What happened to the prices???

[lornaschinske]

We bought our bus last spring for $1400. It was listed thru a local classified ad paper called http://www.iwanna.com/ Ours was listed in the Asheville edition but I was watching all of them. Actually I was looking for cargo vans because Budget Rental wanted over $3K to rent a truck to move from NC to NM. And they gave us four 25 hour days (couldn't get the computer to understand that there is only 24 hours in a day) to make the trip and we had to return the rental truck to the Albuquerque rental office as soon as we got there or pay additional fees. The bus was just a wild idea since the moving vans were so pricey. The bus had started out priced at $2000 in Dec 2008, dropped to $1500 in 2009. David offered $1400 simply because he likes to try to get a little off any advertised price. Guy took it. We ended up with a 40 ft bus. I could have bought the smaller dog nosed type in the same town we were in (Franklin) for $2K also (they were still sitting there when we left in July 2009).

 

[bus-bro]

I believe that the scrap price of steel has recovered. It's the bottom line of school bus values. When commodity prices collapsed, a bus that fetched $2500 would go for $800. Last year we had historic low bus prices--yet I had no money. :?

 

[GoneCamping-SKO]

It's still "tax season" and people have those huge refunds with their Earned income Credit... it's all a matter of what the market will bear. Wait until summer, Schools will be clearing out old stock and prices will be back down there...

 

[the_experience03]

When the economy is in the crapper & people are hurting for money, they think that makes their stuff worth more I'm amazed at some of the "asking" prices for crappy beater cars & trucks on Craigslist. Suprisingly they don't sell & get re-listed over and over and over.........

Smitty

This couldn't be more true.

 

[GoneCamping-SKO]

I posted this over on the Classified section earlier. I found 92 Blue Bird 40' bus with a 5.9 Cummins for $4999 on our local Craigslist this evening. It already has 3 roof air units, and most of the windows already covered over, it's already painted white & blue too... currently set-up for medical use but would make an easy conversion...
http://norfolk.craigslist.org/rvs/1671348071.html

 

[dentedvw]

For what it's worth, I think that Midwest Transit still has a lot of buses for $2000. It's where we got ours. Not too shabby, some are worse than others.

 

[The_Stuff]

I got my bus in september but i didnt get any deals like you guys are talking. but then it wasnt exactly in service etc when i got it.

 

[busdriver_phil]

422 Sales had their first school bus auction of the year yesterday in Pittsburgh. Some prices were close to last year's auctions, some were higher (they had 2 08 buses from FL, practically brand-new and LOADED, they drew a larger crowd). Some prices were insane, including the ones I was looking at...what sold for $700 last year went for $3,500 because of a couple buyers from TN in a bidding war. I'm pissed and still busless, but I'm hopeful that it was a fluke.

 

[busdriver_phil]

Well the 422 auction prices in CT are right back down where they're supposed to be. Those REs that sold for $3,500 in Pittsburgh didn't get up to 4 digits this weekend, which is why one is now sitting in my driveway. $900 plus buyer's fees for a 99 AmTran rear-engine with air brakes. The 96 (same model) I was looking at as a backup if the 99 went too high sold for $500. But this auction had a lot more junk than the Pittsburgh one. Out of almost 200 buses, maybe 2 dozen were worthy of becoming skoolies.