OK, listen to this one. Last year I helped a friend of mine by managing the cosmetic restoration of his 1971 MB 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet. The car came out really nice, fresh inside and out. I informed him that the car was quite valuable, probably more than he imagined as he bought the car for little money about 15 years ago and if he ever decided to sell it to contact me so I could help value the car.

So the car is finished and he takes it to another buddy for an oil change. A young man approaches him and offers $50K because it is his dream car and wants to have something for weekend family rides. My friewnd declines. The guy offers in $10K incriments and finally asks how much to buy the car? My friend still declines the offers. The next day he goes back to retrieve the car and the guy is there again. The dude finally gets to $150K and my friend now starts to think, "ok, I hardly use this car and I'm getting a little older, maybe time for it to go".

My friends wife is with him and she advises against it as it is sentimental to her/him. The shark then dangles $160K and the poor fish bite. Boom, car is gone. No phone call to me. He calls me a few days later to let me know how good he did and I have to sadly inform him that the car according to Hagerty Valuation tools, a #3 car is worth $220K.

I think my friend was eaten by a shark, but hey, he's happy and I guess that's all that counts.

Sellers beware.

Why didn't you take the 10 minutes to check when you were working on the car and just let him know what it was worth up front?

A year ago $160k would have been closer to the mark anyway.

Oh, I did, many times. He's the type of guy that has a 1 way conversation, talks but doesn't listen.

I have the same experience when it comes my cars (wanna sell that?), and the opposite when it comes to the ones I'd like to buy... I'm driving by a derelict 356 every day, it's rotting outside, not even covered up... but the one time I got to ask the owner about selling it (not to flip, for me) the guy basically said he watches Barrett jackson (!) and wanted what as essentially Condition 1 concours money for a condition 4- car that will need everything redone! Not even close to realistic. So it goes both ways !

So in a way, in this day of Ebay, internet price guides etc, I think there are very few deals left to be had anymore. And if you get taken for not doing your homework, you sorta kinda deserve it (or your kids aren't doing a good job of clueing you in).

PS: my specialty is the backwards flip. Buy high, sink$$ in resto, sell low... I'm working on that.