Money is being devalued so people are putting it into other things as investments. Even average parts are way up. Guys now want $100 for a dirty SB Mopar timing chain cover. Used 350 Chevy core engines that used to sell for the standard $150 now guys are asking $300-400 for them. There is no supply and demand at play with these parts as they are easy to get. I can still get this stuff in the junkyards with a little digging at the old days prices with a return/exhange warranty if I wanted to.

I doubt this is some sort of muscle car resurgence as before Covid disrupted the economy the older people in the hobby were slowly ditching their old cars and buying new Challengers ect ,or just getting out of old cars altogether. I think people are just buying these projects and parts and plan to flip it later for more money down the road. I wonder if any of them have a clue what metal replacement and a new paint job costs? If they did they might not be paying so much for some of these projects you see for sale.