<VV> Greenbrier and corvair values (long)

[N. Joseph Potts]

My thought is that increases in the money value of our treasures increases
the risk of their being stolen. Since I just want to keep and enjoy mine,
and my kids want to inherit the car (one car, two kids who share nicely),
the dollar value of Fireball holds NO positives for me, unless hard times
hit and I have to sell it for food.
     Obviously, this is just MY take. Yours is likely to be different in one
way or another.

Joe Potts
Miami, Florida USA
1966 Corsa coupe 140hp 4-speed with A/C, The Stick, Lo-Jack, ignition kill
switch, and lots of other stuff like that

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org]On Behalf Of NicolCS at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 6:11 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Greenbrier and corvair values (long)

Appraising is one of my little sidelines in my Hot-Rod mod business "Racers
Inc."  As others have said, it's all in the details.  I will say that  Dick
Shank's description certainly helps us understand the high quality of this
particular 'Brier.

When I do an appraisal, I start with a list of components and
characteristics where I rate the vehicle, similar to concours judging. Then
I determine the
range of values in the market from a couple of sources  (Hemmings, CPI, Old
Cars), knowing that the "Old Cars Price Guide" is very  optimistic and not
really reliable.  Once I determine the actual market  range, (I have a
low/average/high scale across the page), I place an "X" on the  scale
indicating where
the vehicle falls within the range, based on the  "judging" done earlier.
This
process is quite reliable for restored  vehicles, less so for modified
vehicles since taste enters the  picture.  Note that restoration costs or
receipts
don't enter the  equation. I don't care if someone "invested" $30k in a
Pinto,
it's still worth  $3500 max.

What's the highest dollar amount anyone has seen a GB sell for???  I'm
going
to GUESS $10-12k.  This GB may establish a new high, or may  only be equal
to
the previous high sale vehicle.  I would think $15k  would be the
outer-limits at this point in time.

That brings me to another variable... Right at the moment the whole
collector car market is going wild.  What a car is worth today isn't truly
reflective
of what it will be when the market peaks (and the insured loss may  occur).
The muscle car, street-rod, and tier-one collector cars have  doubled,
tripled, or more in the last two or three years placing these few  cars out
of the
reach of most "normal people".  This phenomenon is causing  second and
third-tier collector cars to increase in value too.  (Yeah!).  Where the
$10k+ Corvair
was extremely rare a couple of years ago,  we are starting to see a couple
of
$10k cars in each group of Corvair  ads we read.  ('64 Spyder, and Corsa
Turbo
convertibles are leading this  charge)

I think we should celebrate these changes - our restoration efforts  (Which
easily cost $10k to $20k these days) will finally come back to us and  many
cars that "weren't worth restoring" will have a place now.
Any thoughts?
Craig Nicol
65 Corsa EFI vert
66 Monza 140/4 EFI
67 Monza 140/4 sedan