I thought this might be a good question for the diverse Car Talk audience: I am the owner of a Meadows FriskySport convertible microcar, but unfortunately I need to part ways with it. Where on earth would I look to sell such an item? It is essentially all original, quite rare (1 of 13), and properly titled, so I obviously would like to seek top dollar, but I don’t feel like Hemmings or Autotrader are the right venue. Am I wrong? Is eBay the best way to sell something with potentially global appeal? Is this niche car’s niche so small I may be unable to find it?
That is SO COOL. But it may not have much value.
I’d try Hemmings. Something like this is purely a collector car.
Or perhaps there’s a microcar subculture club that you could appeal to. Like the attached
http://www.microcar.org/
TSMB’s right, first find out what the market is through clubs. I bet it’d be even more valuable in the UK, and they may well be happy to pay shipping. You’re not in a hurry, I hope.
While it’s tempting to tell you that it’s not worth any more than $600, so you should sell it to me, realistically you have a specimen of a car for which there are only 12 on the planet (13 built, 1 destroyed/missing). A car that rare, you’ll never find the value for unless you put it up for auction somewhere like Barrett Jackson.
This is a really, REALLY bad time to be selling collector cars if you don’t absolutely have to. Cars that were fetching millions at auction just 5 years ago aren’t even meeting reserve now. Were I you, I’d put it on a shelf (with that car, you could almost do that literally) and sit on it until the economy improves.
There’s even a Frisky web site:
http://www.meadowsfrisky.co.uk/index.htm
I bet they might help you figure out what it’s worth.
And yes it’s rare, but the demand is also low, so you may have to work to find a buyer.
Shadowfax offered you $600? Heck, I’ll give you $700.
Seriously, you need to investigate this with the internet groups and then offer it on Hemmings or Ebay, but put a carefully thought out reserve on it. Your buyer is out there, but finding him or her might take time. People pay very big bucks for very well kept Isetta or Messerschmitt cars.
I do think your buyer could well be in the UK. Shipping costs are a small amount compared to what it could go for, and the weak dollar would really help.
OK, squeak squeak, I’ll go $750 if the tires are good but you’ll have to get it to Minnesota. Seriously though, bad time right now for anything collectable but looks like others have given some niche leads to work a little. I don’t think Ebay will do much for you.
“Were I you, I’d put it on a shelf (with that car, you could almost do that literally) and sit on it until the economy improves.”
Yeah, I hear Jay Leno is just scraping by.
@texases: wouldn’t a weak dollar mean receiving LESS money for the car? Assuming you’d get the same amount in the foreign currency, converting back to weak dollars means less dollars.
No, it means that a price in dollars we’d consider high, and be very happy to get, would be cheap to them in pounds or euros. Also, specialist/niche cars like this often are more appreciated in their home country. For example, Germans will often pay more for older (50s-60s) Mercedes than we will.
Right, so the weak dollar works against you. Let me domonstrate with exaggerated numbers. Assume the strong dollar is worth2 euros, the weak dollar is worth one euro. You sell the car for 1000 euros. If the dollar is strong you get $2000. If the dollar is weak you get $1000. Conversely, if your goal was to get $1000, with a strog dollar you’d sell for 500 euros, with a weak dollar you would need to get 1000 euros. QED.
Nope, check your math:
Strong dollar: $1 per 2 Euro X 1000 Euro = 1/2 X 1000 = $500.
QE oh no you D’nt!
oh yeah. oops. I stand corrected. damned work is such a distraction.
$755 delivered. And that’s my final offer.
The rarity of the car could make it very valuable. Perhaps the owner should contact Barrett Jackson or some other high end auto auction company. The value is so hard to predict, auction is perhaps the best way to sell the car.
$757. With a full tank of gas.
one MEEEELLLION dollars!