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Which Auction house is best to sell my 3a anyone have experience


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Does anyone have any experience with selling a car/ project through SWVA in Pool or Anglia classic car auctions in Kings Lynn?

 

I have decided to call a halt to the restoration of my 3a and pass it on to someone with more time so I thought about the above 2 auctions as being a good place to start or maybe the Triumph spares day. I have no idea what it is worth but probably less than I expect so my thoughts are just put it into an auction but not ebay.

 

 

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Taking it to the Triumph Spares day at Stoneleigh is a great idea, have it set up on a trailer, you will soon get more of an idea of worth and half the visitors are Triumph Enthusiasts...it's not expensive to show there. It will be coming up to Spring when you can ask a competitive price.

Good luck,

Conrad..

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I live near SWVA and it is a pretty mediocre classic car auction. Lots of 1990s cars and low value stuff. They do get the occasional higher value car but its maybe a 1:15 ratio.

 

Ive just read your last post. Selling a project is the worst case scenario to get some money back. Why dont you just wait it out to April/May and finish the car.

 

Have you spoken to Stuart on this forum. I think hes busy with an Italia at the moment but I was about to dump my car in auction to dispose of it after £7k worth of useless work by other garages and he saved my sanity. Ive had the car back for just over two years now and it recently won Wessex Groups Sidescreem award and Dorset Groups car of the show.

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I wouldn't sell a running car via any auction house, let alone a project car part-completed. As far as I'm concerned if it's gone to auction there's something wrong with it, unless perhaps it's an executor's sale.

 

Apart from any other consideration, it's not that easy for a buyer to be bidding at an auction on a project that has to be removed within 48 hours etc etc, not unless he's there with van and trailer, so you are inevitably restricting the potential market . . . . .

 

Whatever the final sale price, the seller is unlikely to be receiving more than 75% of it after expenses, 80% at the very best. So a £10K hammer inc premium nets less than £8K.

 

Meanwhile ebay costs £10 auction listing fee and £35 final value fee - £45 total fees.

 

Potential ebay buyers can at least come and view the car, they have time to make collection arrangements, they can ask the questions that don't get answered at auction.

 

You can set your starting price at whatever you wish - personally I start at the lowest price I'm willing to accept, none of this stupid unspecified reserve nonsense which just wastes everyone's time.

 

If you need any ebay thoughts, by all means PM me.

 

Best of luck !

 

Cheers

 

Alec

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I bought my 3a from Brian Chant s auction house in2016

http://www.dvca.co.uk/index.php

 

He used to race an Alvis in vscc events against my dad.

 

Very happy with the car and the buying experience (apart from actually handing the money over ????)

 

H

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Assuming you have the logistical means to do do so, getting it to Stoneleigh is a very good idea.... attendees will know exactly what they are looking at, only a few tyre-kickers, but of course do be prepared for the know-it-all’s and people who are looking for a bargain (but isn’t that true of every selling medium?!)

 

If that fails, I certainly wouldn’t rule out eBay.....

 

I am surprised no one else has suggested advertising it for sale on the Buy/Sell/Trade section of the TRR website/forum - that could also be a good option.

 

The second and third suggestions also avoid the physical hassle of trailering everything to Stoneleigh

 

Good luck whichever path you take

 

....... Andy

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All of the usual vendors will buy the car, maybe you could ask them to sell the car for you on a commission basis.

 

almost all my TR cars have been sold for me by TR Bitz in Appleton Cheshire, they asked how much I wanted for it and when it sold (they all did) they gave me the cheque, I never asked what their mark up was, for I got what I wanted.

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Ebay has worked for me on many occasions with cars and is certainly cost effective compared to auction sites (which I have also bought from, but never sold).

 

This website is as good as any and an obvious place for people to look for a TR.

 

'Pistonheads' is also a good place to sell.

 

Your BIG problem, is selling a 'project' as this is a very niche market.

 

Whatever you decide.........Good Luck.

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I totally agree with all of the above,

If you haven't had a pm from

Someone already, (I'd be very surprised)

forget the forum bst for the minute your here now. so Put some details up on this post And away you go, think about what you want and then what you'd excepted if it.

If sells here through your post It hasn't cost you anything.

Best of luck

Helen

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To be honest I was dead set against eBay as in my book one has to see a car before buying it and especially with a project that has had an awful lot of money lavished on it.

 

Now my current understanding is that when you auction with eBay the seller and the buyer are no longer allowed to meet outside of the eBay messaging system in that one can no longer ask for a telephone number from either the buyer or seller.

 

Alec's point about sellers commission has merit but it negates having to deal with "cheek sucking low ballers" nevertheless he makes a very good point (as always so expect a call from me to say hello).

 

I will have to give this some more thought.

 

PS I will contact Stuart for an opinion, thanks for the suggestion.

Edited by Red 6
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I haven't come across a problem with making contact and viewing as either buyer or seller, ebay seem to understand that a car is the sort of purchase that one might well wish to inspect before bidding.

 

At a traditional auction there is rarely any opportunity to inspect a car properly, let alone assess just what is and isn't present when it comes to a project car accompanied by boxes of parts . . . . . which is always going to depress the price of a project compared to a private sale, ebay or classifieds or whatever, where the whole lot can be inspected and considered at leisure.

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

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If you want to test the water for interest you could use

https://m.carandclassic.co.uk

 

I sold my last classic via here. Admittedly it was a whole car.

 

But it does get a lot of people looking there.

You also see people selling the larger parts sometimes too.

 

Also have look at the club site ready market of like minded folk prepared for a resto. And always wanted adverts on there too.

 

You have a few options to be going at.

H

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Ok maybe I will give ebay a shot but I will check first re the exchange of phone numbers. I know it is different for a classified advert but I do not have a set price in mind. I would like to get most of the investment back but who knows.

 

I can also try car and classic as it sold my frogeye for me at the beginning of the year.

 

Re the boxes of bits, there are very few of them as most id back on the car and what is not has already been painted ready for re fitting.

 

On the horizon is the last chance as a friend has recommended another body shop and they are going to come over later this week to see what's what but I am pretty sure this is the end of the road.

 

Thanks for all the guidance, and I note Stuart is in Cornwall which is a long trailer ride from N London!

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Hi Red 6,

It's a long trailer ride from Bournemouth as well but I won't use anyone else now. Graham at coveredcars.co.uk will give you a good price and he is very reliable. He does a lot of work for racecars going to Goodwood and Silverstone and he takes my car to Stuart when it needs work and I can't get there.

 

I would strongly recommend having a chat with Stuart about the situation - not only does he charge a very fair hourly rate for his work, he's very experienced so you know every hour he spends is an hour spent repairing something rather than learning on the job. He also knows all the best ways to do things and he leads the car rather than using bondo.

 

If nothing else, he was a voice of reason on the end of the phone when I was about to pack it in and chuck my car in the closest auction the same as you.

 

It's your decision of course, but after all the hard work you've obviously put in so far it would be heartbreaking to chuck it in on the final straight. Why not stick with it, get it sorted and enjoy the car rather than dumping into an auction and wondering what could have been every time the sun shines.

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Truro is a long way to go even if you live in Cornwall!!

 

But having said that I am open to ideas so lets see what transpires.

 

I have just been looking out the photo's of the work to date and there is an awful lot of them. When a restoration carries on for so much time it is easy to forget what you actually did to get where you are today.

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