Agreed. I have gotten a lot of 'sympathy buys' in last 3+ years. These
are from people who are (pick one) out of work, may lose house/home, or in
danger of losing job.
Here in Houston you have huge full page ads with places that take up
whole hotels and 'buy gold' over weekend, the ads are $125,000 for full page
in Chronicle. Here is one off my site I mentioned to a guy who bought a
AMX:
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/grandma-teeth.jpg
I affectionately call it 'grandmas teeth' as that is sort of what the
vulture places are buying. Not only are people "dumping" (for lack of better
term) old cars, but also Star Wars collectibles, gold or anything gold, coins,
jewelry, comic books, antiques, you name it. You can't eat a comic book in
this sh*t economy if no job. So you see events like above happen. There are
4-5 of them PER WEEK here in Houston...and there is no shortage of people
turning in stuff, and of course they are getting fraction of cost of what it
might be worth you know.
How many of you saw the beautiful big bad green 70 AMX sell on ebay for
$19K? Same car would have brought about $30K 5-6 years ago.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170595952509&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
There was a stunning red 71 SC/360 Hornet also that guy lost job in
California and had it on ebay, $36K, then $23K, then took $12K cash for it.
One could not restore either of the cars above for $19K or $12K respectively.
People hurting out there, something like 16 million out of work.
I got hammered with questions as to whether this is or is not a Badger
Javelin:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190494332035&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT
nice buy for $5500 for someone.
Here are some common sense comments in emails I sent to people in last
several weeks:
"Be patient on the search for the Ambassador as something will come up,
especially now with economy tanking and people selling off toys. Real tough
market out there right now, so toy, whether skidoos, boats, trucks, cars,
classics, star wars collections, cimics, coins, antiques, lots of stuff gtting
dropped as people need money for whatever, loss of job, bank won't lend,
mortgage, whatever, so be picky. "
Guy below as going to take it to swap meet and see if he could get his
$500 back...it is a Trans Am Red 72 Matador Z code 401 2 door. Engine out but
who cares, probably ONLY 72 Matador 401 Trans Am Red 2door left in
existence.
"Eddie good evening,
I wanted to thank you again for your time
yesterday. I appreciate all the good information.
I am sending you a
picture of the car. I forgot when I was talkiing with you that the car had
also had a white vinyl top. I don't think I would replace that, but just paint
the roof the same color as the rest of the car."
(my reply)
Rough, but to me, it looks like easy restoration. The grille pieces might
be able to be fixed, as a chroming shop beats them back into place, then
denickles and dechromes them. Sometimes a good solid core pops up on ebay
also. Same with grille. Hood might be little difficult to find, I believe only
71-73 Matty type. As for the vinyl roof, while a white vinyl roof on red car
is sorta gay, this was more of a 'businessmans musclecar' for instance. I'm
sure many a person stopped along side of it thinking joe nerd in suit only to
be blown away. I wished I had some photos here of a 71 Matador 2 door that was
for sale in Texas in 1990s.
The lady bought it new, and drove 2 years then died, it was red, with
white vinyl top, and black & white interior, quite striking. The car only
had 1334 miles on it. It popped up for sale at Pate meet and guy asked me what
I thought it was worth as he had $10K for sale on it. I told him realistically
about $5500. He took it home, zero interest, and kept trying to sell it, after
3 years someone bought it for $5000 and it mysteriously appeared at the big
Kenosha national meet for sale for $10K again. Different person though, but no
buyers. Not sure what ever happened to it, but you would have had to see the
contrasting red original paint with white top, quite nice and i am not fan of
vinyl tops either as they are big sponge up there. "
Point is this, people are free to ask what they want for a car. There is
some Aston powered Javelin out there with $80K asking price. Won't happen A
guy asked me about Matador coupes, my reply:
"There are a lot of them for sale, usually see 3-10 of them a month for
sale,
here are a few:
http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/carsforsale/amc/matador/1170175html?refer=rss
this one for sale for well over year, $8900 really pushing envelope
even for
concours coupes
http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/amc/matador/1112666.html?refer=rss
the one I sold to Steven Green Collection was identical to this.....and
48,000
miles, took $3400 for it:
http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/amc/matador/1141529.html?refer=rss
the above would probably be record for one if it ever sold, problem is it
won't
at that price, hell you can get a damned two seater AMX under $20K
again."
There are a lot of brokers out there that ended up with cars that have
taken a hit. I'm not saying AMC is taken a hit, but like housing, there was a
ton of stuff overpriced. Prices for parts, and restoration costs have went up,
again, people seem (to me) be paying a lot less for AMC stuff than say, 4-6
years ago when banks would lend money, low unemployment and more. Sort of what
happened in 1991 when muscle car market went to hell after prices went up in
87-90, market sort of readjusted itself I guess. So what someone 'asks' don't
mean it will 'sell' either. And when their asking price too high no one calls.
Or if reserve too high the car becomes a 'regular' on ebay, sort of like a
Norm sitting at end of bar, you get used to seeing it there, price drop some
each week as seller attempts to sell, but people get tired of seeing it also,
knowing the seller is motivated to move it, watching each week them wasting
money listing it with a reserve. Some sellers stick by guns and hold true,
others will realize this might be only chance to move it and sell, moving off
their price.
Either way, there are many, many more bargains (to me) out there than
there was in 2000s and that is a good thing for those who truly appreciate the
cars. Don't want to see someone lose money, but some people, and speculators
and brokers, did buy high when market was at peak. I think the two best
bargains out there are the two r/w/b AMCs on ebay this is a 70 Javelin:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1970-AMC-MARK-DONOHUE-JAVELIN-SST-TRANSAM-REPLICA-AMX-/330528769921?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4cf50cc781
the other one is the 69 AMX here in Texas for $10,500, 390, 4spd, nice
car, could not build one for that, it's still in craigslist, so far as I know.
My suggestion would be don't let markets ups & downs bother you. Just
enjoy the cars! Now it is time for me to head out and go pick up the kids in
my 74 Hornet Sportabout wagon. Earlier today drove the 72 Ambassador wagon,
wife drove the 39K 82 Concord I just bought.
My
take on it is that folks dont have much money these days so they way over
price their stuff cause eventually SOMEONE may buy it. It typically takes me
over a year to sell a car for more then I woould pay for it. It takes alot
of patience and a thick skin. Plus us as rambler buyers dont like paying too
much so we balk when asking prices rise.
Just
my POV.
Davis
I just got my American Motoring magazine today. I was looking
through the cars for sale part of it and it seems like the asking
price for the cars is really going up. Of course to me it seems
since we have been in this economic down spin the price of all
classic cars have been going up. Are you guys seeing this or is it
just my imagination.
Terry
|
Back to the Home of the AMC Gremlin