In fact, within the past two years, I’ve seen less-than-proud-but-running ’55 T-Birds sell for as low as $15k.

Now, 32 years later, two-seater T-Bird values haven’t changed all that much - although $15k will get you one-quarter of the nicest ’56 Crown Victoria on the planet - or the four nicest 1980 Lincoln Continental Mark VIs. That said, $15k would also get you a typical 1980 Lincoln Continental Mark VI brand-new off the showroom floor - and $15k would also get you the three nicest 1956 Ford Fairlane Crown Victorias on the planet - which was more my dad’s style. In 1980, $15k would get you a very respectable first-generation T-Bird. My dad thought I was nuts to drop $30 on a book, let alone a book on T-Birds, a car he never really warmed to (and he has only once NOT gone to the Ford dealer for a new vehicle in his whole life).īack then, that book was a landmark reference on first-generation T-Birds, and it was written in 1973, when the first generation T-Bird initially caught on in the budding collector car market. While on the road, we stopped at a mall in Kansas City, where I bought a copy of THUNDERBIRD! An Illustrated History of the Ford T-Bird by Ray Miller and Glenn Embree.

In 1980, I had just earned my driver’s license and was on a family vacation. This car, Lot S69.1, sold for $95,000, including buyer’s premium, at Mecum’s Kansas City Auction on December 3, 2011.

Tbird 1956