[jluetjen]

I'd ONLY considier buying that car as a parts car -- for example if I had a nice shell lying around and needed some rebuildable mechanicals to put in it. Even in that case as a buyer I wouldn't consider the value of the car to be the value of the rebuild engine since it is wrapped in a lot of junk. Have you ever tried getting rid of a rusty body lately??? You have to pay to have a scrap yard take it -- especially if it is stripped. So as a bidder I'd start from a position of: "I'll help you get rid of it for $1000. If you don't take that from me you'll most likely have to pay someone to take the car or go into business stripping and selling the parts yourself on ebay. Do you really want the hassle???" If he doesn't take you up on it, walk away and let him stew in it for a while. I really don't think that it's worth much more then that. Rebuildable 2.7CIS engines are fairly common -- specially the non-S's. Putting it on ebay involves a lot of shipping hassles like palletizing the engine and arranging shipment with a lift-gate truck (ask me how I know!). Not to mention most buyers balk when they discover the cost of shipping an engine via common carrier.

If you can close a deal with this guy for ~$1000 you both will be coming out ahead. He'll have cash in his pocket and you'll have a "driver" engine and a fixable transaxle. Then you can use the balance of your cash to find a nice clean, rust-free chassis -- possibly with a dog engine in it. Bargain the seller of the chassis down in the same fashion and you've successfully completed a "bottom-fishing" deal and you'll own a driver with lots of spare parts!

PS: Don't let all of the people who are down on the idea of "bottom fishing" get you down. The reality is that the Porsche world is full of people who are able or willing to throw a lot of money at their cars. That's OK. But that doesn't mean that it's the only way to do it. I didn't spend much more then what your range is (and well less then $10,000) and I've been happily driving my 911 for years now!