Auction prices.

[supercass]

Spent a few moments glancing through a classic car newspaper when doing the shopping. Looking at recent auction results I was surprised to see a cond. 2 convertible had sold for more than £7.8k and a condition 2+ (presumably hardtop) for over £8k. I must have been somewhere else and missed this rapid rise in values. I guess it doesn't matter as I'm not planning on selling! supercass

[UKPhilTR7]

I have noticed this also that the price seems to be going up, but in saying that it is not constant. One minute you can see them for 5ķ plus and other times, cars in the same condition for only 1k. I too do not plan to get shot of mine any time soon.

[Hasbeen]

I don't know about that.

Bought the DHC 8 about 15 years ago, with a newish 4.6L RV8, with all steel bottom end, & computer controlled injection in very good condition, with all the best upgrades in brakes, suspension & wheels for A$20.000. This was about the right money at the time for a car with a A$40,000 receipt file.

Some things were poorly thought out, for about $5000 we doubled the power. This necessitated an upgrade in gearbox & diff of about $10,000. After about 8 years it got a paint job for $6000. Receipt file now over $61,000

It has not done all that many miles, & is at least as nice as when bought. Still from what I have seen recently it would be hard to get more than about A$15000 for it today, if we were silly enough to sell it.

Hasbeen

[supercass]

I think though that the prices actually achieved at auction are perhaps more meaningful. The problem is that if you look at the for sale ads one sellers idea of "mint" is quite different from another. To some people it is quite acceptable to describe a car that is welded like a patchwork quilt as fully restored. No rust often means there is no rust, just holes where rust once was! Never welded often means it hasn't been welded but is in need of extensive welding. So....mint.....no rust......immaculate.......as new........original. Point out to the seller that the car is a worn out rust bucket and the usual response is "Well, it's nearly forty years old. What do you expect?" supercass

[Cobber]

Here in Oz we have a monthly magazine called "Unique Cars" it,s basicaly a classifeds listing with a few articles about classic cars, It never ceases to amaze me how many over optimistic owners advertise their cars for obsenely large amounts of money, the same car will still be advertised months later with no realistic reduction in asking price.........No wonder we call it the "Unique Prices" magazine!

[FI Spyder]

I had talked to our professional appraiser about car prices when he sets a price on a car (usually for the provincial collector car insurance). He doesn't use prices of cars sold from private to private sales as these are much lower, but auctions and others sales figures he has access to as a professional appraiser. These are actual sale prices, not "asking" prices. They are quite a bit higher than classified ads prices which have a wide variance in terms of condition as mentioned above.