In a message dated 6/18/2004 8:29:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, L1J1S@aol.com
writes:
to all listers, trying to come with realistic value(s) for cars(collector)
in
general. looking at the prices in hemmings which are much higher than the
prices being sold on ebay, uhm.. some have mentioned that ebay is the
dumping
grounds for cars. i would like feedback from all listers viewing their
opinions.
=====
And this is ONLY that; an opinion! :-)
What you see in Hemmings and similar publications are, of course, only
ASKING prices. There's probably no good way to know what final selling prices
of
those cars are/were.
As for eBay, one might call it a "dumping ground," but I don't. Just like
any other classified listing, all sorts of cars appear on eBay, from parts cars
to show winners to just about everything in between. It appears to have the
advantage of potentially very high visibility for what I presume is a somewhat
reasonable cost. Add to that the "auction fever" potential. Of course, like
any auction, it all depends on who "shows up" that week!
Awhile back, Ken Gano was keeping track of Triumph cars sales on eBay. If
he's "listening in" here, he might be able to give a capsule summary of what he
saw.
I honestly don't know what criteria the Guides (NADA, Old Cars, etc.)
use...or whether they're more closely based in reality than any other method of
estimating values for collector cars. But presumably, they use a variety of
source information and average them all out. Generally, the NADA prices seem
"ballpark" to me. It's been some time since I've seen the Old Cars Price Guide.
In the end, all the guides are probably ok for popular collector cars, those
sold in sufficient numbers that conclusions can be reasonably drawn from data
(I'm talking TR6, TR3A, earlier Mustangs, assorted Chevies...that sort of
thing). But for Heralds and Sports 6s, or Studebaker Lark Daytonas...I dunno.
;-)
That's my $.02 worth (oh, and add 10% buyer premium + title and tags....)
--Andy Mace
*Mrs Irrelevant: Oh, is it a jet?
*Man: Well, no ... It's not so much of a jet, it's more your, er,
Triumph Herald engine with wings.
-- Cut-price Airlines Sketch, Monty Python's Flying Circus (22)
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