Clones, was: <VV> A/C Corsas

[nicolcs at aol.com]

I'm glad to hear that I "have you wrong" and you make some good points.  Where I think we differ is on the current market thinking.  It's very true to say that the market values "real" cars over "made-up" cars and it should.  My point is that there's a movement toward less sensitivity and "made-up" cars that are accurate are moving up the scale rapidly.  I've observed an increase in the "numbers" thinking in Corvairland and having observed the insanity and now retrenchment in the Corvette and general market, I'm worried that Corvair people will be moving in while the market is moving away (or at least slackening).
Numbers are fun.  Obsession with numbers is not.
That's my point.
Craig Nicol
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: corvair at fnader.com
To: airvair at richnet.net
Cc: virtualvairs at corvair.org; nicolcs at aol.com
Sent: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 3:11 PM
Subject: Re: Clones, was: <VV> A/C Corsas


As usual ( ;-) ) you get me WAY wrong. 
 
I'm no purist, I don't do show cars, and I frankly don't think it's worth paying significantly more for a rare car that differs from a more common car by the numbers alone. That's my opinion and my collection clearly reflects that. 
 
(As an aside, if Corvairs were worth on the market what _I_ think they're worth, I couldn't afford to play with them.) 
 
But the fact I stated is that the car market overall DOES care. That's not even arguable. 
 
Does the Corvair market care? We're seeing it with Stingers and '66 turbo verts. Numbers matter a LOT on those cars. I don't think we're seeing it with AC Corsa verts yet, but I predict we might. 
 
Do I think that's a good thing? In the past 2 years I've sold a Stinger and a '66 turbo vert because they were worth more to somebody else (because of the "numbers") than they were to me. So, no, I don't particularly think it's a good thing either and further I'm not really interested in "playing the game". But what you or I have as an opinion doesn't change the market. 
 
IF somebody is willing to pay say twice the going rate for a '66 Corsa AC vert, our opinion that they shouldn't means nothing. My only observation was that IF somebody was willing to do that, they would not be interested in doing it for a '66 Corsa vert with AC added. 
 
Currently AC adds a pretty set amount to a Corvair value and whether it is original or not doesn't mean much. So from that angle, a numbers matching Corsa AC vert IS worth about the same as one with AC added. But if we're talking rarity (which is what the recent posts have been about) then the "AC added" vert doesn't really figure... 
 
At this point, with the exception of Stingers and those '66 turbo verts, model and condition dictates value more than anything else. I'm very happy that it is that way, but others aren't. My point was that if they want Corvair values to rise, then the rare cars will be the ones to pull the others along and the numbers WILL matter... whether we want them to or not. 
 
Bill 
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