Quote:
Originally Posted by mdh157
Some interesting stuff out there but this hobby has basically gone to hell. Every time there is a car worth looking at its gone in a day or less. Anything sitting for more than a few days and it prob isn't worth your time anyway as several have already passed on it. I have been looking for over a year and the cars I find are either a) restored and out of my range, b) basket case that need everything and are still over 10K, or c) in the middle somewhere and sold almost immediately. Unless you are ready to buy something sight unseen or you get really lucky with a local car going up forget it, someone will have beat you to the punch.
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I think you nailed it with "sight unseen" as the caveat. The last 3 cars I've bought off eBay were sight unseen. I did take a chance with two of them (both Trans AMs) and paid for shipping and just waited for Santa to show up. The other one I won the auction and flew to St. Louis to buy it and tow it home (it was in pieces).
There are situations out there where people need money and hobby cars are the easiest to way to get it, which is why I like the No Reserve auctions. If there is a listing for a No Reserve car and and someone looks at it and they make a deal, the car gets pulled and the deal is done outside of eBay. If it's a very good deal Buy It Now, it will probably sell quickly.
In looking for potential cars, my #1 consideration is rust. If you want a numbers matching car like the brown 70 400 Ram Air Firebird, it will need probably $10K in body work alone not including paint. The white Formula on the top of this page is a CA car with a rebuilt engine and transmission. Any 70 to 81 Trans AM fenders and hood can be bolted on to it and you have a TA clone. The nice thing about the second Gen Firebirds is they're all pretty much the same. You can bolt a 70 front end and hood onto a 80 and though the taillights are different, they look very good.
The first Gen Firebirds are still out there, but 1969 was a long time ago. Again, I'll take a solid rust free body without an engine or transmission over a running 350 car.