Posted by Gordon on Sunday, September 26, 2004 at 4:12AM :
In Reply to: Re: Price & value posted by Gordon Maney on Saturday, September 25, 2004 at 4:41PM :
It's definitely easier to get parts and trucks these days. Years ago Carryalls would have been impossible to get here in Scotland but recently I've had three.
My pal Sean bought piles of NOS spares for those little Allis-Chalmers M7 snow tractors, some of which have been retailled on to owners in need that would previously have had to make something, as they wouldn't really have known there were piles of them NOS in Cosmoline on a mountain top in Sweden.
Some things go up as well as down though. When I started buying VC manuals they were just the same price as ordinary manuals, then the rarity value kicked in and people started paying big bucks, then when the big bucks arrived people started looking out for the manuals to sell and the price fell again.
The internet is definitely to blame though. I've bought one truck from someone I know in the last five years - everything else has been bought over the net, and that includes two Carryalls, a Sno-cat, my one ton pickup and panel, a road-rail trailer, and more parts than I'd care to list.
What's going up in price now ? Well, I've seen $200 paid for a standard military universal rifle bracket, and King Bee Foto-Ray marble reflectors seem to be $100 each now. DUKW compasses are out of sight to the point I'm going to have to cast some more brackets for the DUKW / Weasel / Armored craft Pioneer compass soon and put them on e-bay.
Plus, of course, I wouldn't have met any of you lot... 8~)