Non-eBay Find of the Day: 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton
TTAC Used Car specialist Steven Lang swears eBay’s “completed items” section is the most accurate indication of any given vehicle’s “real” market value. I have no reason to doubt him. But trolling the auction site for the quirky whips or celebrity cast-offs– the brother of the drummer of the Cars’ modded Monte Carlo– is a practice I find tedious both in execution and end result. OK, Autoblog has a keen eye and more patience that I can muster. And I’ve promised TTAC’s Best and Brightest a better mix of automobiles and politics. So I put on my websuit and surfed a few of my favorite car porn sites on your behalf. My first NEFOTD is this little beauty. The duPont Registry provides provenance: “This car was judged Best in Show at the 2003 ACD National in 2003, and then went on to win at Pebble Beach in 2004. It was restored by La Vine in Florida at a cost of over several hundered [sic] thousand dollars. The car was far ahead of its time with front wheel drive, pre-selector 4 speed transmission, stunning styling and a supercharged 8 cylinder motor developing 175hp. The car had been stored for many years before being restored to its present condition. Only 688 Supercharged Cords were made in all models at a cost of over $3000.00, a 37 Chev sold for $415.00.” If you want a classic car, you can do no better than to buy someone else’s prize-winning restoration (for pennies on the dollar). Anyway, eat your heart out eBay.
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Stephan, There's a reason there are (sometimes) too many catgories judged - As far as insulting eBayer's, the BS flows both ways - "yes, we will sell this car for 28K..." Yeah, to somebody with 22K more money than sense. Believe it or not, this tactic does work. Sometimes.
Don't they know that front wheel drive is out of style for luxury cars. Or maybe, now that Cadillac has finally gotten on the trolley, it will come back.
"If you want a classic car, you can do no better than to buy someone else’s prize-winning restoration (for pennies on the dollar)." Well, there is one thing: buy a fine original car. It's not so easy to do though.
If you want to find details on cars that sold on eBay you might check out this site: http://www.collectorcarpricetracker.com/ They have a searchable database going back years with price charts of cars over 20 years of age sold on eBay AND they archive the full listings page with photos (eBay only keeps them live for 90 days). There is a fee to use the site but some searches are free each week... this time it's Alfa Romeo data. Obviously, eBay sales include everything from dogs to Pebble Beach quality cars but it's interesting to be able to see the full details of each car and the prices they brought.