Selling the '58 Mac?

[mdeanr]

no, the '73 is me. i need something a little smaller like my 85 FWD S&S i had a few years ago.

[60Buick]

That is a pretty shitty add for selling the car from a buyers stand point. I'm not getting on you just trying to help. First off which direction do you want to go with the sell.

Do you just want to get rid of it or do you want to try and capitolize on the History of the car.

If getting rid of it is your goal....

TAKE CURRENT PICTURES OF THE CAR.
not one picture in the add looks current or is of high resolution. The buyer doesn't give a shit about what it looked like 3 years ago. He wants to know what is going to be in his driveway.

SHOW THE RUST THE CAR HAS.
You mention rust but to me the buyer in New Zealand I don't know if I am going to get a pile of shit or some small holes. What the fuck does "various rust problems" mean? I remember buying a 58 savoy that had varios rust problems and I watched the body fall off when I rolled it to pull the tranny. What is a good metal guy, does that mean I need to hire Chip Foose to build the bottom of the car. When I close the door does all the trim fall off? This is shit a buyer needs to know.

DOES THE CAR RUN AND DRIVE
the add doesn't tell me anything other than it has the wrong engine and tranny in it. Do the brakes work? Can I drive it anywhere? Does it leak, knock, smoke or rattle? Every picture shows it on a tralor or in the yard, thats not to encouraging.

WAS THE ENGINE INSTALLED PROFFESIONALY.
Is the engine going to fall out when I try and bump the starter over or was the job done right?

TO MANY PICTURES
More is generaly better but only if they are useful, the ones up just clutter the add. I spend ten minutes going through the pics looking for some useful ones but found none. Why would me the buyer want to look at 50 pictures of a car in the woods and some hillbilly Georgian's posing next to about to yank it with a tractor, or 50 close up's of a dissassymbled engine, He knows what the inside of an engine looks like. Unless you are showing a cracked block the only engine pictures you need are serial numbers and to show it's complete. USE MACRO MODE ON THE CAMERA, take pictures of relevent stuff like rust holes and common rust areas. Don't show pictures of a car buried in weeds, it screams rusted piece of shit about to fall in half. Loose the primer fraudulent sellers use it to hide flaws. If possible strip the bitch to silver. Keep it short and sweet give the pictures you've posted to the buyer after he pays for the car, they add to the history but as is now they just hurt the add. Also ditch the mural looking picture. The hubcap isn't even on the car it doesn't look proffesional. People want to know they are buying from someone that is a proffesional.

IS THE CAR COMPLETE?
I can't tell if I will spend two years looking for shit that is hard to find.

IS THE EXPENSIVE SHIT ANY GOOD?
Am I going to spend 10 grand on chrome work and metal fab. How is the chrome, Is it eat up flaking and pitted? Is it show quality. If it is you just doubled the value of the car so mention it!

LIST THE ADD TO END WHEN PEOPLE ARE HOME TO BID.
I list mine to end on Saturday at 6 in California and 9 in Georgia. Run a ten day auction with NO RESERVE. Start it at 100 dollars and bid on the car yourself with another account using auction sniper. If someone walked up with 5 grand in one hundred dollar bills would you take it? If so that needs to be your bid on your own car. Be realistic or you will never sell. Reserves scare bidders because they think there is no way I will make the reserve so why bid. You need a saftey bid from auction sniper and you need to chase bidders up with a dummy account. Also promote your car everywhere you can. When I sold the Plymouth I posted an add on Craigslist linked to my ebay add and posted on every message board I could Mopar related to my add.

LOWER YOUR PRICE.
If you want to move it most people on Ebay or what not could give a shit if the car hauled Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, or fucking Buddy Holly. They see a neat old hearse to fix up and drive. Take the 2-3500 dollars you will get and be happy.


IF you want to capitolize on the cars history you have fucked up some but not anything that can't be fixed.....

FIRST PULL THE LATE MODEL SHIT OUT AND EBAY IT.
The type of people looking for TY Cobbs Hearse want it as it was when it hauled Ty Cobb. They don't care if it runs as long as it's original and complete.

YOU NEED BULLET PROOF DOCUMENTATION
You did OK in this but more could be done like a sworn statement from the home that handled the funeral, stating the driver who's testimony you have was infact the driver that did the funeral and there confermation that he was correct about the car. How about something from the family backing that up. IF YOU HAVE ANY HOLES IN THIS AREA THE DEAL WILL LIKELY BE OFF. You are asking someone to part with thousands of dollars in a bum economy for an item needing thousands of dollars invested into it. He wants ironclad proof of what he is getting. This is not a 10,000 investment but a 60,000.00 5 year time investment.

GET THE ORIGINAL ENGINE SIGNED OFF AS REBUILDABLE
You make it sound like it's froze up and trash. A buyer wanting to put the car together wants the original engine. make sure you note the engine block, heads carburator water pump anything that rolled out of Detroit on that engine in 1958 is listed. You can't guess, you need to have all the serial numbers and date codes in hand. The buyer is not going to do your homework for you.

PICTURES
You need high resolution pictures of the car today and if you can in a building and uncluttered. It gives the illusuion of the car being out of the weather and well taken care of. Cosider getting them done by a proffesional, you can't half ass if top dollar is your goal.

FOCUS ON ORIGINALITY
push the low mileage, original trim original this and that. Make the car sound about as unmolested as possible, and for god's sake weld the core support back together.

WHAT'S UP WITH THE INTERIOR
You need to note what is good. Is the seat frame OK? Do the gauges work, How's the chrome? Are the door panels OK? Is it complete> MOST IMPORTANTLY do you have enough of the original interior left for the new owner to get the patterns off of to have it remade? Original matterials?

CONTACT PEOPLE THAT MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE CAR
call Baseball museum's and historical societys, you may not get much help here because its an insturment of death not a precious baseball uniform, but they may be able to steer you in the right direction. Look at baseball memorabilia sites and push the car there. Get the word out you are about to sell a rare piece of Baseball history.

SELL IT AS TY COBBS HEARSE
Anyone looking for baseball shit will do a search for Ty Cobb, not 1958 Cadillac.

PUSH THE CAR AS A GOOD DEAL
Did you know a pristine autographed baseball from Ty Cobb sells for over $10,000. NO? The seller looking at your add didn't either. How about that a mediocre autograph can fetch over $1500. Why have a silly baseball he held for a second when you can have the vehicle which gave him his final and most meaningfull ride for less?

MAKE THE CAR RELEVENT TO BASEBALL
Push Ty Cobbs dark side (he was a sick dude) and we all know why a hearse is considered a dark vehicle.

LASTLY IS PRICE
I can't say what its worth, to me about 2 grand but I don't give a shit about Ty Cobb. The car needs a shit load of work. Everything that has been done has to be stripped and redone by proffesionals. The car will likely be blasted and put on a rotisserie. The car needs everything. Also you need to do homework on Baseball memorabilia and realize that most fans don't want a hearse in there driveway no matter who was in it. They may get their wife to stomach a 500 dollar uniform worn during an important game but a car associated with death is a bit of a stretch. A hearse is a painful reminder that their hero is no more. If Ronald Regan took a dump in my toilet I doubt it's value goes in to the stratosphere. My Ambulance is valuble but why? Is it more important that William Shatner did a 3 second Twilight Zone scene in the back or that it is one of 2 on the planet....Think about it. It is what it is, a 58 cadillac that hauled ten thousand people to the grave one of whom happened to be famous. If you get 6-8000 you got double what the car is worth with no history I'd be happy with that, as it is realistic. Remember Lee Harvey Oswalds restored 62 Ford ambulance was bought by a museum in Dallas for less than your reserve!

There are only two ways you could ever get big money out of the car. One is if it was all original and pristine. the other would be if you restored it. Car museums eat the kind of history your car has up but unfortunatly they only buy finished cars or they lease them, they don't staff a resto shop. If baseball history is the thing you want to sell most I have a Ty Cobb baseball card, trade me the car for the card sell the card make a grand and I have another car to rot in my yard. You don't have to listen to me but remember I owned over 100 antique cars at once and have sold hundreds of cars over the last ten years. For one, you picked a shitty time to sell, you should have sold it 5 years ago or in about 5 years when the market picks up. Right now it is the buyers time to get shit cheap. And lastly the thing that makes it so valuble is not relevent to baseball so it's not a have to have item for a Ty Cobb fan. GOOD LUCK and I hope some of this helps.

[mdeanr]

as for saying add recent pics............there are SEVERAL recent pics.

[Psychoholic]

That is good wisdom Richard - might need to snag that, make it less specific and make a helpful 'how to sell a hearse' post.

[Psychoholic]

as for saying add recent pics............there are SEVERAL recent pics.

But you have a hard time finding them through all of the other ones - cut the extraneous shit out of it and just post 20 pics of the car as it sits right this second from all angles, do the things that El Ricardo said and your dad might sell it.

[Psychoholic]

as for saying add recent pics............there are SEVERAL recent pics.

I went back and looked again:

The newspaper clippings are probably good, but the pic of your dad, the pic of the 3 chicks and your car chasing them with the hubcap falling off, the weeds, you in the woods, ty cobb museum, the side of a building, ty cobb's crypt, you again (wearing a 'I'm a winner' shirt is probably a selling point though), a 1971 license plate (I'm sure people really want to buy a car that has been sitting asshole deep in mud since Nixon), ole boy's tractor, random field shot, another out of focus random field shot in black/white, tractor and car, the amazon rain forest, you and your dad outside, you on the hood, a brake drum, random parts from different angles, you looking like you came out of a coal mine, different coal mine - now in black/white, same pic in color, you looking up, more random parts, you tightening an engine stand, driveshaft-o-rama, random bolts, you diddling yourself to the motor, driveshaft-o-rama now with 33% more orbs, more bolts and parts, you doing dips on the bumper, the '73 sniffing the bumper of the '58, good shot of the '73, skull driving nothing but darkness, same skull looking twice before crossing street, James eating Wendys, James applying bondo, random ambulance shots, you and your dad again, you racing the '58, random out of focus part, you looking up again, and random engine pics are probably not what one would consider pics that help sell the car at all.

[60Buick]

I just had to pick my ass up off the floor.

I went back and looked again:

The newspaper clippings are probably good, but the pic of your dad, the pic of the 3 chicks and your car chasing them with the hubcap falling off, the weeds, you in the woods, ty cobb museum, the side of a building, ty cobb's crypt, you again (wearing a 'I'm a winner' shirt is probably a selling point though), a 1971 license plate (I'm sure people really want to buy a car that has been sitting asshole deep in mud since Nixon), ole boy's tractor, random field shot, another out of focus random field shot in black/white, tractor and car, the amazon rain forest, you and your dad outside, you on the hood, a brake drum, random parts from different angles, you looking like you came out of a coal mine, different coal mine - now in black/white, same pic in color, you looking up, more random parts, you tightening an engine stand, driveshaft-o-rama, random bolts, you diddling yourself to the motor, driveshaft-o-rama now with 33% more orbs, more bolts and parts, you doing dips on the bumper, the '73 sniffing the bumper of the '58, good shot of the '73, skull driving nothing but darkness, same skull looking twice before crossing street, James eating Wendys, James applying bondo, random ambulance shots, you and your dad again, you racing the '58, random out of focus part, you looking up again, and random engine pics are probably not what one would consider pics that help sell the car at all.

[mdeanr]

duely noted on the abundance of pics. this was just a trail run just to see what kind of response it might get. it did get alot of attention and questions. a few that were interested in the car. this just gives a better idea of what to put in the ad......i do appreciate the comments from everyone.