Buying and Selling Classic Cars

Did you know?

The best buys on Classic Cars happens very quickly. A seller decides that he/she would like to sell their Classic Car and before it can be posted to a website a Listing Agent such as All About Detail has already communicated with buyers looking for such cars.

Why is this important to you?

If you are selling or buying you should want to keep abreast of what Classic Cars are selling for, the current market trends. One of the best ways to do that is by going to All About Detail facebook business page  All About Detail - Facebook ;-) , hit the "like this" button. From that point on you will receive updates on our latest Classic Cars for sale, our latest Cars sold, asking prices, and cars that are being sought after by our clients.

All About Detail - Classic Cars  (purveyors of fine automobiles)
941-716-4785

Aadutter@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573890320648

When you love what you do its not work!

Larry FitzGibbon 

Great Things, Great Cars

I love Southwest Florida. It has things I really love. Great weather, great shopping, great beaches, great boating, and best of all great cars. As a listing agent, great cars are great. 

Here are my two latest listings:

1951 Custom Ford Business Coupe. Truly a work of love. A meticulous twenty year project, not a bolt or screw left untouched. To get the full impact of this car it's a need to see to believe. PPG Lacquer Paint "Winter Mint Green" ~ Frenched Headlights & Taillights ~ Shaved Door Handles ~ Hood & Deck Lid ~ No Exposed Wires ~ Air Compressor Lines Ran Through Inner Fender ~ New Radiator and Hoses ~ interior is White Roller & Tuck ~ Engine is 1979 302 bored 30 over ~ Headers ~ Carter Carb. 600 CFM ~ Cam ~ Transmission is C-4 ~ Rear End is 8" 300 Gear ~ Hanline Gauges ~ Pioneer Radio mounted in the trunk with Remote control ~ Vintage Air-Heat ~ Rack & Pinion ~ 2 1/2 Dropped Spendles ( Fat Man) ~ Ididit ~ Lokar Shifter ~ Moser Axels ~ This car is so beautiful, it is a true stunner!

Only $55,500 

And Then 

1936 Dodge DeSoto Airsteam~ Convertible ~ acrylic paint like new ~gorgeous cowhide leather interior ~ wood grain dashboard ~ new convertible top and boot ~ wide white wall new tires fronts 16x650 and rears 16x750~ working original Desoto radio ~ all mirrors, trim, windows, carpet, rubber running boards and rubber gasket are in next to new condition ~ all gauges except heater gauge are in working order~ 6cyl 242 DB ~ 3speed on the floor ~ 6volt system.... This car is like new and because of meticulous care of this owner is probably in better condition than when it came off the assembly line in Canada. There are only 12 known examples of these cars and this is the only Windsor ( Canadian ) known. This is Art Deco at its best. It might miss the # 1 mark but it is very very close. It belongs in a museum and when you buy it you are certain to draw a crowd anywhere you park it.

Only $65,000

If you find these great, like I find them great, you should come to my Facebook Page where you can learn more about these and others like them. 

https://www.facebook.com/AllAboutDetail.ClassicCarBrokers. Make sure to hit the "like button while you are there. 

“Socializing with a Purpose” Classic Cars Business on Facebook"

2004 Lamborghini Gallardo

I have recently been introduced to Facebook . Better yet I have introduced myself to this Social Network Group.  

My purpose for taking this plunge was based on overflowing evidence that in order to make a splash with a newly formed website, this Social Networking Group and others like it, were key to popularity and in the cyber world popularity equals hits. By the way hits equal money.

So, I set out to learn about a cyber world and its language. I want to share with my readers what I have learned thus far and how this pertains to the Classic Car Business. 

Facebook is truly designed for socializing. So learning to use it as vehicle for selling is a bit tricky. I found four different ways in which people are using this cyber tool:

1. People who are lonely and are looking to make friends. I am sure that it can help such people. I am also sure that this can be a very dangerous use of this tool. My advice is to stay away from using it for that purpose.
2. People who like to communicate with their friends. The ability to chat with several friends at once, share ideas, compare schedules, and share movies, books, ideas and even photos. This is great for a person without other things to occupy their time.
3. People who are looking for long lost friends. Personally I think that for the most part, people who use this tool for that purpose will be mostly disappointed. I recall years ago, before Facebook, I found an old Navy buddy by letting my fingers do the walking. Once we connected, I found that I had real fond memories of him but he hardly knew me and my memories of him were better than the reality of him. Go figure.
4. Then there are People, like me who want to network with others so we can further our business interests. You advertise for me I’ll advertise for you. You do this and I’ll do that. This is what I call “socializing with a purpose”. You still have to schmooze but both parties are aware of the motivation and it is okay.

The problem you have if you are a number four like me, is finding the other number fours and then ridding yourself of the 1’s, 2’s and 3’s without insulting anyone. Remember the key is to be popular.

This is how I have proceeded so far. When I first signed up for Facebook like everyone I put out my invitations for friends to all of my e-mail contacts. I happened to have quite a few of these, having the e-mail addresses of the owners of Classic Cars who had used my  Free Classic Car Listings. This helped me accumulate over 80 connections quickly. The problem was that now I had at least 70 individuals who were connected to me and were not connected for the same purpose I had in mind.

That makes a mess for anyone trying to conduct business. You are now getting notification about birthdays, people who want to play cyber games, people wanting you to answer questions, you are told about their favorite bands, bars, about last nights party, their latest tattoos, who is getting married, who is pregnant, and on and on. In the mean time there are 10 of the eighty who want to “socialize with a purpose”. They want to schmooze a bit, find good business associates, and promote their businesses.

So I started up a “Group”. I called the group Classic Car Lug Nuts hoping to attack individuals that were either in the Classic Car business or in businesses that fed from the Classic Car business. Here again though, without being very selective which means turning individuals down running this risk of unpopularity, I found I had too many of the unproductive kind of connections.

I then formed another group and called it All About Details Friends. I hand picked from the Classic Car Lug Nuts Group individuals who had indicated that they were interested, like me, in schmoozing a bit but they consider this “socializing with a purpose”. Finally I have Facebook friends. (See some of  my friends: Classic Cars Only )

I am now told that want I really want to do is use Facebook as a website and gather a following. If any of my readers out would like to take me through the step by step process of setting up Facebook as a webpage I would appreciate it. In fact I would like to “socialize with a purpose” with them.

Come visit All About Detail it is a cyber Museum of Classic Cars for Sale.

Did you get a chance to read out last post “Happy Hagerty Insurance”?

How to Buy a Classic Car at Auction

No. 1 rule: Do your homework



This elegant 1966 Continental four door convertible as an excellent buy at the Toronto auction selling for $20,000 including the 10 per cent buyers fee charged by the auction.

Photograph by: Alyn Edwards, CNS

 Anybody with any interest in classic cars has tuned into the Barrett-Jackson auctions carried live on television to witness the excitement and high drama of some of the most beautiful vehicles from our past, changing hands.

Classic vehicles selling in less than five minutes on the auction block represents an instant appraisal of what that car, truck or motorcycle is really worth.

It’s what the vendor will sell the car for and what the most motivated purchaser will pay. Sometimes there are incredible bargains for alert bidders. But few of those viewing this apparent free for all spending extravaganza would consider buying a car this way.

I wonder why because there are a number of great classic car auctions in Canada featuring wonderful vehicles. The spring and fall Collector Car Productions auctions held at Toronto’s International Centre are the largest in the country with Harold Henninger’s Car Crazy spring and fall auctions coming in second.
The auctions held at Abbotsford’s Tradex Centre hold third place. So what should you do to buy a car at a collector car auction?

“Do your homework, that’s the number one thing,” says Dan Spendick who heads up Toronto’s Collector Car Productions.

Spendick, a 16-year veteran classic vehicle auctioneer, encourages buyers to carefully research everything about the vehicle they want to buy, know in advance exactly what they’re looking for and what they should pay.

The Internet is a primary tool for research. Just paste the year make and model of the car, truck or motorcycle that you are looking for and see what’s offered for sale by vendors all over North America. You can also check the websites of auction companies like Spendick’s Classic Car Productions, Car Crazy Classic Car Auctions in Calgary, Barrett- Jackson, Mecum’s and others to see what similar cars have sold for. Auction results are typically posted on these websites immediately after sales.

The N.A.D.A. (National Automobile Dealers Association) classic car value book is a very handy reference tool and classic vehicle values can be checked online on the N.A.D.A website.

Harold Henninger, who has done a total of 19 classic car auctions in Calgary averaging 225 vehicles going across the auction block in his spring and fall sales, urges people to spend as much time as necessary to carefully check out all aspects of a potential purchase before waving their bidder’s card at an auction.
“Buy quality. You can always resell a quality vehicle because there will always be a market for it,” Henninger says. Henninger also suggests people invest in convertibles and he actively recruits drop top vehicles for his sale.

“Convertibles have always been a blue chip investment. They can be worth three times as much as a hardtop but don’t cost much more to restore. When the top goes down, the price goes up,” he says. When buying at auctions. You must add the buyers’ fee that is usually 10 per cent of the ‘hammered’ price and five per cent GST.

If you live in a province where there is sales tax, that is paid when you register the vehicle. Also factor in transportation costs. If you buy a car at an auction in Toronto and live in Vancouver, the cost of transporting the vehicle can range from $1,000 to $2,000. Art Carty and Peter Fawcett operate Canada’s oldest classic car dealership and restoration shop called Fawcett Motor Carriage in Whitby – 30 minutes east of Toronto. The company has been buying and selling cars at auctions since the business began in 1964. They urge buyers to be very prudent in deciding what kind of classic vehicle they want.

“Find the kind of classic vehicle you think you want to own and drive it. You may change your mind after you’ve been behind the wheel or that may reinforce your decision to acquire that type of classic vehicle” Peter Fawcett says.

Art Carty says it’s a matter of buyers getting completely educated before they make the purchase. They may own the vehicle a long time and it should be a good experience. Fawcett Motor Carriage sells all its classic cars with a full six-month mechanical warranty so buyers of classic vehicles won’t be hit with bills to repair unforeseen mechanical problems.

The best way to get into the hobby and buy the classic vehicle you always wanted is to start by attending auctions, seeing what’s being offered, doing research on the vehicle of your choice and then get a bidder’s card.

There may be a great classic car at a bargain price waiting for you right now.

Alyn Edwards is a partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company.

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Please vist our website for Classic cars for sale. All About Detail

Make sure to read out last news blog "Sage advice from a Car Appraiser"

Is the Gas Going Out of Classic Cars?

With the increase in prices and the introduction of ethanol into the fuel, the combustion engine is under assault and is about to run out of gas. 

As a lover of the Classic Car I have a deep interest in what is happening with the price of fuel. Why? 

To understand just how much of attack our classics are under just pick up one of the highly published car magazines, such as Motor Trend or Automotive Magazine and notice the acclimates You have to know when they start touting the 0-60's or the 1/4miles, or the bizarre combined HP and ft. lbs. of these whining electric magnets it may be time to get concerned about the future of Classic Cars as we have known them. 

In the very near future the gas combustion engine, the engines that have been the work horses, the engines that carried lovers to lover’s lane and to A & W’s for most of a century now will give way to the electric transporter. As for me I find a Segway, the two wheel green mailman transporters to be more interesting. 

How is demise of the combustion engine coming about? Why is government not stepping in with the price gouging? Why is Exxon not worried? The answers to those questions are complicated and multilayered yet simple, money.

We will never know exactly why just like we will never know why the stock market climbs and at the same time the price of gas climbs and unemployment climbs. We can be sure though that of the banks, the investment companies, the government and the gas companies are not done stripping the rest of our hard earn savings from us.

My best advice is while you can afford to and while you can still purchase fuel that a Classic Car can run on, get that car that you have always wanted, take her to lover’s lane, enjoy a stop at an A & W and run the wheels off of it.

The time for combustion engine is running out of gas and you and I have an obligation to enjoy ever last minute of it.

Looking for a great Classic Car? Go to our Online Classic Cars For Sale Museum All About Detail.

Make to read our last article: Who Invented the Automobile .

**Always "Kick Tires" before buying a Classic Car**

What can happen when you don't "Kick Tires" when you are buying a Classic Car on Ebay ? It can steal your lunch money. Let me share my experience.

Ed Maitre, Partner of All About Detail and I decided to start a Detail Business in a most unlikely place, Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Clearfield absolutely fits the description “Not the end of the world, just close enough to see it”. We did not have high expectations concerning too much work. We knew that a population that is attached to Pick Up Trucks for the most part would not be clamoring to get those trucks washed. After all it takes a long time to get those trucks to the correct state of muddiness and who would want to wash out the evidences of the latest hunt or road kill.

Never-the-less we moved forward. Never did we expect that we would have to turn work away and we were absolutely correct. But we were a little too correct. More correct than was acceptable.

We thought we better figure out how to advertise on a shoe string budget. Two ideas struck us: 1.) We could purchase a Classic Car or Truck that we could place a business ad on, bring it to car shows and possibly use it for hauling mobile detail equipment and/or 2.) We could place strategic ads on the internet, Penny savers, the local newspaper classified ads, or billboards. Did I mention our shoe strings? All of these were too expensive and were without any assured results. We ended up using the idea but developed our own free website: All About Detail. 

With a lot of work that is starting to prove fruitful. But the first idea struck us in a different way; it took some of our shoestrings and did not give us a return on investment (ROI).

After months of bidding on vehicles on the internet we were not able to get the sellers of cars or trucks to move to our shoestring budget and we had become a bit disillusioned. Then all of sudden there she was. A dream, she was beautiful. She could draw attention; she could get someone to turn their heads. What fine lines. I had to have her.

She was a beautiful screaming Red 1975 Volvo 164 E. I read the description carefully. It had been owned by a fire chief, the mileage was extremely low (53K), the pictures indicated the seats and the carpet and the paint were excellent. The only problem was the heater fan switch was not working. That is minor, we could fix that in a few minutes and then she will be perfect, a 10.

As the eBay auction’s end drew near, I placed a bid, and I got ready for a snipe, a last minute bid that would make her mine. That’s when my wife interrupted with “we got to go now”. Ok then, I knew what I had to do; I would set my high bid to the end of the shoe string, punch it in, leave for my appointment and let fate take over.

The next three hours dragged on. Finally we arrived home; I rushed to my trusty computer, brought up eBay and found that I had won! I had won! She was mine (ours if you have been following the story) and all I had to do was pick her up.

I went to PayPal plunked down my $500.00 deposit and called the seller. I knew the deposit was non-refundable but why should I be concerned. After all, the car was perfect. Well perfect except a heater fan switch. Anybody with a little mechanically ability could have that fixed in a few minutes. The carpet was good, the seats were leather, and the paint was screaming red.

Any time I search for cars or trucks on eBay I always check the private seller’s button. I would never purchase a car or truck on eBay from a dealer. I called the private owner and a man answered the phone and announces “Ferati's Car Care Center”. That was the first indication that she, my beloved Volvo, may be wearing a lot of make up, she wasn’t a 10 after all. I spoke to Mr. Ferati and we made up some sketchy plan to get the car picked up by a Car Carrier but that conversation left me with a sinking feeling, I felt sick. What kind of Car Care business could not fix a heater fan switch prior to listing on eBay?

I had the Business and its owner’s Name and I started to do research on them. If my $500.00 was gone I did not want $5,000.00 to be gone. What I found was not good; for example look at these reviews found on Topix . In fact one review had complained about the same problem I was having. This business had held itself out as a private owner giving the would-be-buyer a false façade. I knew I had a problem.

I called and e-mailed Mr. Balkizf Ferati giving him an opportunity to explain the poor reviews and to return my $500.00 deposit back. He justified his holding himself out as a private owner saying that he had been using the car as his private vehicle.

So he has my $500 and I have a life lesson: Do not trust sellers on eBay and Always "Kick Tires"

Kicking Tires are one of the services All About Detail   provides. If you can't  “Kick Tires”  because of logistics or because you do not feel qualified,  we will "Kick Tires" for you.
 

As mentioned in our previous blog, our web site offers free classified listing for private Classic Car Owners. It is a great place to sell or buy a Classic Car.

We also offer Broker/Marketing Services and Inspection/Appraisal Services.

****Are Classic Cars Art?****

A lot of people look at cars as a vehicle that carries people from one place to another. They do not think of cars as an Art. They do not believe that cars can be a media for an artist to express themselves.So how can Car Artists and  Car Collectors defend their love for the Classic Car?

Like the man said, “pictures are worth a thousand words”. Please join us, “All About Detail” an “On Line Classic Cars for Sale Museum” for a slide show tour of our museum. We encourage you to take the tour and think about the artists behind the work.

.Unlike the art hanging in the Guggenheim, this art requires a Team. Foremost are the designers. These work with all types of media, sculptures, drawing, cad programming and more. Then there are the engineers who work with the designs and try to fit a mechanical working unit within the design’s parameters, no easy task. Many times the engineer’s and designers are forced into compromises. Lastly, the assembly team has to get all the pieces to fit and work.  

Isn’t it just wonderful when it all comes together? Did you notice the Ferrari 512T? If that is not art what is?

Cars do carry people from one place to another but when they do, they are "Moving Art". The Guggenheim will probably never hang a Classic Car on one of its walls. So if you want to view this art work you will need to visit a Car Museum or you can accept our invitation and visit our “On Line Classic Cars for Sale Museum”. 

If you are getting ready to sell your Classic Beauty please read my blog concerning proper pictures and properly worded details.

Web site offer free classified listing for private Classic Car Owners. It is a great place to sell or buy a Classic Car.

We also offer Broker/Marketing Services and Inspection/Appraisal Services.

1955 Packard Clipper Super





**Do You Have a Top of The Line Classic Car for sale?**

There are two major errors individuals make when trying to sell a Classic Car, or for that matter any car, on line. The Pictures that they post and the Description of their beautiful Car are sometimes less than adequate.

Let us review these two aspects and see how we can improve our presentations:

The first one, Pictures, is really and easily remedied. Good camera, nice setting, good pictures. If you need an example go to a out Classic Car site   and find what catches your eye and do your best to mimic it. At All About Detail  we have had some pictures of truly gorgeous cars where the owners have submitted some of the most unattractive pictures imaginable.

Two come to mind:

•First, a sleek looking Corvette, the picture had a water hose wandering
throughout and a garbage can overflowing with trash. We had to ask for a better picture.

•The other one was an eye catching 67 Malibu 396 SS. The picture was taken in a junk
 yard with hundreds of junk cars and a shamble of a garage in the background. That
 picture did not invoke confidence and that listing was turned downed. The lesson here is
 keep in mind what you want to stand out, The Car.

Make sure the picture’s setting, the background, has no distractions of any sort. We recommend that a setting extols confidence with nice buildings and/or nice scenery in the background.

The second error, Descriptions, is how the sellers describe their cut above, sleek, ultimate driving machine, impressive, eye catching, best of steed, top of fray, real looker, and great example of a Classic Car. This is not to suggest that you be disingenuous or less that truthful. For example do not describe your Volkswagen Bug as the ultimate driving machine. You could say it is a fun driving experience though.  

Do buzz words work? All you have to do is pay attention to car ads. Those companies pay a lot of money to marketing companies for just the right words.

Below you will find a list of buzz words that I pulled from a MSN article "2010 MSN Autos Editor's Choice Awards". Try to incorporate these and ones like these into your description.

If you give attention to these your car will sell faster and for more money then when someone ask you "Do you have a Classic Car for Sale, you will say no.

All About Detail is a website offering free listing to private owners of Classic Cars.

We also offer "Kick Tire" services, comprehensive car inspection and appraisal for would be buyers.
We also offer Broker/Marketing services cor Classic cars.

 Larry