So has covid pretty much wiped out crapcan pricing

Not just Covid contributes to this!
Supply chain and lack of computer Chips have also set this off.
I have a shop in New york (Hudson Valley, Not the city) and what people are spending on Junk to fix them up is absurd.
Good for me I guess, but thousands of dollars on cars that would be junked 5 years ago is strange.
Manny

I've gotten a glut of emails about this lately. There's still some creativity possible in this; every town has a handful of cars parked that are going nowhere soon. You can probably still scoop those up by knocking on the door, pointing to your trailer, and waving a couple of Benjamins at them the way people have always done for Lemons. Or ask around the local shops to see if there's a non-bill-paid "mechanic's special" sitting in their storage or something.

Anyone with a running car and FB Marketplace thinks they're sitting on a goldmine. Marketplace has always been full of lunatics, so you're going to have to find cars that aren't on there. It's tough, but they're out there. You probably aren't scooping up a running BMW E46 anytime soon, but if you lower your standards and see the Escort Wagon that's half-hidden under a cover in a driveway, you might manage that.

ALSO: This is a great time to point out that there are certainly dozens (if not hundreds) of old Lemons cars just sitting in people's yards waiting for "someday." Ask around and you might find someone finally willing to part with a car that hasn't raced in a few years. Sure, it'll need some work, but it likely needs less than whatever you're dredging out of the swamp/back 40/neglected estate.

Datapoint here -

The wife had an  '88 Brazilian Fox that we parked in her mother's driveway in '02 with 132k miles on it.
Was smogged here in Norcal and registered until '19, wife just lost interest in it.
(Did give a thought to selling it to a Fox team but I never saw one on the West Coast.)

Still started and ran in December, and I was ready to get it back on the road but got a full 'NOPE' on that one.
Was donated to charity.  Got the charity slip in the mail in mid-January.

$900.

Someone musta either had one in Brazil and had a soft spot for them, or the $$$Jetronic$$$ parts were worth something in a Porsche.

Sigh.

100% agree.. just gotta be patient and ready when the deal pops up.

We're gathering cars for the gambler 500 right now and scooped up an odyssey through family for free, and a smogged/pink-slip 320k mile cavalier with a misfire for $500. Also, this is with a huge filter of needs paperwork so it can be street legal... there's lots out there with bad paperwork; Or there's still lots of reasonably priced retired "race" cars.

wiped out?  There was nearly 150 cars at Sonoma in December....seems to be stronger than ever.

I get that. I work in a shop in AZ and the cars that are getting fixed amaze me. Sure, let’s fix the entire front suspension on a 2002 Jetta. Makes sense to me (not) but I guess there’s not much out there in the pipeline to buy instead.  I’ve heard tales of *burned* cars getting rebuilt entirely in 1943-44. When there ISNT another car to buy, I guess that is what happens.

I bought my next Lemons/Lucky project car in Dec, and hauled it a sanity-defying distance home. Seller was amazed I’d paid so much for a C4 Corvette. I shrugged, at today’s prices I was buying a cage and getting a free Vette with a decent amount of spare parts thrown in. Even considering the gas bill towing home in the F250. This was never cheap racing, but when the cage is gonna run $2500 and Ford Escorts suddenly  cost $3000… gonna see a lot more people building E46s and Corvettes, aren’t you?

I’m just glad the stars aligned and we were GIVEN a running driving Passat in 2019. Yes, Virginia, 20 year old VWs with quirks didn’t used to be worth anything.

Meh, this is why you stockpile future Lemons cars in the back yard...I have two back there but willing to part with the V70.

You got me looking at SF Bay Craigslist postings and there are actually some good looking candidates out there -

<edit - with some great observations by the owners>

- BMW 2000 323ci - $350 (richmond / point / annex) - " White BMW... Was running but haven't start in a year..."
- VOLKSWAGEN Passat 2006 - $550 - "Runs great - text if interested - dash has a lot of lights"
- 2003 SVT Ford Focus for Parts - $700 (concord / pleasant hill / martinez) - Does not run anymore...was hit by driver running red light, new suspension and alternator, etc.
- 2001 BMW 325xi FOR SALE* - $500 (santa cruz) - "Due to some mechanical issue my car is not running... "
(and this one's a manual transmission for the 3 pedal lovers)

But this one's not for us:
- Acura integra - $500 -  "Selling whole car for parts for $500. It’s a 95 Acura integra 4 door, white , body fair condition, stick shift. Serious people only."

There's always the option of waiting for a team to loathe their race car so much that they give it away for free!

...

{ curses in NLA parts }

Lean Manufacturing just doesn't work. When will we learn?

I gave up on a Celica project last week and sold it to scrap.  I'm sitting on a 2000 Mustang GT that runs and can't get a nibble for 500$.  I bought a complete running Elantra that was used in a budget track day competition complete with the ugliest cage you ever hope to see for 500 last month.    A Lemons team drove up to  nearby (Nashville)  last fall and bought a BMW off marketplace after I shared a local listing. They are out there if you look.