How to value a second gen.

[Akodo]

OK, so my dad retired this year, and now he wants to start putting things in order so that when my stepmother retires in a few years, they can move to the UP and live in a little cabin in the woods, something they have been planning for ten years.

Part of that is selling off his 1979 Trans Am.

Its a numbers matching 403 automatic, Black with Red interior. T-topped, almost entirely original, NO RUST. Ever. Zero bondo. Never seen snow, garage kept, only 48k original miles on the clock. Has had a little work done to the motor, a performance cam is the only thing I know for sure that has been done to it, I'll get specifics on all that later. I know at least part of the car was repainted, the first owner stripped the bird off of the hood and replaced it with a spider. I believe it says "Black Widow" on the car as well. Pics will be forthcoming once the weather breaks and he gets the cover off of it and pulls it out of the garage.

Interior is excellent, I think the seat belts need replaced, thats about it. No cracks in the dash, rims are excellent.

Not being a second gen man, I have no idea where to price this thing. He wants to list it for $12k. Is that reasonable? I have no idea on 2nd gens, and there aren't enough of them available to get a good fix.

[river city muscle]

Well, I can tell you that the more original the car is, the more it will bring. The Mecum auction this past week gave a pretty good idea where these cars are heading. The bird on the hood will help it. If it's supposed to be there it should be for a value standpoint. The Olds motor, even though it's original, will bring the value down a little. It does sound nice and some pics would be great. 12K would be a good starting point, yet it should fetch somewhwere between 8-10K. This is just an opinion and another place to pic the f-body Pontiac minds is 78ta.com. or performance years forums. HTH, Mike....

[TylerT/AZ28]

theres quite an interesting history on the bhood birds themselves. some have more significance or rarity than others dependig on year.

[2002Z4CSS]

Get the car professionally appraised.

[98blackbeauty]

Go on ebay and see what simular T/A's are selling for. The low mileage is the key here. Appraisal value and Market value can vary by a wide margin. Car can appraise for 25,000 but no one could be willing to pay that, for example.

[Ltguy]

go to nastyz28.com and post this, they will give you the best info more than likely.

Its a 2nd gen only camaro site but its really going to more of a 2nd gen f body site since sooo many bird guys are on there. I would be in a day or two you would have some pretty accurate figures.

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

The spider will be a big negative.

Is it the original colors? If so, the black/red combo is very rare...if my rusty brain remembers correctly, that only accounted for 5-7% of all T/As sold...so if it's original, that's a positive.

That aside, for an original 48K mile car, I think you could get $10-12K in the spring.

Put the original birds back on, and I think you can get $15K in the spring...assuming it is an original black/red car...

EDIT: Pull the data plate info for colors...that will tell you for sure...and make sure you get the PHS documents for it...