Warbird Price question

gunnyperdue · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:02 pm

All-

Does anyone know what the going rates for warbirds were in the 60's , 70's, 80's, 90's and early this decade.... for instance

P-51 $500,000 in 1985, in 2005 1.8 ish, 2009 1.5 <g>, TF-51's maybe $1 mil more than a D...

P-38
P-51
P-40
P-47
B-17
B-25
B-26
PBY
Albatross/ HU-16
Spitfire
Hurricane
Me-109
Fw-190 (are there any real ones?)

thanks,
curious... didn't somebody post a Trade-a-Plane ad sometime back?
gunny

John Dupre · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:12 pm

I used to bring Trade A Plane to school in the 8th grade (1972) and well remember that most really good flyable Mustangs were around $100 to $150 thousand dollars and were defined by their mechanical condition and avionics fit rather than restoration, originality or paint jobs. Most other single engine fighters seemed to be about half what a Mustang was worth. B-25s and such were anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 some were less. Warbirds in military style paint schemes were pretty rare.

hang the expense · **Posted:** Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:46 am

There was a P-40 sitting at the airport in Witchita ks about 1967 for sale.The for sale sign was a piece of notebook paper and the price was 2500.00 OBO.That OBO sells alot of airplanes dont he?

gunnyperdue · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:39 am

bump

no one is interested in this thread? Any inputs?

gunny

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2923

During a visit to Helldiver's Hanger I got to meet Wally Erickson. He had a bunch of paperwork with him that day including the bill of sale for his P-38 44-53015. IIRC he paid $7,500 for it in 1968...

Randy Wilson · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:51 am

In 1966 there was a nice looking P-51D in civilian paint with drop tanks on the ramp at Addison Airport just north of Dallas for sale for $30,000. I was later told it sold for only $17,000.

In the early 1980s, you could buy one of the South African T-6s in a crate for $20-25K and a decent flying AT-6/SNJ for $35K based on my experience. The same AT-6/SNJ would go for more than two or even three times that in the early-mid 1990s.

Randy

gunnyperdue · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:00 am

guys, that is cool stuff.... the fellow who bought the P-38 that is now Ruff Stuff bought it from the government after the war for $1500...

any more?

T33driver · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:07 am

gunnyperdue wrote:

guys, that is cool stuff.... the fellow who bought the P-38 that is now Ruff Stuff bought it from the government after the war for $1500...

any more?

My buddy's P-51D was sold as surplus out of March Field in the late 1940s for $755 to a cropduster pilot who wanted a Mustang to play with. It was a sealed bid auction and $755 was all the savings the guy had. Apparently he outbid another buyer who bought the remaining lot of Mustangs for a few dollars less per plane. The USAF Sgt supervising the removal of the aircraft told him now that it was a civilian airplane, he couldn't let him fly it off the base and he'd have to tow it to the pasture outside the fence where the farmer was letting surplus aircraft buyers launch from his property. The Mustang was in need of a battery and some spark plugs which the farmer was happy to sell him. Seems the farmer was moonlighting in the aircraft parts business and had a captive clientele. As the cropduster had spent all his savings buying the airplane, he had to leave it with the farmer, go earn some money and come back later to fly it out...which he did. Interestingly, the airplane is one of the few flying Mustangs with a WWII combat history (in Italy) and might...might have been flown by the Tuskegee Airmen. They painted the tails red over serial numbers so the existing photos of Tuskegee Mustangs don't shed light. There's records of it being shipped to Italy and records of it being shipped back to the USA but the combat units moved so frequently and were so busy, the paperwork on the dropped off during the war. He's researched the usual places and is hoping a Tuskegee crew chief vet might have record of it since they were about the only ones keeping records of tail numbers during the war. Oops sorry to ramble off the thread topic... :oops:

gunnyperdue · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:12 am

Paul-

Cool story about the provenance of that Mustang.... are there any B-25 or B-17, or even B-26 stories out there?

What about B-17's serving as mosquito bombers?

g

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:07 pm

Gunny -

I have sale agreements for a couple of the Cavalier airplanes if you're interested.

Most of the personal bills of sale for surplus Mustangs have "$1.00 plus OVC" as the sale price, unfortunately.

jet1 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:44 pm

denver had 15 p-51s for sale at auction all had LOW hours and full gas. none sold for over $1500.00! where is my wayback machine when I need it?

Bradburger · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:46 pm

The late Ray Hanna and his Nalfire Aviation consortium paid £260,000 for MH434 back in 1983.

It was then the highest price paid for a Spitfire.

Cheers

paul

gunnyperdue · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:52 pm

Randy-

Without a realistic number the bill of sale isn't a reliable datapoint... appreciate it though.

Now about 2.0M is a good number for a Spit? Right?

gunny

old iron · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:57 pm

Meanwhile, on a different thread we have recently heard that Paul Allen may have paid $5M for the FW.190 that was recovered from Russia (so, yes, there are real ones in private hands).

Kevin

hang the expense · **Posted:** Wed Jan 28, 2009 3:41 pm

old iron wrote:

Meanwhile, on a different thread we have recently heard that Paul Allen may have paid $5M for the FW.190 that was recovered from Russia (so, yes, there are real ones in private hands).

Kevin

The rebuild on the wing was a dang fine job that a guy in England performed.Allen got his monies worth.

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