Value of a Sandman or The Never Ending Story

[Alien DNA]

Where is the "like" button for your post?

Hey Dave!! Check out the 6 pointed star on the left hand side of the users tool bar! Guess it our version of a 'like' button. Add some rep to hqgts for his stellar effort!!

Cheers

Alien


Now back on topic .....

Can anyone tell me why Sandmans in general were more popular than the Ford and Valiant offerings? Maybe they missed the boat with a trend/brand/lifestyle......or were they just not pleasing on the eye like the Sandmans are!!
This might be the reason theyre increasing in price!!

[Taily]

Hey Dave!! Check out the 6 pointed star on the left hand side of the users tool bar! Guess it our version of a 'like' button. Add some rep to hqgts for his stellar effort!!

Cheers

Alien

I thought that was just to call the sheriff! Nah, all good mate. Blocker needed a lump of 4x2 but he got the message in there eventually!

Congrats on the upgrade too!!!

Regards,

Dave.

[HK1837]

Rightly or wrongly, to me anyway, barring finding a van with a documented history, having an XX7 tagged car is the undeniable proof of it being a Genuine sandman... So having the original motor was less important to me.... My HJ is 5/75 so I wanted the real deal.. Not a maybe... Have since sourced an early 75 date coded 308 and whilst not the original engine will still be a nice fit for the van

In my younger days a sandman was an icon of the surf culture and was totally seperate from the van scene.... Its why more than a few sandmans were heavily modified back in the day.... In a van you could store a board, catch some shut eye and play hide the sausage... Try doing that in a ute without getting arrested.... Blockers sells the "sandman - still your fathers worst nightmare" stickers.... Not sure not many dads quake in their boots when a ute turns up for the first date.... But if we were all the same it would be a boring world...

On your question of an XW8.... Of course it doesnt matter where it was built..... It is what it is.... With a sandman, as you know more than anyone, unless it has books or XX7 tags claiming sandman status is not as easy to prove authenticity.... And in the collector car world provenance is everything.... For me when someone says "is it a real sandman" its far easier to pop the bonnet and point to the XX7 tags than to pull out the centre console to show the original welds on a centre console bracket....

All fair enough. Just interested as I have to put together a section of the book about what spawned the Sandman. From my eyes the utes were equal or more inportant to the culture of the day, but it looks like to many others the vans were.

My point about an XW8 should really be about early XV4's and XV2's that aren't from Acacia Ridge. You have to look elsewhere to know it is a GTS or an SS. Like TRIM line, and console mounts on an SS. Similar to a Sandman. Of course with the XW8 most have L30 or MC7 or M41 on the BODY plate, but some don't!

I guess that most people, excluding Sandman and the majority of Holden enthusiasts will immediately picture or assume a van opposed to ute when 'Sandman' is mentioned. Vans are a more prominent visual image for most. Do a google images search on 'Sandman' and look what shows up.

I think that Adam has nailed it the more desirable specifications that draw extra attention and value. Condition, colour - rare or desirable, window/less, drive train combo, model and XX7 plated will influence different buyers as everybody has different preferences. With the identification resources at our fingertips, the Brisbane built 'XX7' plates are less influential in the vast majority of cases. However if you had the choice of two identical vehicles but one from Brisbane and the other not at the same price, you take the the Brisbane built one. I'll split the difference between Adam and Byron and say HJ's and HZ's are equal. Model and colours tend to be driven more so by personal preference, although HQs Are rarer adding to their market value and HXs seem to be less desirable.

There have been a lot of vans around with rather large prices tags lately, they arent selling at their ticketed prices.
However what is expensive today, may not necessarily be expensive tomorrow as I too believe that values will continue to climb. I believe that the mysandman site has considerably attributed to the desire for these vehicles and their increasing market value!

My reason for the HJ over the HZ is it is more "sporty" than "pretty". Plus a HJ 308 is the highest performance Sandman.

[buck]

i like the le monaro, but scrap the wheels and put a nice set of gold simmons wheels on it, one thing i have never seen is a manual LE any ideas byron how many made and where most autos?

[HK1837]

i like the le monaro, but scrap the wheels and put a nice set of gold simmons wheels on it, one thing i have never seen is a manual LE any ideas byron how many made and where most autos?

580 I think is the count, plus the HJ GTS LE prototype. There were no manuals, the car was a full optioned car like a Premier hence it came standard with an auto.

[Blocker]

I can understand people getting frustrated with parts prices on Flebay going through the roof and I reckon Adam is right that the price of the Sandman may still yet increase more.
We have no idea how many were made - Byron can only make an educated guesstimate at best but it is no definitive record of production numbers. The more that have rusted away or wrapped around a pole and crushed has only created a perception (true or false) that a genuine Sandman is rare to find these days.


How do you differentiate between price, value and worth? These are all words we use to describe out cars, projects and sales we observe yet to me they all have different meanings and yet directly relate to each other.

[Taily]

Would be interested to see a very basic breakdown of how many Sandmans you have (say XXX utes and XXX panel vans of each model) recorded as still in existence if you get the time guru. Be interesting to know whats left of them.

Regards,

Dave.

[Blocker]

He has already posted this here in the Holden Sandman Data & Questions, it's not entirely up to date but hope it helps.

http://www.mysandman.com.au/forums/s...atabase-update

Plus HZ Dandenong stuff here
http://www.mysandman.com.au/forums/s...3-Dandenong-HZ

and some more
http://www.mysandman.com.au/forums/s...ndman-database

[Taily]

I always thought that there were more sandman utes than vans as I guess I had more exposure to them growing up in NW Sydney. Vast majority I remember were either yellow (chrome, absinth or jasmine with either the blue, brown or orange stripes - HX-HZ I guess, not too many HQ/J's around from memory) or green (jamaica lime or panama with the blue stripes). There were certainly sandman pannos around but not as common as utes. I guess they were always tucked up in the corner of some beach carpark either rocking or wafting hooch smoke while the utes were getting used as both work and play vehicles....

There were still plenty of sandman utes and vans around its just that they didn't seem to be as common in other colours at the time.

Regards,

Dave.

[adam perth]

i have found it common that the basic holden fan didn't realise that they made a sandman ute.

stuff like " i had a sandman van, they never made a sandman ute!"

i think eventually the ute will match the van pricing, but right now utes seem cheaper..to me anyway..

i think the XX7 is important to some buyers, particularly in HQ and Early HJ up to 9/1975.

e.g. HQ XX7 = sandman 100%
verses
HQ Melb build 2 seat, B trim code, paint code and body inspection = possible sandman...

we have seen examples of Brisbane build in 1974, 2 seat, 30 B trim, salamander red L31 M21,......... without the XX7..Mauser / Bryon probably has a few more ,but i have seen a couple here and there. To me this just conforms the resolve of some buyers to MUST HAVE XX7 or XU3.