It is funny that this question comes up more and more on these borads. I get to think about what the car market was like about ten years ago.
I used to go out hunting cars or just driving and finding them. I could pick up a nice running car needing some work (quarters, fenders patched and maybe a trunk pan) for about 3500 and then you had the ones that were not running and needed a lot of work (parts car) for any where from 500-1000.
In my search now for a car I'm seeing good running cars that need very little work 5000 to 12,000. It is a buyers market right now.
You can also save yourself some time and money and picked up some restored cars for half of what it would cost you do the work yoursel for pay some for it.