What is a fair price for 71 Road Runner fenders/doors/valances/trunklids/grilles/etc

[Kern Dog]

I have been given a stash of parts and I'm hoping to get a better idea of its value. I mainly deal with A body stuff, and the only b body that I have is a 70 Charger. ALL of this stuff will be up for sale since I am not interested in building a 71 Road Runner.
I have 2 pair of fenders. All are original metal with no rust or filler and they are straight. 2 doors and a trunklid with the Go-Wing cutouts underneath. 2 front valances, dinged up a bit but also with no rust or filler. 2 header panels. 3 front bumpers, 2 rear. 3 complete grilles. 2 dash guage assemblies. Misc. interior parts. a set of 5 14x6 rally wheels with trim rings but without center caps. Wheels are straight and very nice.
I have checked Ebay and of the few examples that I read, the prices are varied. I'm hoping that someone here can shed some light on reasonable, market rate, swap meet prices. Thanks, Greg

 

[Bruzilla]

It all depends on how fast you want to move them. I've seen parts like fenders sitting on ebay for months and months at $700 or so, and other fenders get sold in a hurry at $200. What's the actual market price? $200 or $700? Same deal with gauge clusters. I've seen lots of them in the $300+ range sitting there month after month, while cheaper ones are meeting the market demand, but I listed one at $320 and it sold within days because I was selling it with the AM radio and bracket. When it comes to parts, there's a shrinking supply but there's also a shrinking demand, so pricing gets tricky.

I use ebay as a pricing guide for the parts that I sell because I'm not in a business and just want the spare stuff gone. I search for similar parts in the auctions ended section and see what parts actually sold, and what they sold for, and price my stuff accordingly. I never go by what prices are asked for in ongoing auctions.

 

[Kern Dog]

I have some idea of the going rates of these parts, but I was hoping to get some validation.
Fenders $500
Grilles $300
Doors $200
Header panels $75
Trunklid $200
Satellite hood $100
Valances $175
Front bumpers $100
Rear bumpers $100
Seem reasonable?

 

[YY1]

I think you're a bit high on the fenders and grilles and valences.

There's been a nice set of doors on CL down here for several months at $200 for the pair.

Bruzilla's got the right idea- see what doesn't sell, and that's too high, see what sells, and that's about right, with maybe a little room for more.

I do the exact same thing when buying.

 

[Bruzilla]

I was looking for 73/74 parts last night on ebay, and there's guys selling fenders in the same condition for anywhere from $75 to $500, consoles for $10 to $300, uncut clusters from $75 to $400, etc. The question is do you want these items to sell fast, or do you want to be selling them over months or maybe longer? The used parts business is feast and famine. Right now there's a glut of 73/74 body parts and the high-dollar guys are getting pasted, but in three months there might not be any low buck parts available and if someone really needs those parts, they'll pay what they have to. What makes the balancing act tougher is you need to find someone who needs the part and has the money, and the number of guys in that position are growing fewer by the day.

 

[99ss]

I found fenders from 100-300 locally... Bruzilla is right.. how quick do you want to sell then is the key

 

[Kern Dog]

The fenders are a one year only design, so I was hoping for them to be worth more. I'm amazed to read that anyone would let any go for $100!

 

[Bruzilla]

Most of the parts I bought for my car were from other owners who had spares lying around or had replaced something and were selling the item they replaced. These guys just want the stuff out of the trunk or garage and price it to move. Some guys want to make money and some want to make room.

Also, a one-year design is a double-edged sword. It makes the part more rare, but it also makes the demand for it rarer also.

 

[moparmaniac10]

I ended up getting out of the parts car business due to the prices people are paying now. I have been adding most of my sheetmetal parts to my scrap pile. I have been getting more in scrap than in people buying the parts. I just scrapped 2 cars, a 74 dart that had 36,000 miles on it, and a 74 charger. I took both cars apart and ended up throwing the sheetmetal on the pile. I got over $600 for each car at the scrapyard. I had rust free hoods and trunk lids off both cars. The dart had rust free inner fenders, dutchman panel, hood, and trunk lid. All of it ended up on the pile. I really hate scrapping stuff like this, but the economy is forcing me to. I am finding out that a lot of people are doing this, so it is only a matter of time, before we run out of original parts.

 

[Bruzilla]

It's not really the economy. It's the marketplace. When you think about auto parts customers, there's this huge pool of hundreds of millions of people. But when you start looking at selling any particular item, that pool shrinks. Like with Gregory. The guy who's going to buy his parts has to:

1. Want to restore/repair an old car.
2. Want to restore/repair an old Chrysler.
3. Want to restore/repair an old Plymouth.
4. Want to restore/repair an old B body.
5. Want to restore/repair an old Roadrunner/Satellite.
6. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite.
7. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite and has the money to pay your price.
8. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite, has the money to pay your price, and lives close enough to pick it up or pay for shipping.

That's the consumer pyramid, and it's an inverse one. Every step you take down, the number of potential customers decreases. We're coming out of a period of market activity that was very robust. Thousands of owners and restorers saw $$$ in every old Mopar they could drag out of a barn, garage, backyard, or swamp and restore. But this was never going to go on forever. There were always going to be only so many cars that could be restored, always a risk people would find a better place to invest their money like precious metals. Where we used to have thousands of cars being restored by collectors and restorers, we're now seeing far fewer being restored because the market is pretty well saturated with cars being sold off by owners both because they need money or because they want to shift their resources to something else, and because there just aren't that many cars that either have to be restored or need the parts for other reasons.

 

[moparmaniac10]

It's not really the economy. It's the marketplace. When you think about auto parts customers, there's this huge pool of hundreds of millions of people. But when you start looking at selling any particular item, that pool shrinks. Like with Gregory. The guy who's going to buy his parts has to:

1. Want to restore/repair an old car.
2. Want to restore/repair an old Chrysler.
3. Want to restore/repair an old Plymouth.
4. Want to restore/repair an old B body.
5. Want to restore/repair an old Roadrunner/Satellite.
6. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite.
7. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite and has the money to pay your price.
8. Want to restore/repair a 1971 Roadrunner/Satellite, has the money to pay your price, and lives close enough to pick it up or pay for shipping.

That's the consumer pyramid, and it's an inverse one. Every step you take down, the number of potential customers decreases. We're coming out of a period of market activity that was very robust. Thousands of owners and restorers saw $$$ in every old Mopar they could drag out of a barn, garage, backyard, or swamp and restore. But this was never going to go on forever. There were always going to be only so many cars that could be restored, always a risk people would find a better place to invest their money like precious metals. Where we used to have thousands of cars being restored by collectors and restorers, we're now seeing far fewer being restored because the market is pretty well saturated with cars being sold off by owners both because they need money or because they want to shift their resources to something else, and because there just aren't that many cars that either have to be restored or need the parts for other reasons.

You are very right, and that is why scrapping is now better, because they will always give money for metal. Sheetmetal is my precious metal and I have to turn it to cash. It really sucks that this is what it is coming to, cause soon the parts for these cars will be as scarce as the cars themselves. I have 2 cars that I am considering selling because I am afraid that I will not be able to ever finish it because it won't be worth it.

 

[tallhair]

where are you at moparmaniac? i see you are in IL also. do you have a salvage yard / lot's of cars?

 

[moparmaniac10]

I am up by Chicago. I don't own a yard. I currently have 4 mopars in various stages of restoration, but I was buying cars that were too far gone and parting them out. The 2 cars I scrapped this winter was a 74 dart, which was good enough to restore and a 74 charger which was not. I used to have 8 cars, but most all are gone.

 

[YY1]

The trick is to harvest the parts that are worth more than scrap, price them realistically, then scrap the rest.

A rust free 71-74 Charger deck lid would sell for $200+ in less than a week.
That's five times more than scrap price.

If you want $400, stand in line behind the one that's been on ebay for over 9 months.

I think $200-$250 each is a more realistic price for the fenders.
I'd gladly pay that for a psss side 66 Coronet fender.
I found a rust free, dent free driver side for $175, but I've passed on several pass side in not quite as nice shape for $300 (plus shipping) and up.

 

[Bruzilla]

You're spot on YY1. The downside of your position is you sell your parts at a lower cost, then someone comes along who's doing a price is no concern resto job, needs those parts right now, and would have paid you five or ten times what you sold them for. This type of of opportunity used to happen frequently, but is now the exception to the rule.

I started working on my car a year ago next month, and saw a rechromed bumper on ebay for $450. I ended up buying one from a forum member for $100 last spring, and that $450 bumper is still on ebay.

I'm seeing too many people who just got used to focusing on the supply side of the supply/demand equation and never had to consider the demand side. If you had something they only made a small number of, you could demand whatever price you liked. But now the demand side is driving the market and it doesn't matter if only say a dozen of something were made if only one or two guys meet all the consumer criteria to buy it. Whoever offers those guys the best deal is gonna get the sale.

 

[moparmaniac10]

That is very true. Here is something else that is going on,people use to say that original parts redone were better quality than the aftermarket repop stuff. And they would pay more for original equipment. now I think guys just want to put their car together and they will just throw anything on it to finish it, mainly the cheapest stuff. Which stinks too, cause now we are going to have a bunch of cars hit the market in the next few years, that were pieced together, and they will try and say it is "numbers matching". Which "numbers matching" is so over used and 9 out of 10 guys that claim that, truly don't have a numbers matching car, if you go by the true rules of it.

 

[Bruzilla]

Hey! You're describing my car! My simple rule was if I wouldn't do something in 1980 when I got my first road runner, I'm not going to do it now. I would never have restored a car in 1980, so I'm not doing it now. I'm just restorizing and customizing to my like and calling it a day.

That numbers matching debate has been going on for decades. I remember a near fistfight that broke out at a Mopar show in MD back in 1989 over whether a car that had been damaged in transit to the dealership, and had the engine replaced before delivery to the first owner, was a number's matching car, or if the engine was original to the car, etc. There were also debates about whether a car was "original" if the dealer had replaced sheet metal.

I suspect it's just in the nature of guys like us to compete. Back in the 1980s, it was all about who had the fastest car. Then came 1987 and by the early 1990s the big push was for who's car was the most original. Then as many cars were restored to original, the push was finding who's was the most original without replacing anything. Now the push is who's got the lowest-production numbers car... to the point where stupid crap like seat covers and stereos are being used to break up the numbers! Folks have been looking for ways to prove their car is more special than the next, and numbers matching is just another way to do that.

I do find it hilarious when someone touts a 318 or slant-six as numbers matching. To me that's a reason to feel bad for the owner. How frigging hilarious is it all when you think back to us driving these cars back in the 70s and early 80s, and apologizing for their lack of performance because we didn't have the money to buy a big block car; and now we have guys spending far more than we ever imagined spending to keep a "numbers matching" 318 car a 318 car?