There is good stuff out there, you just have to look past the end of your nose!!

Had some naysayers tell me I was way off base saying there's plenty of good deals out there. Well, as usual, their wrong. Besides Hemmings Motor News, there's tons of regional auto trader papers, and the best tool is in your bedroom or living room-your computer. Type in any type of car and you instantly bring up dozens of websites with listings of those cars. Here's where you have to do a little legwork and peruse the sites, and write down the address and phone number, or print out the ad of cars that you find promising so you can go back to them. I search for cars for people all the time, and their amazed-"How did you find this at such a good price?"  Because I took the time to look at 50 or 100 ads, until I found maybe 2 or 3 that were a deal. Here's what you have to resign yourself to-there's no rhyme or reason or rule of thumb. Some things are grossly overpriced, and some things are a screamin' deal. You just have to find the deal. Here's a good example. I was web-surfing for a friend who wanted a 1971-73 Mach 1 Mustang. I found a really nice 351CJ, 4-speed '71 model for $12,500. I found a 1972 351CJ / C6 automatic model for $19,500. They both looked really good in the pictures, and both ads said the cars were in tip-top condition. The '72 may have been a little nicer, but it wasn't seven grand nicer in my opinion. I saw a Boss 302 for sale for $79,000 and another one for $55,000. Again-honestly-I didn't see much difference, and certainly not $25K worth of difference!! I saw two 1971 Boss 351s-one for $39,000 for one for $58,000-and I could not see 20K difference in the quality. I like Pontiacs, and I'm always looking for them, whether I have money or not, as a good number of family and friends also like them. I found three RAIV 1969 GTOs online that all looked great in the pictures, all claimed to be numbers-matching, and were all 4-speed cars. One was priced at $49,000, one at $62,000 and one at $85,000. The $85,000 claimed to be a frame-off restoration where every nut, bolt and hose was replaced. If that's what you want and you have the bankroll-good for you. However-the other two-I really couldn't see 13K of difference between them. Here's another kicker-it might not be exactly apples to apples-this car was an RAIII-done up like a Judge-that looked awfully nice for $27,000!!  The same applies to T/A's. I saw two excellent-condition 1979 400, 4-speed, WS6 cars for sale. They were even the same color- Nocturne Blue. One had T-Tops and tan interior and the other was a hardtop with blue interior. The one with T-Tops was priced at $34000, and the hardtop was priced at $18,900.  T-Tops aren't worth 16K in my opinion!!  On the same website I found a nice Starlight black 400, 4-speed '77 model for $24,500, and a Chesterfield Brown '77 with the same powertrain that appeared to be in similar condition for $18,995!!  Even base models had a huge discrepancy in pricing- with not a huge differnce in mileaghe or condition. For example-there were several 403 Olds / Automatic models on there. One was a black and gold SE priced at $39,995 with 24,000 original miles, and a Nocturne blue one with 21k miles for  $24995. In my opinion, the black one was not fifteen grand, 1500, or 15 dollars better in condition. It's just how greedy is the seller?  Look hard, and compare hard before you buy. Mastermind