What's It Worth?

[Times Welding]

I've got an '87 K5 Silverao with 5.7TBI, 700 -R4, power everything and manual lockers. I know a lot of the members are somewhat familiar with my rig from the threads on the custom stereo install, among others.
I love this vehicle, but find myself driving my beater GMC pickup more and more. I almost always have to haul large items due to the nature of my business. I'm trying to downsize a bit, so the Blazer may need to find a new home.
The only rust on the vehicle is on the inner and outer front fenders and on the driver side rocker. All of which I have NOS GM replacements for at home waiting. I also have a complete set of NOS GM weatherstripping for the entire vehicle, and a set of NOS GM wheel opening trim. There is one ding in the pass rear quarter. I've added GM sliding rear side windows that have black powder coated frames and all new seals. It has a new set of GM aluminum wheels that are correct for the vehicle and BFG All Terrain T/A's with about 2K miles on them. I've done tons of maintenance and repairs in the 9 months that I've owned it, mostly with NOS GM parts. It also has a Kenwood in dash touch screen sound system with navigation and rear view camera, 8 speakers + sub and 2 amps. Not to brag, but it's probably the cleanest install ever on a K5 - there is an extensive write-up about the install on this forum.
So, what is this vehicle worth?
Thanks

 

[rebelgregory]

Much less than you have in it, unfortunately.

Hard to say without pictures or reviewing your old threads, but I do remember your work was impeccable. I just finished my truck and it has a lot of good hardware on it and it came out very 'pretty', but I know I can't sell it. I value mine at 15 - 20K (it's insured for 15), but I would not likely get that kind of money for it.

Look at it this way. These trucks aren't really rare and the book value isn't much. Taking that into account, no bank will loan out any real money to purchase a nice (say >$5000) K5. So that makes it a cash purchase...for a vehicle that's not really practical as a daily driver or commuter. So even if you find the right person that has to have it and has cash in hand, the pool of people that fit that bill is pretty small, thus they have the advantage in the sale.

I'm not really trying to discourage you. If anything, I'm trying to encourage you to keep it.

But I digress. To answer your question - in my neck of the woods:

1. Beater/survivor - no real mods and maybe some hack work; some-to-significant rust, but runs: $2000 or less
2. Nicer example - Good look; mostly stock, or a few quality upgrades, runs well, little rust: $2500 to ~$5500
3. Very nice: Complete Restos, or high quality stock-appearing, with quality work throughout, mostly rust-free: Maybe $8000 to $12000, but the sample size is small so hard to assign a value, plus this is based on asking price. It's hard to know what they really sell for.
4. Over the top - big builds on 1/2 ton axles or 80s neon paint job: price starts going back down.