False Impressions

With classic car auctions on TV and headline prices like $38 million for a Ferrari, you would think that every old car is worth its weight in gold these days. In fact, some people selling vintage iron are setting their asking prices pretty high because they heard about the crazy prices people paid at last year’s Lambrect Chevrolet auction in Nebraska.

Well, we don’t see those kind of prices being paid for cars in our neck of the woods. Every once in awhile someone will ask us to post a car for sale on our website as if they expect it to sell by the end of the week. Well, in the years since 2008, we’ve probably posted 20-25 cars and four of them sold. And not one of them brought the very reasonable prices asked for them.

Based on these experiences, we would say that anyone hoping to sell a car for the prices they see in magazine headlines or hear on TV auction coverage is laboring under a false impression. Don’t expect to see such prices paid in the sane, sober world of your neighborhood.

If you really want to sell your vintage car, pick up the latest Old Cars Price Guide. Then, give your car an honest personal appraisal. Use the descriptions in front of the price guide to determine the actual condition your car is in. Then look up the price for that car in that condition class. Use at least one more source to check the pricing information, then establish a realistic price you would sell the car for. Keep in mind that after some serious bargaining, you might have to come down from your asking price to clinch a sale.