• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TEAMSPRITE car on EBAY! $30k

I think Team Sprite did an outstanding job on the car and they deserved to get a good price for it. It is a nice car, but the new Seller should not expect to set a record price if he has not corrected the many details that keep it from being a 100 point car. He says it is the best "nut and bolt" restoration he has see. Well the nuts and bolts aren't correct for one thing and I can see many more discrepancies all of which I would not fault Team Sprite for, but I would the new Seller. If you are going to make several thousand bucks in 10 months, you need to earn it. This could be one of the best out there, but it could easily be better with some attention to details. What's with the '56 plate on a '58? Maybe it's not even registered.
 
sqbsprite said:
What's with the '56 plate on a '58? Maybe it's not even registered.
California Year of manufacture plates. In 1958 you got a '56 plate with a 58 registration sticker.

My biggest beef is with the black interior in a red car. The seller should at least change that if he wants to call it "concourse".

Brian
 
I'll be the first to say it, It will not sell. Not at anything north of 20K.
 
I agree with Jack.

Mark
 
I'm unsure where I stand...I think I feel like someone is trying to "take advantage" of the girls from Team Sprite and that angers me...then there's the whole "hey, he bought it so he can sell it...let him its his car" Maybe he was so caught up in the whole story and excitement that he bought something he really has no room for and didn't really think it all through, now he's needing to correct that and trying to recoup some of his costs etc. (Don't we wish we could make $21,000 errors in judgement) Overall, I agree with jack that It probably won't ever go for that price anyway.
 
I may make a few of you angry; however, I'm on the seller's side! Here's why:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]I think I feel like someone is trying to "take advantage" of the girls from Team Sprite and that angers me[/QUOTE]
The girls set their price & got it - or at least were happy with the price they got...so, nobody's taking advantage of them...he'll either make money on the sale or not - at this point the girls aren't even in the equation. Its no longer their car; he can do as he pleases!

& you're right. He may be selling it due to buyers remorse, change in focus, whatever...we don't know.

....& I don't know that, after paying all his buyer's fees at the auction, if he'll make anything even if it sells at his price.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]If the seller makes $9k, I'm sure he/she will gladly donate 1/2 the profit back to Brian, so another car can be sought, and the lives of 10 kids can be positively affected. [/QUOTE]
Why should he? He has no obligation to them - he paid what they wanted & can now do what he wants...for my part, I hope he makes a ton of profit! Its called capitalism!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] If you are going to make several thousand bucks in 10 months, you need to earn it.[/QUOTE]
So, when one of us makes a quick killing in the stock market, we didn't earn it? He put his money on the line - he's gambling - he may not have done any physical labor to the car but he's earning every penny he makes...heck, on a risky $23K investment plus about $3-5K in fees (at a minimum) he could realistically expect more than a paltry $2-4K return in the amount of time he's owned/stored it...think future value of money & he's losing even at $30K!
 
I agree with everything Tony said. The girls got a premium for their car,
partly based on the great restoration story that went with it. The buyer, now seller, should have known what he was doing. I frankly don't care what he gets for it. He is getting into the price range where people care more about the discrepancies that Jack and others have pointed out (plus the wrong color interior) and I think $30k is unlikely. I've been wrong before.

Marv J
 
I agree with everything Tony said as well.

I think one reason a lot of us (including myself) are upset about the sell of the car is because we watched it "grow up." That car is one of our own, and it seems unthinkable to many of us that someone, knowing the story behind the car, would ever be so insensitive as to sell it.

But of course, the owner has every right to sell it for whatever he can get for it. I imagine Team Sprite would be tickled pink to learn that their hard work is so highly valued.

And if that car selling for over $30k brings up the value of '79 Midget rat rods... I think I will learn to forgive /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
He lists the car as a "concours restoration" But was it ever judged? If so it would be far from concours.
It is indeed a nice restoration but like Jack said, lots of wrongs on it. and it has a later style gas gauge.
Is it a 58? wrong side curtains, no 9 stud screen, Seat belts? Not even close and no Bugeye came with them. Yeah, good idea but I at least found red seatbelts from 1961 when I did my 58. And I have since had the MG/Austin plates made for the buckles.
I mean the seller could have made it concours with a little effort. The girls did a fine job and they did lots of research as we all know but 30k for a bugeye? I think maybe 1/2 that.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]...but 30k for a bugeye? I think maybe 1/2 that[/QUOTE]

I'm not a Bugeye guy & wouldn't know the first thing wrong with it - glad you guys are able to pick it apart & point out what needs to be corrected. Maybe we should provide the owner that info so that when it doesn't sell, he can make corrections before his next try at selling it.

....however, if its really only a $15K car, did the seller get ripped off in the original auction when he bought it?

And as I go back & reread the posts surrounding the restoration & original sale, I don't see this outcry!
 
I agree with you Tony 100% One good point made above though (on something that is seen quite often with older cars) is the "concours restoration" claim. It seems to me that unless there is documentation provided with a car that it has been entered and judged in a concours, it is an empty boast with no real meaningful value other than sales schpiel!! "ground-up restoration" says more to me than the snob appeal of a "concours" claim and would be more accurate for the Team Sprite car also!!
 
Here's my take - The car is legally his and he can do with it whatever he wants. Sell it, keep it, or turn it into a coffee table - <u>it is HIS car</u>. As for how it is described...the term "concours" gets overused all the time but usually it's not an attempt to mislead. Besides, for all anyone knows it has been judged or at least reviewed by someone knowledgable. Concours dosn't necessarily mean perfect anyway. But my main point is this - <span style="color: #CC0000">per my note on EBay, I don't want to see any more impuning of this seller or any other regarding EBay auctions. </span> If you don't want to bid on the car then don't. If you think it's being misrepresented - contact the seller and discuss it with him. If he's breaking some EBay rule, notify EBay. If the market won't bear his price then he'll have two opinions (three if you count the coffee table option) 1) Kept the car or 2) lower the asking price. I am sensitive to these kinds of disections of EBay auctions and their sellers. A similar discussion on a previous auction may well have cost a man the sale of his car because it had been implied (on this forum) that he had lied about something (which it turns out he had not).

Basil
 
Back
Top