Seriously?

[Othen]

I’ve been following this one on eBay, had placed a bid and would have bought it if it wasn’t so far away (Bude - all too difficult). It looked really nice: a 1987 auto saloon with 130,000 miles and 6 months MoT. It only made £1040, which I thought was a really good price and gives a good indication of where the market really is (not the absurdly over=inflated asking prices we see so often in this thread):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-240....m46890.l49286

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I’ve been following this one on eBay, had placed a bid and would have bought it if it wasn’t so far away (Bude - all too difficult), It looked really nice: a 1987 auto saloon with 130,000 miles and 6 months MoT. It only £1040, which. Thought was a really good price and gives a good indication of where the market really is (not the absurdly over=inflated asking prices we see so often in this thread):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-240....m46890.l49286

You've summed up the reason why it didn't make as much as a similar car further inland would have done in 4 words Alan - "Bude - all too difficult".

Any car in Devon, Cornwall, Scotland or other similar, difficult to get to, far-flung place from the majority of people on our little island don't tend to attract good prices.

About 5 years bac a friend was looking for a Lexus LS430 - eventually found one near Glasgow for the price he wanted to pay. Between a train from where he lived to the nearest sensible airport to fly up to Glasgow, he flew up there and drove it back.

He was offered more or less double his money immediately by a few traders and even when he sold it about 3-4 years later, got almost twice as much on a private sale because it's a lot further south.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

You've summed up the reason why it didn't make as much as a similar car further inland would have done in 4 words Alan - "Bude - all too difficult".

Any car in Devon, Cornwall, Scotland or other similar, difficult to get to, far-flung place from the majority of people on our little island don't tend to attract good prices.

About 5 years bac a friend was looking for a Lexus LS430 - eventually found one near Glasgow for the price he wanted to pay. Between a train from where he lived to the nearest sensible airport to fly up to Glasgow, he flew up there and drove it back.

He was offered more or less double his money immediately by a few traders and even when he sold it about 3-4 years later, got almost twice as much on a private sale because it's a lot further south.

You have made me feel really lazy now Dave! It was a nice car, but I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it :-(

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You have made me feel really lazy now Dave! It was a nice car, but I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it :-(

In fairness he's a lot younger than either of us Alan, in fact if i have my year right, he was exactly half my age at the time!

When i was that young i would have done similar but these days prefer things to be closer - much closer!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

You have made me feel really lazy now Dave! It was a nice car, but I couldn’t be bothered to go and get it :-(

The Cornwall factor aside Dave, this sale does put the 1980s/1990s 240 market into perspective. Here we had a pretty honest car that had been recommissioned with a bit of MoT and under 130,000 miles selling for a grand - elsewhere we see people hawking around pretty similar cars for £4,000 to £5,000 for months and wondering why they have not sold (like the car with the broken fuel gauge).

I think you will have seen another thread I responded to about a blue 244 (about 1982 I think) - it had been laid up for a decade and had no MoT. The chap wanted an opinion about a value - and I got the feeling (although he was far too discrete to say so) that he was disappointed to hear it was worth a grand or so now; I rather imagined he had probably found the car somewhere and thought he had uncovered a £20,000 retirement fund.

Over-pricing anything slightly old is endemic in our society - perhaps we all just have too much money?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Over-pricing anything slightly old is endemic in our society - perhaps we all just have too much money?

I blame antique dealers Alan!

These days because of the "antique culture" people seem to view aything with a bit of age as a rarity so hike the price up accordingly. Then there's the emotional factor from someone having spent many hours (and £££) restoring something old to near-new condition who wants some kind of financial compensation for everything they've invested in it.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I blame antique dealers Alan!

These days because of the "antique culture" people seem to view aything with a bit of age as a rarity so hike the price up accordingly. Then there's the emotional factor from someone having spent many hours (and £££) restoring something old to near-new condition who wants some kind of financial compensation for everything they've invested in it.

You are right on both of those points Dave. Those irritating TV fly-on-the wall programmes following antiques dealers and up-cyclers (a horrible word - but it perfectly describes what I mean) give people the idea that anything made before the turn of the century must be worth a fortune if it is wrapped in a bit of sticky-backed plastic.

You are right about the payback for money spent piece as well. I've noticed sellers listing ordinary servicing items as improvements they have made to cars and bikes. If I spend money on oil and filters for a vehicle I then use then that is just normal maintenance - not some enhancement that I expect to get back when I sell on in 5 years time!

Rant over...

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You are right on both of those points Dave. Those irritating TV fly-on-the wall programmes following antiques dealers and up-cyclers (a horrible word - but it perfectly describes what I mean) give people the idea that anything made before the turn of the century must be worth a fortune if it is wrapped in a bit of sticky-backed plastic.

You are right about the payback for money spent piece as well. I've noticed sellers listing ordinary servicing items as improvements they have made to cars and bikes. If I spend money on oil and filters for a vehicle I then use then that is just normal maintenance - not some enhancement that I expect to get back when I sell on in 5 years time!

Rant over...

I have a phrase for the majority of upcyclers that try to use modern materials to make old things look good, turd polishers! For the most part, that's exactly what they do.

However, in fairness it must be said that some upcyclers do repurpose old materials in a clever way to make a functional, (usually) attractive piece of furniture, garden equipment or whatever. As such, i think the better ones have their place in society but the not so good ones could be better employed as collection agents for the Wombles.

For some unknown reason many people view servicing as a non-essential requirement and think cars should just keep going, no matter what. Then when they're told their cars have broken down through lack of servicing and someone quotes the minimum requirement of at least once a year, they think they can get away with an oil/filter change once every 4 years.

When they finally do get round to giving it a proper service and normal performance/economy is returned, they think it's an improvement. They probably only descale their kettles when their coffee is 90% scale.........

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

eBay has just told me this one only received bids up to £1,750 - not even making its reserve. So much for the seller’s absolutely final reduction to £4,150! I’ve lost track of how many times this car has been advertised, I can’t help thinking that if the seller had asked a sensible price (between £2,000 and £2,500) it would have been done and dusted by now.

Perhaps it will reappear on Car and Classic next?

So, our old friend with the broken fuel gauge is on the market again (maybe the fifth attempt?). This time with a £1,000 starting price and a £3,000 price - which is I suppose considerably less than the 'absolutely final' reduction we had to £4,150 a month or so ago:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353471605...m=353471605623

I suppose the car will find it value in the end - but bearing in mind last time it only managed bids up to £1,750 the current asking price still seems optimistic. I seem to recall from the outset I thought this motor car would make £2,000 to £2,500 - I still think that is where it will end up :-)

[Laird Scooby]

My experience of ebay suggests that it will struggle to even reach £1750 as previous bidders will have found other cars to bid on and won't be interested in this one. There will be a few that had their heart set on this car - for a budget though and i suspect that budget is in the £12-1500 range and still likely below his reserve.

If you're adding a reserve, start the bidding really low like 99p, it won't sell until the reserve is met so why put buyers off with a higher initial bid unless that is your reserve.