Is anything really selling?

Ali Babba

Just asking the question, i've seen the same stuff coming up for sale time and time again. I can appreciate that some of the stuff has crazy asking prices but some of it seems fair enough. Has anyone any experiences good or bad?

chiefwiggum

ive had plenty of swap offers...but mainly for modern cars....old modern cars as in old saabs,beemers and so on early 90's stuff...stuff you wouldnt be interested in and stuff with huge petrol engines and huge tax to go with it

_Conrad_

Ali Babba wrote: »

Just asking the question, i've seen the same stuff coming up for sale time and time again. I can appreciate that some of the stuff has crazy asking prices but some of it seems fair enough. Has anyone any experiences good or bad?

Perhaps it's not fair enough anymore? There are plenty of people not asking the really insane prices (lots of those too), but looking for prices which weren't too bad, or were even reasonable while a lot more people were much better of for at least less worried about spending money, and now that there's less spare money around, a lot of the sellers havn't dropped their prices to take that into account. Not saying that they absolutely should, or have to, but if you want something to sell, people have to be able to afford it.

Another problem is that some of the vehicles advertised really are nowhere near as good as they're described or have all sorts of faults or issues that are only discovered when you go to view them, so instead of either reducing the price or rectifying the problem, many irish people in particular will take the car off the market for a while, moan about it, then re-advertise it at the same price.

ahal

chiefwiggum wrote: »

ive had plenty of swap offers

That seems to be the experience of everyone I know who is trying to sell anything. A deluge of offers to swap. There are still a lot of people out there with money (I'd wager in the 50's + age bracket predominantly) who can afford to pay a good price for what they want, but in general the market is abysmal, which you probably don't need me to tell you.

I had a few weeks of my time wasted by a guy supposedly selling a '72 classic which had been in his shed since the early '90's and not started. He wouldn't give me a price so I made a realistic offer. He was to call me, didn't. Eventually called him. He was to call me the next day: "Oh, my brother's getting a guy to look at it" etc. He didn't call me. Texted him to say no thanks.

There are still plenty of dreamers like this guy out there who think that their turds are gold - plated. I wouldn't respond to ads where no price is given anymore - it's a virtual guarantee of having your time wasted. On the flipside, no one understands the words "no offers", and 99% of people assume that anyone selling anything must be uber - desperate for the money and will sit up and beg!

It was bad before, but since the 'Universal social charge' thing the market has all but stopped - for everything - in my anecdotal experience. To get back to the question (sorry for rant lol) whatever is selling seems to be doing so at mainly below worth. That's certainly been my experience and that of anyone I know selling cars etc. Most asking prices - where they're actually given - are inflated in a bid to end up with less of a loss when it comes to reality.

Just my tuppence (or whatever that is in euro ) worth!

68deville

I know a few lads who in the last 5-6years bought classics and payed way
over the market value for the cars and now are selling/trying! and realistically havent a hope of getting near of what they gave for the cars.
at the time it was a good idea but now even in the current envoirnment
it will be near impossible..on another note does anybody notice alot of
unfinnished projects or "just havent got the time" for sale???;)

Ali Babba

68deville wrote: »

on another note does anybody notice alot of
unfinnished projects or "just havent got the time" for sale???;)

I have alright, it's really sad though to see guys having to sell off their dream cars as they just can't afford to finish them off .

kindalen

what types of classics are actually selling still? not really heard of much been sold for cash, same as above a few swaps for 90's cars.

gyppo

No-one has money for toys anymore it seems.
I have a w123 for sale for some time now, with a brand spanking new nct, that needs nothing only a new owner and petrol. All I've had is time wasters and texters. Imo, the car im selling is a lot of car for 2 grand, considering similar cars were selling for 4/5k a few years ago.

ahal

kindalen wrote: »

what types of classics are actually selling still? not really heard of much been sold for cash, same as above a few swaps for 90's cars.

It's easier to say what isn't selling! I spend most of my spare time trawling car ads, and between this and talking to fellow motorheads it would seem that there are exceptions across the board, but I wouldn't say anything is particularly selling at the moment.

For example, Saabs one would think are pretty un-shiftable. I rang up a guy about a 1986 900 which was on donedeal and it was gone within a couple of days. He was only looking for €220 for it, and it's within sight of classic tax. A bargain, in other words (needed a backbox, nothing else)

My own view - and just so's no one gets offended let me re-state, my own view - is that people are running scared from a lot of the ultimate classics. From looking at Escort MK1's, Beetles and original Minis they seem to be advertised forever. It's not always that the prices are ridiculous, it's more so that even a 'bad' price for one of them is more than people are willing to pay anymore.

I guess a lot more people are looking for cars which they can use as classic daily runner, rather than previously when they could afford to have a new or newish car and a classic for the weekends? The tax system has certainly narrowed that selection. You either get caught with something that costs a bomb to tax and has to be NCT'd, or you go back to an age where most cars are less feasable (my opinion again!) as daily runners. Catch 22.

My advice to anyone with an interesting car and sufficient storage (and who can afford to wait it out) would be don't sell.

bobdole968

ahal wrote: »

My advice to anyone with an interesting car and sufficient storage (and who can afford to wait it out) would be don't sell.

i agree. its really the only thing you can do unless your willing to sell for peanuts. i have never seen as much chancers offering less then half for what the car is worth. if you don't have a garage to store the car you might have to sell or else let it rust to death but anyone thats serious about classic cars would have them in a garage anyway.

68deville

I suppose sellers situations vary alot really,one particular car i went to
look at recently was in need of a good bit of work and he
wasnt misleading in anyway about the car but it just happened i had
a parts manual and a quick totup of what was need in parts alone
ran into roughly 4000euro and that was excluding new tyres/wheels
it needed a full respray and every shiny bit rechromed!!.In the end
i said to get it to where i would want the car it just didnt add up
and he didnt disagree with me as he found himself coming to the same
conclusion:(:( it just seemed like a gud idea at the time....

johnos1984

I've been looking for a few months now as many people on here know.

My advice, go to Britain, get what you want, have it restored and bring it home for less money than the worst example of the car you can find here.

Advertise it at a reasonable price for what it would cost to bring similar home, don't be greedy and you have a winner.

Incidently there are too many MGB's, Mini's, Mercs, Fords etc. at too high a price and in too poor of condition on the market.

I know as I've gone to look at 'perfect' examples of all of them which needed vital safety work before they could of been driven on the road never mind restoration

ahal

johnos1984 wrote: »

I know as I've gone to look at 'perfect' examples of all of them which needed vital safety work before they could of been driven on the road never mind restoration

Indeed ... a good observation that ... there we have one of the biggest hurdles to buying a classic. I can't count how many times I've spotted '2006' on the corner of the pics of the car for sale either :rolleyes:

"Ah sure it drove grand when it was laid up"

- "When was that?"

"eh, 1983"

johnos1984

ahal wrote: »

there we have one of the biggest hurdles to buying a classic. I can't count how many times I've spotted '2006' on the corner of the pics of the car for sale either

So many cars dragged out of sheds, washed down and photo taken.

MINT condition,body work great, like new complete BARGAIN, perfect first time headache classic not driven for 10 years and last painted with HAMMERITE and bird ****, never serviced, completely original engine oil and tyres

68deville

ahal wrote: »

Indeed ... a good observation that ... there we have one of the biggest hurdles to buying a classic. I can't count how many times I've spotted '2006' on the corner of the pics of the car for sale either :rolleyes:

"Ah sure it drove grand when it was laid up"

- "When was that?"

"eh, 1983"

"lack of storage space"= left outside ta rot!

johnos1984

68deville wrote: »

"lack of storage space"= left outside ta rot!

Would suit 2004 Land Rover 7 seater

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/vintagecars/2136551

ahal

It's gas. Half the country seems to be unemployed but yet there are a rake of sellers who suddenly don't have the time :rolleyes:

Ali Babba

Unfortunately if you don't have a job or have less money the last thing you're going to be worried about is a classic car or anything other than a roof over your head and food.

shawnee

I agree that stuff is not selling, however as in the ordinary car market, if you want to sell then you need to put a realistic sale price. That has really nothing to do with what you paid for the car or indeed what it would have made three years ago. It is the price that a customer or indeed a few customers are willing to pay now.
I have also noticed that cars over 30 years are selling better. I suppose its hard to justify paying 500 a year tax on a classic that one uses occasionally .
As the say in the stockmarket the market is experiencing a correction at present :D