Today we’ll explore the outer limits of Chevy C10 pickup values, highlighting this 1972 short bed, listed on eBay for a cool $48,900, or best offer. This truck is now located in Mooresville, North Carolina, but it was used and owned in South Carolina for most of its history. The C/K series is renowned for pulling Chevrolet’s sales ahead of Ford’s during the early 1970s. Chevy was the first to market with standard comfort features like carpet, a tilt steering wheel, and better seating. Multiple trim levels were also new, allowing “customization” that many drivers were already attempting with aftermarket parts. This truck sports color-corrected, original two-tone paint on a dent-free body and bright, very straight trim. Both bumpers are brand new – the tip of the iceberg in terms of replacement parts as we’ll see. The service parts identification label is still intact and almost as new inside the glove box. Ok, it’s nice. But how much can a nice C10 possibly be worth?

The engine bay was a bit shy for its photo shoot – only this bare slice of a view was provided. The air cleaner assembly is spiffy but the valve covers have seen better days. The motor is Chevy’s ubiquitous 350 cu. in. V8, the original as supplied by the factory, paired with an automatic transmission. But nearly everything else is new, from the radiator to the brakes, the fuel tank to the u-joints. A complete list is here. The odometer reads 116,000 miles and the seller says the truck can go any distance. The later C/K series suspension offered a major upgrade over the old “Task Force” truck with its beam axle and rear leaf springs: an independent front suspension and coil-sprung rear axle became standard.

Much of the interior is new, too, including carpets, door weather stripping, sill plates, armrests (Chevy revised the door panels for the second-gen C10 series to incorporate padded arm rests), upholstery, sun visors…. This truck is equipped with air conditioning and the compressor is…. you guessed it, new. It blows cold, we’re told. The C/K series introduced a drop-center frame, making cabin ingress far easier.

The C10 simply doesn’t have a bad angle – it’s handsome every which way. Sitting low, with its lines squared up versus the roundness of the old Task Force body, this truck was destined to be a classic. Sure enough, over the last several years, prices have climbed precipitously. Conceptcarz reports median sales prices are up from about $20k in 2017 to more than $42k now. Part of that push is due to the very high prices achieved by resto-modded examples – these can reach six figures. But nice stock trucks are in demand too: this ’72 with a 350 V8 sold at Mecum for $46k; another similar truck went for $43k at the same venue. Finding a cheaper example is still possible, but there’s no doubt nice originals can indeed sell past $40k these days.