The bidding at the Barrette Jackson was busy last night. Some beautiful muscle cars were selling in the $50s � $70s and an old Corvette went for $80k. I didn�t see any Panteras listed for sale, but the strong muscle car prices got me thinking about the selling price of our Panteras. Especially the ones that are in absolute pristine condition.
I think as a community of Pantera owners we sometimes sell ourselves short when it comes to promoting the value of our cars. We could do a lot more to support the value of our cars by sticking together as a group. When I meet car people that are interested in my Pantera the question always comes up, what would it cost to buy a Pantera? When I tell them an OK car will be in the $30k range, a well sorted out car will be in the $40k range and super nice car will be in the $50 range, they are always awestruck that they are available that cheaply.
On the other hand it must be the junker and abused Pantera syndrome, the ones in the under $25k range, that cause the perception with some bottom feeder buyers that think a decent Pantera should cost less than 20K. Buyers see the junkers and don�t realize that it will take $15k to 30k or more to fix the car so to them it�s an OK Pantera. This perception is usually short lived, because after they get the car home and find out the body is corroded away and the suspension is falling off, they are not happy. Do you think it is possible that someday in the far off future in Pantera land all of the junkers will get restored to pristine condition and the junker syndrome will end, or do you think that for every junker that gets fixed there is some nut out there busily making a pristine Pantera into a junker?
I do have tremendous admiration for people that will buy one of the junkers (sometimes they do not know they have a junker) and work on it until it is a wonderful example of a Pantera. We have a Pantera owner in the Southeast that did an incredible restoration on a Pantera that was in really tough shape. No expense was spared, including custom made single slot campys. I�m sure he must have way, way over $100k in the car but it�s got to be one of the best 1971 Panteras in the world. And it�s yellow to boot!
I think it would be a good idea when we see one of our fellow owners in the Pantera community selling a super example of Pantera for $100k+ or what ever, for us to support the concept. If we belittle the attempt we are only damaging ourselves as owners. You don�t see the, muscle car guys or the Ferrari guys making fun of cars in the high end of the price range. They support it and benefit from their support!
If someone can sell a Pantera for $180K, I fully support them! Flame away!
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