No such thing as a dumb question, just dumb... nevermind... that would be taken the wrong way.
Anyway for buying a Viper the best place hands down (other than the VCA classifieds) is Woodhouse. If you don't want to wait for Bill to come across one there's always Ebay, Autotrader and Autotrader Collectibles (not to mention Dupont Registry if you have deeper pockets)
Cars shows have one small flaw is that most people there aren't looking to BUY a car, just to be around them. The cars that I find through swaps are usually on the same lines as the cars I look at in auctions. Most look really good, but remember that the person selling is likely to know how to cover up defects. (Like my XGfriend's 65 Rustang which had a perfect body and blown motor. It looked good, ran good, got 70 miles to home and never started up again - funny now that I think about it that describes both the car and driver.)
Ask yourself what you want from the car and go from there. You have (Q)uality and (P)rice. Quality usually* comes from Dealerships (Q)75%(P)25%. Fair* price usually comes from the internet and auctions (Q)50%(P)50%. Cheap price usually comes from friends and internet auctions (Q)25%(P)75%.
* - words used very loosely.
The way I look at it you're going to pay market price no matter where you buy. Ask Joe with his $25k super deal...
