Like I said, make it a full time job trying to find the car that you want. You might get lucky and find one reasonable. I flew into Vegas a few days before BJ for a client who was a very smart buyer. He flew in and looked at the car and then hired me to go over the car with a fine tooth comb. He bought the car for $50K and it's basically a 60,000 mile Z28 with one repaint, all original mint interior and all of the hard to find engine components are there. Cars are still out there for a reasonable price, especially now.
I also tell people buy the car because you love it and want one. If you worry about what it will be worth in five years, you're taking the wrong approach. We never knew these cars would be worth anything when I bought my new Chevelle out of high school, and then my '69 Z28 in March 1972 for $1400.00.
I also have another passion in life in the world of musical instruments. When I was a kid, I bought a used late '50's early '60's Fender Stratocaster guitar. $175.00 in 1966. I'll never forget it. Eventually I sold it to buy headers and junk for my Chevelle. I always regretted that. Well, now I'm looking to replace that guitar and it's one of the last items on my bucket list in life. And it has to be mint and original. If you plug in Fender Stratocaster guitars on Ebay, 1950's models, the prices make Z28's look like you're buying a loaf of bread! Nice ones back to 1954, $100K, but many who sell are on a fishing expedition, just like the car sellers. I did find one that I'm going to look at in upstate NY for somewhere in the high $20K range. Do I know where I'll be invested in that guitar in five years. No, but if you look long and hard enough for what you want, I believe that you'll find it. Yeah, $27K is a lot of money for an old used Fender guitar but it's a lot better than what most are asking for on Ebay, $50K and up. In my mind, I can justify it at that price.
Then I have to get the guitar inspected and appraised. George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville is the guy who does guitar inspections, like I do for Camaros. Well, you can't even get him on the phone. Talk about someone who is hard to reach........But I will have a contract written on this guitar if I buy it, and if something is not original and not was it was represented to be, I will get a full refund. Then I have to figure out how to get a very old expensive original guitar down to Nashville in this cold climate to be certified. Another hobby but the same issues that we deal with in the Camaro world. It's much more complicated with rare musical instruments though.
Jerry
