I think it is great some Sandmans are bringing well over $40k, but like all other cars I bet there is always a small sample of really good cars that sell for good money, the rest not so. My main criticism isn't the price of really good cars, it is the sh!tters needing full resto that people ask too much for. I will always remind people that $10-15k for a car needing full resto is silly when you can buy a tidy car with reasonable paint ready to drive for $25k. Time may prove me wrong and Sandmans keep going up, but I look back to $220000 HK GTS327's and $500000+ GTHO's. The same/similar cars can be had today for often less than half those figures. I remember a beautiful Monterey Green 308 HQ Kingswood XX7 ute at the auctions at the same time those big prices were being pulled, it sold for $14k. It would pull twice that today. So I reckon Sandmans have already had their big jump, they might stay there but in the end I really do believe only the premium cars will sustain the peak values or close to them. The good news is even at $50k it isn't a huge deal if your car drops in value by 50%, compared to a $600000 GTHO!
The bias against the smaller engines is across all cars, just look at the real selling prices of base engine HK-HZ GTS's (186S and 253) against the same condition 307/308/350ci cars. You can at least double the value between bottom to top (say 253 to 350 in HQ) or maybe 25-30% premium for 253-308. The biggest engined cars will always be those most sought after. On the positive side, 6cyl and 253 Sandmans shouldn't suffer as much as a 308 example for not having their original engine. My view is say a HJ Kingswood XX7 original 202 fully restored as a 308 would probably be worth possibly the same or more than if it was restored with its original 202 driveline. You see this in Monaros, modified original 6cyl HK's with V8 drivelines can pull $70k+ but as a 6cyl car as per original not many will see over $60k, if they do they are pretty special cars.
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