<VV> Greenbrier and corvair values (long)

[NicolCS at aol.com]

Appraising is one of my little sidelines in my Hot-Rod mod business "Racers  
Inc."  As others have said, it's all in the details.  I will say that  Dick 
Shank's description certainly helps us understand the high quality of this  
particular 'Brier.
 
When I do an appraisal, I start with a list of components and  
characteristics where I rate the vehicle, similar to concours judging. Then  I determine the 
range of values in the market from a couple of sources  (Hemmings, CPI, Old 
Cars), knowing that the "Old Cars Price Guide" is very  optimistic and not 
really reliable.  Once I determine the actual market  range, (I have a 
low/average/high scale across the page), I place an "X" on the  scale indicating where 
the vehicle falls within the range, based on the  "judging" done earlier.  This 
process is quite reliable for restored  vehicles, less so for modified 
vehicles since taste enters the  picture.  Note that restoration costs or receipts 
don't enter the  equation. I don't care if someone "invested" $30k in a Pinto, 
it's still worth  $3500 max.  
 
What's the highest dollar amount anyone has seen a GB sell for???  I'm  going 
to GUESS $10-12k.  This GB may establish a new high, or may  only be equal to 
the previous high sale vehicle.  I would think $15k  would be the 
outer-limits at this point in time.  
 
That brings me to another variable... Right at the moment the whole  
collector car market is going wild.  What a car is worth today isn't truly  reflective 
of what it will be when the market peaks (and the insured loss may  occur).  
The muscle car, street-rod, and tier-one collector cars have  doubled, 
tripled, or more in the last two or three years placing these few  cars out of the 
reach of most "normal people".  This phenomenon is causing  second and 
third-tier collector cars to increase in value too.  (Yeah!).  Where the $10k+ Corvair 
was extremely rare a couple of years ago,  we are starting to see a couple of 
$10k cars in each group of Corvair  ads we read.  ('64 Spyder, and Corsa Turbo 
convertibles are leading this  charge)
 
I think we should celebrate these changes - our restoration efforts  (Which 
easily cost $10k to $20k these days) will finally come back to us and  many 
cars that "weren't worth restoring" will have a place now.
Any thoughts?
Craig Nicol
65 Corsa EFI vert
66 Monza 140/4 EFI
67 Monza 140/4 sedan