Pretty much every thread I see brought up where a dent is for sale people chime in and say "that is waaayyy too high of a price", or "I would never pay that for a dent". But I am wondering if they are transitioning to more of a "collector" status. That happened fairly recently with the Early Ford Bronco. I bought a '69 Bronco in the early 2000s for $850 (it was in rough shape - really rough). But, I stripped it down and built it back up and turned it into quite a nice, capable rig. I sold it about 6 years ago for around $16,000. Now Early Broncos are going for much more than that. I imagine that if I had that old Bronco in the condition I sold it for back then, I might be able to pull $20-25K for it.

So, what are prices for "decent" dents like in your area? By decent, I mean running, little to no rust or body work, generally in good condition. Around here, they are listed on different sites ranging anywhere from $8K to $25K for really nice ones.

I'm just curious, as I am starting to look for another one.

 

Prices seem to be all over the board . but what I have noticed is if they're cheap they sell instantly, so it's fair to say they were underpriced.

In the NW we have a lot of rust free or nearly rust free 4x4's and the prices on them have absolutely shot up due to flippers from the rust belt paying what I think is too much. but is it too much if someone will pay it ? no.

It looks to me like the SWB 4x4's and the high boys are going up weekly, closely followed by the 77-79 4x4 F250's. versions which have always been the most desirable so no surprise. but they're all going up and will continue to. how fast and how much? who knows, the fact is there is a high demand, but still a pretty large supply left so we're not ever going to be talking hemi cuda stuff here.

My take is they're not a bad investment if you buy a more desirable model at a fair price, and a fair price is more than you might think. it's hard to quote prices without a specific vehicle to talk about , there are just too many factors at play.

 

I recently sold a '77 F250 Supercab Camper Special 2WD/400/C6 that I had listed at 3500 for 3000 here in Kansas. I had a few butt-sniffers on CL and FB Marketplace, but no real bites over a few weeks. I sold it to a local guy, but it seemed that mostly people who were flippers were sending me crazy lowball offers.

A few days later a guy wanted to pay full price and he was up in the Northeast, I told him he was too late. From my research the 2WD market is still slow, and if it does sell, someone from the NE region will be the one interested in using it as a pavement princess.

My '74 F250 Ranger XLT Camper Special 2WD/390/C6 is in really good shape and I have it at the high end on pricing. No hurry to sell, someone will be wanting a pavement princess so I will wait.

I have seen crazy money thrown at rusty Highboys and hotrod F100's in the past year.

 

The thing that people will pick up on sooner than later is that a 2wd is a good way to get a vehicle that probably a) isn't rusty, and b) hasn't been molested. Even if your "build plans" call for a 4X4 the guys with any ability will be happy to get a rust free 2wd, swap in 1 ton axles front and rear, and stick a transfer case in it.. converting to a 4wd isn't that difficult if you have the ability to cut, grind, and weld.

 

I think the prices for real 4x4's is going to have to increase quite a bit before that's a common practice. the other thing is if we're talking about future collectability the conversion will never have it. it's easy to clone a Lemans into a GTO too but it will never be worth a fraction of the real thing.

You can still but a decent high boy or a l nice 77-79 4x4 around here for under 10k. a rebody project might make sense though since a really really nice 2wd is less than half that.

 

Yes, the prices are all over the board. I think there's many factors in this. Popularity. There's been a couple "car" tv shows which have recently featured Dents. That opened many eyes to these trucks. Also, as in my case, the truck which I've eyed for years have gotten out of my checkbooks range. But I do still ogle over a great 48-52 F1. Many of us grew up riding in dad's or grandpop's Dent and now can work that extra toy or project into the budget before they get crazy money..
You mention the 1st gen Bronco values and you have to look at the second gens climb. I now routinely see these 2nd gen Bronco prices in mid to high teens. With the first gens crazy money people get pushed elsewhere. I think the major thing moving price is rust. I think most folks are up to or planning mechanical updates. But when confronted with structural rust repair that is a different story. I routinely sample prices in various parts of the country. It appears areas where its hard to find a rust free truck the overall prices are up. And vice versa.
So if you want the most dollar for your truck, hope you are in a rust belt state with a rust free truck. My 2cents.

 

True story. I know of a dozen rust free 4x4's around here that showed up on ebay a few weeks later in the midwest for double what they were on craigslist. and they sell ! a couple of them I thought I had bought until they jumped in.

 

I got my original rust free 78 out of Oklahoma and back to Florida. I had looked for reasonable priced one around here for a year. Paid half there for what they’re going for here. Did cost me $600 to ship here.

 

Same here. I'm also in Florida and spent a good year looking without luck. When there was a reasonable one here it got bought out from under me before I could even look at it. I had to grab one from Virginia and have it shipped here.

 

Guy here in Indiana makes a living off of that. Rustfreeclassics.com

I've sold him a few rust free parts to clean up problem areas on some trucks he brings back

 

Yep he's one of them. the other big buyer is in Michigan.

It's amazing how many are still out there if you just drive the back roads and look closely. I'd probably make decent money knocking on doors and reselling them to Midwest flippers but I'm just not into that.

 

Agree 100% with above and excellently stated.
Early in my search I thought the guy who was selling the 77 HB I bought was asking way too much but after looking nationwide for 5 months and not finding anything as good for less money I realized maybe his price wasn't so bad after all. He was an F-250 dentside nut and had 7 of them so apparently knew the market. Fortunately for me he had taken the truck off the market because he really didn't care if he sold it or not so I bought it and have zero regrets. Certainly there are regions of the country where they can be had for less and you will find people here and there that do not know the value because they are unaware of the trend upward in desirability and will sell under market; however, as word spreads, finding sellers who don't know what they have will become harder.

 

Yeah sometimes I think man I could make good money hauling them back but I don't have that much energy lol.

I do plan on buying another "rust free" (HA boy was I wrong) truck but instead of heading south I want to go to OR/WA and take that road trip back home. It'll still be cheaper than buying a rust free truck in the Midwest

 

Its unusual for a "Highboy" (I hate that term...) to sell for more than a 78-79 F250 in the same condition...

 

I'm not sure about everywhere but the 73-76 is absolutely worth more in this area . they sit higher and have much better engines and people want that.

I would assume that applies everywhere but maybe more so where 4x4's are 99.9% of the market.

I don't actually care for the term either, just like the dent side thing it seems a little childish. but I remember everyone calling them highboys all the way back when they were new so I guess it's what they are.