Flood Damaged 1974 3.0

[Markos]

I had a close look at the title status and realized that Texas considers all flood damaged cars as no longer fit to be put on the road. They are considered to be for parts or scrap value only.

This coupe is dead. All that's left is to harvest the parts.

I know you want to harvest the parts and I certainly can't judge anyone for that - guilty as charged. However, the vehicle is only "dead" in TX. A quick google search will show that it possible to get it back on the road or track in other states. So if you do buy it, you are competing against potentially informed buyers in other states that intend to make it roadworthy.

Unless you have a compelling reason to cut up the sheet metal, you can sell the rolling chassis. Swap the rear trailing arms and brakes, get front calipers setup for vented rotors, but keep it rolling!

 

[mulberryworks]

So the car is currently like Schrödinger's cat. It's currently both dead and alive, but we won't know which until we discover who the owner is.

No. I don't want to part it out, but I don't want to race it either. So for me, living in Texas, I don't have an alternative choice. Others may, so we'll see how the auction plays out. I'll be bidding with a parts car evaluation in mind. If someones else sees it as a car that is resurrect-able, their bid will prevail. Regardless of the owner's local, the car will live on in some form.

 

[autowerks]

A Motor Vehicle Dealer In Texas can stick a metal Dealer tag on it and drive it, Does not need to be registered or inspected!

 

[mulberryworks]

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this car will probably be sold to a non Texas buyer who will be able to restore and license the car again. The low value cars that were flooded will indeed be scrapped as Texas intends, but the high value cars such as the M models will be sold overseas where they will be fixed and flipped to unsuspecting buyers.

 

[mulberryworks]

The 'pre bid' period for this car is now live. It's got just under 7 days to run and then there's the live auction.
In Texas, ordinary citizens can't buy auction cars, only parts or salvage title cars so you have to go through a broker who adds on their own fees to the purchase. Even though Texas is branding the title of this car as a flood damaged car that can only be used for parts or scrap, that isn't the same as a salvage title, so a broker must be used for this car.

I registered with one in Iowa (salvagebid.com) that will let you make a pre bid for free, but to participate in the live auction you have to pay a membership fee of $200. So unless your pre bid amount is sufficient to win out against all bidders in the live auction, you won't win.

At any rate, the bid has gone to $3050 as of Friday morning and that's just at what I was willing to pay (plus broker fees) so I'm not even going to bid. This will likely go much higher and be restored. Let's hope BHCC isn't the winner.

Ian

 

[jamesw]

Thanks for keeping track of this and posting the update.

 

[dang]

They changed the lot number. Here's the new auction page..

https://www.iaai.com/Vehicle?itemID=26470530&RowNumber=3&loadRecent=True

 

[mulberryworks]

$4200 @ 3pm CDT 10-27-2017. I won't be surprised if it goes for double that.

 

[mulberryworks]

Pre-bid of $7025 @ 8pm CDT 10-28-2017.
Live auction is Friday Nov 3rd, 8am.

 

[WISE9UY]

At least by having been submerged in water and then sat it could have enhanced the level of corrosion necessary to meet the requirements of BHCC

 

[mulberryworks]

At least by having been submerged in water and then sat it could have enhanced the level of corrosion necessary to meet the requirements of BHCC

Ha, that's true.

At least two people want it bad enough to push the bid to $8825, half the listed 'Actual Retail Value' of $16,000. Who knows where they pulled that number from.

 

[WISE9UY]

They must take values from NADA. Check out those and I can guess that value influenced it. BUT when you consider the potential contamination from soiled water, I am not sure how to account for that.

 

[mulberryworks]

Sorry, ACR - Actual Cash Value is what's listed as $16K not 'Actual Retail Value'. From the iaai.com website:

• ACV - Actual Cash Value (ACV) is the estimated retail value of a vehicle if it were in an undamaged condition. This information is based on industry resources such a Kelley Blue Book, Black Book, or an independent valuation service.

This listing is weird in that it has an estimated repair value of $5. Clearly they didn't want to even take a guess at what it would take to repair this car, and I think there's no repair costs listed for any flood car as they are tagged for parts only by Texas.

 

[Gary Knox]

Saw the bid was $9,125 a few minutes ago. Another 3 1/2 days for bidding (ends 11/3 at 8 AM Central Time). State Farm Insurance is the seller.

 

[mulberryworks]

Wow, strong pre-bidding going on. Yes, technically these are pre-bids, the actual bidding starts after 11/3 when the live auction starts. The pre-bid prevails only if there's no higher bid at the live auction.
It's a strange system, but I'm sure they wanted to get internet action without losing their traditional live auction format. Adding the necessity of a third party broker to bid from some states makes it even stranger, and more expensive.

A friend of mine put in a bid of $175 for a AWD supercharged Previa and had the highest (the only) bid but it didn't meet the seller's reserve. They emailed him after the live auction when there were no bids and asked if he would increase his bid to the reserve of $250. He said yes and then was the owner of the car. Broker fees, document fees and taxes increased his final cost to around $900, so fees can be significant for low cost cars. For the E9, it won't be such a large percentage of the final cost.

 

[dang]

Wow, strong pre-bidding going on. Yes, technically these are pre-bids, the actual bidding starts after 11/3 when the live auction starts. The pre-bid prevails only if there's no higher bid at the live auction.
It's a strange system, but I'm sure they wanted to get internet action without losing their traditional live auction format. Adding the necessity of a third party broker to bid from some states makes it even stranger, and more expensive.

A friend of mine put in a bid of $175 for a AWD supercharged Previa and had the highest (the only) bid but it didn't meet the seller's reserve. They emailed him after the live auction when there were no bids and asked if he would increase his bid to the reserve of $250. He said yes and then was the owner of the car. Broker fees, document fees and taxes increased his final cost to around $900, so fees can be significant for low cost cars. For the E9, it won't be such a large percentage of the final cost.

Pre-bidding is proxy bidding, like the way eBay works. If you can't be available at the live auction you can put a proxy bid for what you're willing to pay. If the pre-bid is at $9,000 it could mean that the bidder has put in a bid of $12,000 but the second highest bidder is at $8900, which puts the bidder at $9000 currently. I pre-bid all my cars every day just in case I miss one during the live bidding, or can't be at my desk. I usually get two or three a day that way. Bidding from other states doesn't require a Broker, only if you're not licensed to buy that particular type of vehicle (insurance, clear title, non-repair, etc), so every "public" buyer needs a Broker.

 

[mulberryworks]

The car is now in the live bidding phase. The pre-bidding is closed with a high bid of $12,475. We may not know what the final bid is. Typically that's not visible on Copart, but I don't know about IAAI.

 

[aearch]

MY GOSH I PAID 14K FOR A DAMN NEAR PERFECT CAR

 

[rsporsche]

yes Alan, but how long ago ... and it seems that since then you spent a lot of time + money on it.