The quick and easy answer is that your collector car is worth whatever you, as a willing seller are willing to accept, and what a willing buyer will agree to pay. So the question really becomes, "What is a figure that a buyer might be willing to pay to buy this vehicle?" That is not an easy question to answer.

Perhaps you should let the market decide. Enter your car in one of the many collector car auctions and you can easily find an answer. You may not like what others are willing to pay to buy your car. If that is the case, you hopefully will have had a "reserve" on the selling price and your entry becomes a "no sale." You will have paid the entry fee to find out that there is no willing buyer at your price.

Not long ago I was at a Silver Collector Car Auction in Spokane. A gentleman from Moses Lake, Washington entered his 1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati in the auction. Since I am the owner of two of these Chrysler TCs I was most interested to see how the bidding went for his car.

The car had been repainted a non-stock ugly frog green color. The expensive Italian leather interior had been replaced with vinyl. The costly Fondmetal wheels had been replaced with some odd looking aftermarket spoked wheels. Worst of all, an ugly "continental spare wheel" had been added to the rear bumper. As I recall the bidding stalled at $11,500. This did not meet the sellers reserve and the car was a "no-sale." If that had been my car I would have grabbed the money and run!

On the other hand, you may find that your car will sell at auction for substantially more than you hoped it would bring. If there are two or more qualified buyers that want the car, who knows where the bidding will stop? I have observed at auction cars selling for more that twice what I would be willing to pay… but, does that mean I truly know what the car is worth and the buyer is ignorant? No, I don’t think so. Whatever a buyer is willing to pay is in fact what that car is worth to the buyer.

Daniel Strohl, writing in the February 2005 issue of Hemmings Motor News about the Kruse auction at Auburn cannot resist injecting into his report what he thinks a "fair" price would be. (I am referring to the 1956 Studebaker Hawk on page 52 that sold for $10,900. Mr. Strohl considered this to be about $2,000 more than a "fair" price.) This strikes me as arrogance. The fair price is the price at which the auctioneer’s hammer went down. It is just possible that the buyer was more knowledgeable about the car than the journalist observer.

It is the job of the auction firm to get buyers and sellers together. If your car is not bid up to or above your reserve price it is their job to persuade you to lower your selling price to match the buyers price. You may find that in your mind the car is already sold, so lowering your reserve is just being realistic. Even if you think that you "gave the car away," in fact what happened is that you let the market decided what your car was worth.

Selling your car at an auction just to find out what it is worth might be just as stupid as going to the blood bank to donate blood just to find out if you have AIDS. So, here are some other considerations to ponder.

Condition is Everything

Most collector car enthusiasts are familiar with the point system for rating cars such as that used by the "Old Cars Price Guide:" 1. Excellent, 2. Fine, 3. Very Good, 4. Good, 5. Restorable, and 6. Parts Car.

You might want to transpose these criteria as: 1. Perfection, 2. Damn Nice, 3. Looks good until you get up close, 4. A driver, but has problems, 5. God help us! and 6. Junk. Based upon condition, the worth of your car can range from way above Kelly Blue Book or NADA book, or in fact it may have a negative value if it is such a basket case that it will cost you to get rid of it.

For example, last Summer I sold my brother’s 1997 Ford Probe for $10,000 cash. The car was perfection. Only 1,600 miles since leaving the dealer showroom. Never been in the rain… needing absolutely nothing. NADA book on the car was $5,087.

On the other hand, I drove about 70 miles to investigate a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria that was advertised in our local newspaper, only to find that it was a complete nightmare. The car had been in a major wreck that bent the frame. It had been sitting out in acid rain near a smelter. No kidding, I could not find anything on the car that was not damaged so badly that it was junk. There would be no point in paying to have it hauled home. It may have been a good set of plans. But, you may not realize how easy it is in your attempt to restore a "junker," to discover that you have spent $40,000 building a $20,000 show car.

Hire an Appraiser

Talk is cheap. If you have not paid to have a professional appraisal done on your collector car you may discover that what you think it is worth lacks credibility with your insurance company. Three years ago an uninsured driver from Idaho ran a red light with his truck and totaled my 1986 Cadillac Eldorado. My little red Eldo was insured on our personal auto policy as a daily driver. It had over 100K miles on the odometer but it was a beautiful and well preserved car that was a joy to drive and own.

Our insurance company was of the opinion that the value of the car was less than one-half of what I was willing to accept as a settlement. It took six months to settle the claim. I was required to hire a professional appraiser to attempt to appraise the wreck as to its replacement value before the wreck. This was an exercise that I do not care to repeat. Now I make it my business to have a professional appraisal done and on file for every car in our collection. The professional appraisals done by a staff member of the Silver Collector Car Auctions include pictures, the point system rating and the information I would need to have on hand to settle a dispute. I may not agree with their findings, but they are an independent third party that is providing their objective appraisal.

Keep in mind that there may be a big difference between "market value," and "replacement value." This is a big problem when we are talking collectibles and antiques. You may not be able to find a comparable replacement for your destroyed collector car at any price. You might want to discuss "stated value" insurance with your agent.

A few years ago I purchased a blue 1988 Buick Reatta from LaFavor’s Showroom Cars here in Spokane. I paid $8,000 for the car and felt somewhat uncomfortable in that this was, I thought, a rather high price. But I had to have the car. It was a beauty. I had the car professional appraised. The appraisal for market value came in at $9,500. I had no serious intentions of selling the car. But a Buick affectionado offered to buy it at $10,000 so it is now gone to a new home.

Consult a Published Price Guide

You may want to reference one or more of the published collector car price guides. Go to www.blackbookusa.com and check out CPI. This is the "Black-Book" that your banker or insurance agent may use as a reference. Also see the Old Cars Price Guide magazine which you can find on just about any magazine rack. A word of caution here, Unless you thoroughly understand their point system you may mistakenly think that your car is worth a whole lot more that what is realistic.

Subscribe to the "Bible," of the old car Hobby, Hemmings Motor News. Do a survey of the classified ads for cars that are comparable to yours. Remember that these are asking prices and do not reflect the actual selling prices.

Don’t forget the more familiar sources such as NADA. See: www.nadaguides.com and go to the Classic Car section. Enter your car in collector car shows. You are sure to meet owners of cars similar to yours. Learn what they think about the current market values of various collector cars. Keep an open mind. Know that you can be wrong.

Several years ago my brother and I were attending an "All Clubs Open Car Show." My brother was admiring a beautiful little black 1934 Ford three window coupe. The owner in a somewhat flippant manner said, "I’d sell this car if I could find someone willing to give me (here he quote what he clearly thought was a high price) for it. My brother said, "sold" and got out his checkbook. The owner looked shocked. Clearly he did not appreciate the impact of what he had just said, or expect that someone would take him up on it.

So, we are stuck in an awkward position of not having a good answer. The owner of a collectible car may feel uncomfortable not knowing if the price he wants is a "give-away" that is foolishly too cheap… or if he is way high and asking an embarrassingly high price. If you are a buyer you are in a much more comfortable position. You know that if you have found the car of your dreams, the only price question is, "Whatever it takes."

Take comfort in the knowledge that if you are dealing in collectibles, the supply is limited and demand is surely and steadily increasing. If you lose money on your collector car you will have to have really screw-up. The usual worst case scenario is that you just have to wait a few more years for the market to catch up to what in your opinion is a fair value for what your collector car is worth.

WDM