[Blood of Tyrants]

When they were breaking up all the B-17s and fighters, you could buy a surplus P-51 with a spare engine and a a tank of avgas for $2500. A B-17 was $5000.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

In Martin Caidin’s book “Fork-Tailed Devil”, he mentions that a surplus P-38 could be bought at Kingman in 1946 for $1250, brand new. Hundreds were scrapped.

[Rockingham]

Now they are worth a hundred or more times that price as post-war surplus.