@Kevin - Bay Area posted:I agree.....but this buyer is not found on BaT. BaT is filled with emotional buyers, not necessarily knowledgeable buyers. Case in point, Teby's car. That car seemed to have all the BaT buyer's boxes checked, except a few: it's not a VMC, it's white and it didn't have photos of the car at the coast or at sunset.
Below are photos of all the cars that sold on BaT in the past year that fetched $60,000 or over; except one car which seemed to be a high-water mark for a VS. My takeaway from this research?
1. Only sell a VMC on BaT. Greg has built himself a great reputation that's well known across the US. The average buyer doesn't seem to be aware of Carey and Henry's reputation, as not many Beck/SE and Intermeccanica cars sell on BaT. And forget it if you have a CMC or Fiberfab.
2. If you don't have a VMC, install some black wheels and spring $1,000 for an amazing photographer to shoot your car.
3. Stay away from colorful cars and white.
What an amazing market analysis, Kevin - really thorough, with references to bolster the arguments you make. Well done.
I've been casually watching, though not at all as closely as you. But it only took one or two Beck/IM auction failures to pick up on the trend - cars from Beck and IM are consistently undervalued on BaT.
The things I value: purpose-built frames, more powerful engines, non-original (but very beneficial) upgrades - things that objectively make a car "better" and more usable as an automobile - these things are not just undervalued, they detract from the value of a car sold on BaT.
BaT buyers really seem to like pan-based cars. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's the subjective connection between VW and Porsche. Perhaps Troy has been correct all these years, that it's the ease of registration. I don't know. I just note that on BaT at least, pan cars in general (and VMC cars in particular) are really, really highly valued. I think the JPS and VS cars in your example probably sold for 2x the purchase price.
Production has been much slower out of VMC than it was out of VS. In a market where there are too many buyers chasing too few cars, that's gotta be good for pan-based cars from VS and JPS. Those cars are probably not going to bring >$60K money for a while, but most of them were purchased for around $25K- $30K.
I expect a return on a market investment and a loss on an object of affection. None of us bought these as investments. I'll never see mine as such.