The cars that will make a profit to restore are old Ferrari's
and a few other cars. I was looking through Ebay last weekend
for Maserati's and found that they sell for about 25% of the
price for a similar age/type Ferrari. Dont expect to get the money
back on a restoration. Do a project car beacuse you like it.
Thomas
PS. There are no high valued old Saab's. One company in Sweden
took an old Saab 92 from 1950 and installed a 9-5 V6 engine and
drivetrain. The car is worth ???% more than a stock restored 92.
James L Uhl wrote:
> KUDOS TO ANDREW! I'm gonna rant, so delete this if you're subject to being
> easily offended. Seriously, I don't want to any hate mail from this so I'll
> apologize in advance. ;-)
>
> While I'm looking at cars in my immediate area, I was the one who gave the
> Georgia 1600 the bad press. I have a couple of deals worth following up on
> from members on this list (in other states, unfortunately), but I received
> replies from five of you telling me that the GA 1600 advertised for $4k
> wasn't worth as much as $1k - he declined the offer, by the way.
>
> Some of you have seen the car I built and posted on my website. Even though
> it cost me as much as I could have purchased a 2001 Viggen for, I could
> probably not get more than $15k for it. Did I do it for the money? No, I
> did it for the love of the car and the love of the hobby.
>
> It's just my $.02 worth, but it seems that the guys who have a very clean
> car to start with can build an exceptional vehicle and command a high price,
> just as is true in any restoration. When others who own vehicles of lesser
> quality see how much "the other guy" got for his car, they presume they can
> get that much for their's. Each car is different! And let's be honest.
> The Resto project that is WORTH paying $10k for, probably COST the poor guy
> three or four times that amount - not including his ownlabor.
>
> As Andrew mentioned, the 212 on E-bay did not officially sell even though
> the bid was run up to $8100. COME ON! Is that car worth more in
> un-restored condition? Obviously not, otherwise the bid would have gone
> higher and the reserve would have been met. The unfortunate soul here in
> Georgia is going to learn the hard lesson of pricing. I called on them two
> weeks after the ad was posted.... and I was the only person who had even
> called according to the seller's wife. Go figure! Since I've started my
> Roadster search, I haven't seen the reserve met on a Roadster on E-bay, yet.
> Now maybe that's a fault of E-bay sellers and buyers, but these cars ARE
> becoming increasingly difficult to restore and find.
>
> It seems the only people who want them are those who have a passion for them
> (myself included), but NOT the general public. The Saab enthusiasts burned
> themselves by thinking their old cars were "collectibles" and priced them
> high enough that nobody wanted to buy them. What happened was the cars that
> were in a degraded state were sent to the scrap yard by their owners because
> used parts (for a resto.) were outrageously priced, as well. Additionally,
> they weren't in high demand by the general public,either.
>
> What good is fixing up a car to sell it, if you have no demand from buyers??
> None! You're only fixing it up for yourself. Be that the case, remember
> that fact if you DO decide to sell it. I think everyone on this list can
> show receipts of "how much" they spent on their car. Unfortunately, that's
> not what matters; what matters is what your INDIVIDUAL car is worth in
> whatever condition it's in. Cars aren't investments, real estate is.
>
> Thanks for letting me rant,
> James
>
> No Roadster, yet.
> http://people.atl.mediaone.net/jamesuhl
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