Help me to not be stupid. :)

[fartblossom]

Hi,

I've been lurking here for a year or two, and started posting in the last few months. I've finally set aside a budget of about 7 grand to get back into the 67-72 community. I had a 70 medium olive longbed back in the late 80's, was raising two young kids and didn't have the money to ever do anything with it. Let it go in one of my many stupid car giveaways over the years.

I'm now wanting to semi-retire my little mid-life crisis car and get me another 67-72 for daily driving.

With this budget I'm thinking another smooth riding C-10 long bed, and I like the shop truck aesthetic. The problem is the only pricing I ever see is what the seller is asking. I don't know what fair market pricing is and I'm a crappy negotiator. And even if I was, it's hard to negotiate if you don't know the real value.

For example, this truck looks nice, but the "engine smokes on startup" and leaking seal on the tranny give me pause. Still, if I offered the guy 5K and planned on a rebuild and replacing the seals on the trans, would I be insulting the guy or offering him a fair deal? http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/5043643432.html

Thanks in advance for your help, and I can't tell you how impressed I am with the depth of knowledge in this forum and the maturity of the members. You guys rock.