Crusher, your 'migration theory' makes very good sense..... many times these cars end up in backwater areas where nobody knows for sure how to maintain them and they are often taken off the road for very minor problems.

And then there are specialty foreign independent mechanics like the guy at Plum Springs Ky, outside Bowling Green (where Corvettes are made) who sometimes get ahold of them. This guy even has a Rolls Royce, Maseratti and a couple of 1950's XK series Jaguars in his yard that houses somewhere around 50 cars - all of em being foreign classics such as Triumph GT6 etc in rough condition.

Otherwise, I think you need a large city to sustain populations at junkyards, but in the outback these cars turn up in strange places undisturbed for years and years.

In the san francisco chronicle (people's republic paper) classifids there are two low milage w123s -300D and CD (under 150K) for under $2K.
Just noticed today.

They have their cycles of appearance in the paper.

__________________
1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD