Selling my Suby FF Californian Speedster

That's a heck of a deal, Jimmy.  I rode in Jimmy's car in 2018 and it was nice before the conversion.  Now it's really sweet.  That paint job is to die for.

EDIT: My memory sucks.  Jimmy's car had already been converted.

Your car will sell quickly!

Beautiful car!  Subie engine, four wheel disc brakes, and a heater .

Jimmy's Speedster is perfection on wheels, every detail is amazing ....this Speedster is a steal of a deal !  ..... I can only imagine what this car would bring on BAT.

I have lost count as to how many things and nice touches I love on this car.

From the body style to the Subie conversion, paint and top combo, the tranny, the wheels, the gearshift knob, the drilled pedals, heater etc.

Just beautiful.

Do you think the pics I have are good enough for a BAT listing?  This time of year won't afford me the opportunity to take better pics. Thank you to all who have made such nice comments.

i heard BAT is hit and miss to list a car..

Jimmy, someone is going to get one heck of a nice, well-sorted car!!

Wow. Just beautiful. If you go to BAT and browse completed auctions and filter for Vintage Speedster, you might be able to gauge the market. Yes, BAT is hit or miss, but you can always start out with a reserve price. Of course we aren't comparing Apples to Apples. You might also be able to reference this site which would serve as the 'provenance' or lack thereof between 2007-20017? But with only 100 miles in ten years, who needs those records. GLWS!

It's being given away at $32k. I invite you to compare it to

https://bringatrailer.com/list..._listing_ending_soon

@edsnova posted:

It's being given away at $32k. I invite you to compare it to

https://bringatrailer.com/list..._listing_ending_soon

I agree. Based on the most recent Silver Vintage Speedster result, I would expect $34K - $35K for mine. Must be the COVID Premium.

BaT hasn't appeared to have auction off a flared or wide-body variant of the speedster.  I don't know if this is intentional (BaT not posting them), or if no one with a flared or wide body has bothered to try to auction their cars on BaT.

For awhile, they simply denied replica speedsters.......that is until I think they found that there's a demand for them.

As I understand, and perhaps those that have used BaT can weigh in, BaT will try to set a lower reserve than you may want, as selling your car is in their best interest, while selling your car at the price you want, may not be.

As far as the photography goes, I highly recommend using a photographer.

I have followed BaT for a number of years.  Good photography sells.  I've seen cars that collected a nice sum over a similar car, solely based upon the photos.  I'd suggest paying a photographer would definitely provide a higher return.

Boy was I disappointed tonight. I thought I had a car bought that I had been the high bidder on in an Ebay listing and as the last second of the auction clicked over instead of seeing you have won it said you have been outbid auction is now closed. Someone out bid my higher than visible amount by $100.00. I thought Ebay auctions  would keep extending the auction until there was a period of minutes without any bidding, I guess that isn't the case. I really thought I had this car and it was ripped from my hands. I have never had that happen. I will be able to slow the sale of my Speedster some because I won't be pressed for garage space now. Thanks for listening I needed to vent.  You may have seen the car that I thought would be mine. I know the guy who built this and I knew what the car was and it was the real deal. I now know someone else knew also and knew how to work the Ebay auction system better than me as well. The body was molded from one of the first Lola sports racers that Ford had brought over to start the GT40 program. That is why the nose looks shorter and higher than a GT40 Mk1 or MK11 because it isn't replicating either of the two. You can see footage of the cars this was molded off of in the Netflix documentary about Carrol Shelby.  I really wanted this one, Oh well it wasn't meant to be.

Love the blue Speedster and remember it from Carlisle.  ebay is tricky to get to be the high bidder because of the unseen higher bids that can kick in automatically. I got my "banjo for life" off ebay at the last nano second by having a higher bid in reserve.  I understand that there are even programs to assist a buyer.  I buy a fair amount of stuff off ebay and use that higher automatic bid device and I pretty much always get what I'm after.  Trying to hit the"bid" button at the last second has never worked well for me--like it didn't work for you on that Ford clone.

A thought---I don't know if you will receive the most important part of owning a car like that red one you lost and that is the SOC and the great people  you make friends with in the Speedster/Spyder/ MG replica scene. Carlisle has been  the highlight of my year each year for 13 or 14 of them.  I love the 2,500 mile round trip, the gathering of additional cars along the way in the Southern caravan, and thedear friends at Carlisle.  (Sure hope it happens again in 2021!)

Good luck with your car quest!

Oh I was never planning on leaving this forum/club/family. I love the people here and the Red V8archieGt4T that I missed getting  shows at Carlise on the same dates, and my plan is to get a Suby powered coupe eventually. Thanks for what you said. I did really screwed up. The seller offered to  stop the auction for $27500.00 when I was at $2700.00 two days before the auction was offer and I passed on the offer, what a bone head move!!

It may not be over, Jimmy. I've bought a couple of cars after the eBay auction ended when the high bidder wouldn't perform.

It's BaT that extends the auction if a higher bid comes in the last seconds. This is to eliminate the "sniping" software that is available (for free) for ebay auctions. With this software, one enters the absolute highest amount they will go to, and the software will bid high enough to win the auction, but places the bid in the final seconds of the auction. It works really, really well. It's kind of crazy to watch an auction with two bidders sniping-- the last seconds are crazy.

The BaT system is better for both buyers and sellers because it's closer to an actual auction, where the last two bidders get a chance to respond to the latest high bid. You never feel like you've been bull-rushed by software if you are the buyer, and you get the absolute top dollar somebody is willing to give if you are the seller. BaT isn't perfect (far from it), but their bidding system is pretty close.

Back some years ago Ebay auctions were like that as well. This is the first auction I like time out and the last. I have always gotten the seller to stop the auction early with a buy it now option. I have been schooled as they say. Live and learn I guess. This one is going to sting awhile.

I have used Hammersnipe to enter eBay bids in the last few seconds.

There is a free version and a paid version.  The paid version enters your bid closer to the end than the free version.

I used to use Phantom Bidder for eBay auctions, but eBay has changed the bidding process and made it too difficult to use sniping software.  Phantom Bidder had to shut down because of it.

I would imagine the same is true for other sniping software as well, but I don't know that for a fact.

I like the eBay system of bidding. I decide how much I’m willing to spend on something, I enter that amount, with 5-6 seconds left I hit the bid button. I figure if I lose out, so be it, that was all I was willing to go for said item. I don’t understand why people would even bother to make a bid before the last few seconds of the auction.

I just read an Ebay informational passage from Ebay.com that says the snipping programs are allowed.

@LI-Rick posted:

I like the eBay system of bidding. I decide how much I’m willing to spend on something, I enter that amount, with 5-6 seconds left I hit the bid button. I figure if I lose out, so be it, that was all I was willing to go for said item. I don’t understand why people would even bother to make a bid before the last few seconds of the auction.

thats how i do it, if i win it was meant to be, if not, who cares

funny,  in the Navy we called the guys in the hot ass engine room snipes,they were always pale white as they never get outside

@Stan Galat posted:

It may not be over, Jimmy. I've bought a couple of cars after the eBay auction ended when the high bidder wouldn't perform.

@Jimmy V. I agree with Stan, there's a surprisingly realistic chance that the buyer fails to follow through.  My heart was broken a few times in the past, until I realized that the car was still available.  I can't remember how I determined this- either it was because I sent a message to the seller after the bidding ended ("Hi do you have other cars like this pls let me know when you do etc etc").  Or maybe I did an advanced eBay search where you filter to only completed vs sold listings, then notice that "hey wait a minute this didn't sell".

It's worth looking into, just as a last ditch effort.  That's a beautiful car, and as we all very well know (and I continue to learn), who's hands it was in before might be more important than anything else.  Unless you like headaches.

I always contact the seller after the auction if I was the number 2 bidder.

"I'm really sorry I missed out on this. If the high-bidder doesn't perform for some reason, please let me know and we'll work something out. I'm in my 50s, have cash, garage space, and a trailer. My wife has already signed off on the purchase. If this car becomes available again, please let me know."

@Stan Galat posted:

I always contact the seller after the auction if I was the number 2 bidder.

"I'm really sorry I missed out on this. If the high-bidder doesn't perform for some reason, please let me know and we'll work something out. I'm in my 50s, have cash, garage space, and a trailer. My wife has already signed off on the purchase. If this car becomes available again, please let me know."

That sounds like lawyer boilerplate/template language that has been refined and optimized over years, I'm saving that somewhere!

I contacted the seller last night and did just that, he said he would call me if the sale fell through.

My Speedster has been sold. The first guy who called me yesterday said he would buy it and I told him I wouldn't sell to anyone else. He sent a 1/3 of selling price deposit today so my Speedster is off the market. Thank you to all who inquired about it and had such nice things to say about the car. You all are the best.

Like I said yesterday, your car will sell quickly. Congratulations!

Congratulations! That was a very nice looking Speedster and a great Blue color. Troy knows the market for wide bodies!

@Jimmy V. posted:

I contacted the seller last night and did just that, he said he would call me if the sale fell through.

Congrats on the sale ...Are you buying something else Jimmy?

Still possibly getting the GT40 replica that I was out bid on last night in the final seconds. Slight chance it is still in play.

@Jimmy V. posted:

Still possibly getting the GT40 replica that I was out bid on last night in the final seconds. Slight chance it is still in play.

Good luck, Jimmy. It seems like there's been a bunch of "sales not completed" lately.

I used sniping programs in the past and they saved me a lot of money. Rather than sitting and watching and risking "auction fever," I'd decide on a price, set the snipe, and walk away. You win some, you lose some, but you never pay more than you wanted to. Then, sometime around 2007, my sniping program stopped working, and I never figured out why, whether it was eBay or my program. But I haven't bought anything on eBay other than "buy it now" auctions for years. It helped a lot that one of the guys whose auctions I frequently bid on opened an actual online store for britalia motorcycle parts.

I am going to pick the car up in Iowa on Friday.

WooHoo!

Great stuff, I guess it is goodbuy and goodbye puma.

@LI-Rick posted:

I like the eBay system of bidding. I decide how much I’m willing to spend on something, I enter that amount, with 5-6 seconds left I hit the bid button. I figure if I lose out, so be it, that was all I was willing to go for said item. I don’t understand why people would even bother to make a bid before the last few seconds of the auction.

The problem is if the item is still hundreds or thousands below what you would bid, if pressed. What do you bid? That's why the auto max bid option is valuable

I have often seen the seller contact the 2nd in line bidder. Makes me believe the high bidder was a plant to get the 2nd bidder up. I think it happens often.