the frame and all the parts were sitting in a warehouse when he got in an accident that paralyzed him from the waist down.



He offered to sell the car to me for $9,000.  I couldn't envision myself storing a warehouse full of car parts in the hope that some day I'd feel the urge to put it all together.  I wish I had because that car would sell for around $50,000 today.



(This reminds me...I need to look that guy up and let him kick my ass around the pool table again...)

Damn, that hurts.



 

I didn't know Jeeps were considered muscle cars...



 

Back in 1987, I passed on a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang because, while it had a Boss302 engine in it, it wasn't the original engine to the car.
It had the shaker hood, the window slats, spoilers, all the desirable Boss 302 options.
Nice car.

I have kicked myself ever since.

69 Firebird, all original,in great survivor condition…. $2,000.
57 Buick 2 door (same basic shape as a 57 Chevy) in driver condition …. $1,500
These were owned by one of my HS teachers, my dad and I looked at and drove both of them. In 1990.

69 L88 (427), 4 speed Corvette. In intact, unrestored, non running condition (ran when parked). $6.000. In 1992.
I offered to trade my S10 straight across for it. Was worth a little more then what he wanted for the vette. He declined, said he would have if my truck was an extra cab. This was 1993-94ish.

The real unicorn in my life is a 68 Camaro. 327, 4 speed car. Low optioned.
Car had new floors, quarters, hood, etc. Body was done, engine was rebuilt, car was ready for paint and reassembly.

It was my dad's camaro that he bought new when he got back from Vietnam. He sold it to a buddy in the early 80s who started the restoration. My dad told him that he (or myself) were to be the first call should he ever decide to sell it.
He lost the car in a divorce.

I still have the spare keys, owners manual and window sticker. I wonder where that car is now?

In the early '70's, a lot of the '60's cars were just used cars. I bought a '68 SS396 Camaro for $1200, a '69 Chevelle SS350 convertible that needed a $200 junkyard front clip for $750, a '65 Malibu SS with the Corvette 350HP 327, Corvette 4-speed, 12 bolt  for $250 needing a rear 1/4 and engine work. Along with the Malibu, I got a '61 Impala convertible with the (blown up) 348 tri-power for a couple hundred.

Cars like '57 Chevy's were cheap too. A clean 4-speed car could be had for under $500.

Missed out on a '67 SS396 Chevelle hardtop for $475 and could have traded the SS396 Camaro + $1K for a '65 Corvette 396 4-speed convertible. Corvette needed a top and other work so I passed. That was the only year for the 396 engine. That car today would be worth big $$$$.

They didn't make split windows in  1966,1963 only.

I've bought and not bought a number of muscle cars.  At first, mostly depended on the available garage space. Along the way there were unpurchased '70 455 Buick GSX, '70 Boss 302, and '69 Shelby cars that today would fetch a pretty penny, as well as the three '67 Vettes, '67 Camaro, and '69 Mustang that I did buy. I stopped buying and then sold the last '67 Vette when the insurance got cost prohibitive.

A few years later I "discovered" machine guns...

It was 1980, I was going to 9th grade. My neighbor was selling a 1969 Chevelle Super Sport. Black and beautiful. I didn't know what the hell it was but it was hot. She wanted to sell it to me for $800. My mom said :That's too much car for you" Yeah, I ended up with a Gremlin. Fuck!

My grandmother died in 1999 and grandfather wanted to sell me her 1987 Buick Grand National with 47k miles on it...for $4k. I couldn't do it bc I was moving out and getting married. My piece of shit uncle got it and last I saw was trying to resell for $20k.

Not really a passed on story, after I got rid of my first wife (back in 87) I treated myself to a new car. I traded in my AMC AMX and bought a Pontiac Fiero SE.

How about the opposite.

I traded my 1969 Z/28 Camaro in 1974 for a new Vega.

passed on on late 70's firebird for $400 was yellow and full of tiny dents. it did run , that was 24 years ago maybe something like that. don't recall what motor, think it was a 350

1996 - best friend's dad offered to sell me his 68 Yenko Camaro. Less than 20k on the clock and he had all the documentation. He bought it new when he got back from Vietnam.

Where the hell was I going to get 45k? (I probably could have if I was serious)






Very likely you can stick a 1 in front of that now.




He ended up selling it for a bit more a few months later.
 

My dad talked me out of a '64 Cadillac Convertible for $1200 in 1989. Might have been sage advice at the time.

Circa 1988 old Chevelles were a dime a dozen and borderline laughable. My buddy had a '71 Firebird with a 396 that was hot shit, he sold it for $3000 I think. A girl that lived on my street drove a '67 Mustang coupe to school, I think it was a 302. '65-66 Mustangs were everywhere, '67-70 Mustangs were much more rare but they were around. You even saw a few '71s here and there, weird mutant cars that they were (why didn't they just keep rolling the '69s out year after year?).

My next door neighbor let an Olds 442 rust away in his back yard for years. Smokey and the Bandit style late '70s Firebird TransAm were sub $500 laughing stock vehicles. Chargers and even GTOs could be had without too much trouble. '67-69 Camaros and old Vettes were rare, pure sex, they turned heads just like today.

But the hot shit car back then was the IROC Z28, I think they threw in a mullet hairstyling, a peach fuzz mustache, and a pair of Oakley Razorblades before you left the lot.

In 1968, I found a Porsche Speedster for sale for $3000.
I was 16 at the time and didn't have any money.
I tried to talk my dad into buying it, but he replied you can't haul anything in it. ( He equated vehicles worth by what they could carry. )
Then about a year later, I was at a auto body shop getting prices for fixing my '56 Chevy body, and the owner asked me if I wanted to buy a car.
He said he did some repair work, but the owner said he was out of money and just gave the car to him to get back the cost of the repairs.
It was a 1958 Maserati, fire engine red.
The body shop guy said he'd take $4k for it.
Both the Porsche and the Maserati are above 6 figures now.
As for muscle cars, they were everywhere in the '70s, cheap as the price of gas had skyrocketed and the insurance rates had gone way up.
I remember test driving a GTO judge convertible on a used car lot once.
They wanted  $1800.

I'll do you one better. I had a '69 Rally Sport Z28 with the ZL1 package, factory 427 aluminum block. That car scared the shit out of me it was so powerful. I bought it from an old doctor in 1974 for $2700, drove it for a little over a year and sold it for $3500 then bought a '72 VW super beetle. It made sense to me at the time, gas was almost $1/gallon and the Z28 only got about 6 mpg, a thrifty move for a young college student I thought. It makes me sick now, I saw one of those rare ZL1 package Z28's on Barret-Jackson go for over $250K a few years ago.

 

I was young and broke sold my 68 hard top around '92 or so.  



Also sold my 66 Barracuda S around the same time.




not my pics, but looked like these



68 Firebird








Barracuda

What was wrong with that Superbird with a 8k price tag in the mid eighties?  Superbirds with Hemi's were already north of $60k in the late eighties with ones with 440+6 going for 50k mint.

Didn't exactly pass on it but in about 1988 I was working as a lot boy at a car dealership and somebody traded in a 1968 Cougar convertible. Teal blue with a white top and interior.

I could have gotten it for $800 but being a broke HS student I didn't have it and mom and dad refused to lend it to me

I would have loved to have that car but can't say I blame them for saying no.

1968 Torino Cobra. 428, 4 speed, Pea greenish exterior, black interior with a Bench seat.  $1500.00  I was in High school, didn't have enough money for it.

Well at least you weren't the guy who sold a half million dollar car for 8000.

 

Bought a 68 GTO for 700 and sold it for 850 and thought I was a genius. It was mint 370 horse hideaway headlights 4 speed car.

Passed on a real 289 cobra for 10k.

Sold a 69 Mach 1 and bought 74 trans am!  Had ac and didn't need premium. Didn't have a screaming chickin on the hood though.

Traded an AR-15 and six 50 dollar savings bonds (not mature) for a 68 Camaro. Sold it for 1400 for the win!

I could go on, but it just depresses me....

In the 90s, I ran across an ad that said "getting divorce", among the items he was selling was a 66 Corvette stingray for 1,600. The guy was planning to sell off all their assets for dirt cheap to give his wife half, talk about scorched earth! I called; wife answered the phone. She was pissed and hung up. I kick myself for not trying to call back later to hopefully get the husband.

stories i would have relate to older cars...
as i NEVER passed up the deals on 64/74 MC's
bought em sold em

My dad; 1970 was offered a mint 66 Shelby GT350 Mustang for $2500.  But he was a family man and had no use for it.

The guys son still has it, and it's still just as immaculate.

And with that out of the way, my dad bought a split window coupe in about 1966. He sold it about a year later because my mom was too short to see over the hood.

It goes both ways.

A friend told me about a couple of old Mustangs up in the hills around 1990. I went and found them behind an abandoned trailer house in the middle of nowhere.

One was a red Q code 1969 428CJ 4 speed Mach I fastback. It was all there, but had a blue flat hood with a regular air cleaner and a blue fender.

The other one was a 1965 289 three speed convertible with no interior. The top was rotted out as well as the blue tarp that was covering it. It had no wheels and the hubs were sunk into the dirt.

There was registration in the 69 and I got the name and found the owner in the phone book. I called him and offered him a fair price but he refused to consider selling either one. "Gonna fix them up one of these days." What's left of them is probably still up there rusting.

Back in the 80s, you could by TZ 750s and XR 750s in Motorcycle News for 3500 bucks all day long. That's with a complete set of spares too. I would have bought them too except I was a competitive skydiver at the time and all my money went to training and competition.

In the mid 80s, fresh out of college I went to a car show with my Dad and brother. Saw a '68 Shelby Mustang convertible sitting there on a trailer. Asking price was $13,500 but I didn't have any money and was deeply in debt.

Late 80's I passed on a 32 Ford coupe all redone.just needed to be put back together $2,600

not muscle cars.... but back around 1994 i had a chance to buy a old military dodge power wagon, totally restored, everything rebuilt, new paint new seats, canvas the works.... for $3000.00.

then a month later a local guy was selling a 1968 unimog military surplus truck... 100% rebuilt / restored. looked like it just rolled off the factory assembly line., had everything, new everything, even extra nato fuel can racks and the fuel cans..... for $10k

unfortunately i was 23, newly married and broke as fuck. a local guy bought it, and replaced the canvas rear with a radio compartment / box, that looked a lot like a military camper.......that unimog rolls around henderson kentucky on a regular basis, and is a sexy, sexy beast.

In 2000 I passed on my neighbors 67 Chevelle. Good, solid drivers condition. No rust, solid body, good paint, destroked 327, powerglide, 15" rally wheels.

$2500


Thinking about still makes me sad. I see worse cars selling for 10 times that now.