Good ole US and A

[P50]

Check out this inventory.

Perhaps the biggest bargain is the turd brown '81 Robin.  Yours for a  "you're robbing me blind guv I'm givvin' it away it's a gift dontcha know" ..... $15k.  (comes with last owners heavily stained donkey jacket, a full complement of roll up stub's in the overflowing ash tray, an empty bottle of Old Spice, one jump lead, a tube of solidified exhaust paste and repair gauze, half a damp handbook for a Regal wedged underneath the flat spare wheel,  several unpaid parking tickets from the Swansea area and a well thumbed copy of May '88's Readers Wives). However I would raise a smile should I see this conveyance cruise around Miami.  Who wants a Bullit Mustang?       

I'd be happy to get 200 quid for it on the 'Bay.  

Must dash. I'm off to Florida to get the $36k Trojan.  

Simply astounding.  What would a TG/Peel etc be $1M   ?!!!

Ho hum.  Enjoy......

http://www.dezercollection.com/inventory.php?show=microcars

[marcus]

You're having a larff, mate! Do you suppose they will sell any of them at those prices? Do they just add $15,000 on to standard prices in the hope that people will believe they MUST be good and valuable if they have such a high price tag. Look for the Tippen Delta Invacar too!

[Big Al]

Some interesting brits there. I suspect the sellers will be slightly stunned.

[marcus]

I think any buyers will also be stunned if they ever find out what the realistic value of some of those cars is!

[P50]

Some interesting brits there. I suspect the sellers will be slightly stunned.

Please elaborate.... In what context?

[AndrewG]

I was 'lusting' my way through the catalogue and came across an interesting case - one of the two Berkeley 322/328s definitely has a Honda four-stroke motorcycle engine in it, though with an extensive description in the text of its Anzani motor.... 

Possibly it's quite a rational swap though I do think it might be one point short of complete authenticity?

[Rob Dobie]

1961 Harding Invalid ? ? ? 

Looks like a Mk 2 Reliant to me.

http://www.dezercollection.com/1961-harding-invalid--c-348.htm

[marcus]

I forget his name, but that fellow at the RUM open day a couple of years ago took me for a spin in his Metro powered Berkeley. That engine somewhat alters the look and gets away from originality, but it does make for a brilliant and much more reliable runabout.

[blob]

And the pièce de résistance has to be the $25,995 Tippen Delta! Stuart will be pleased.

[Peelpower]

I wonder who's the vendor ! 

[Bob Purton]

I forget his name, but that fellow at the RUM open day a couple of years ago took me for a spin in his Metro powered Berkeley. That engine somewhat alters the look and gets away from originality, but it does make for a brilliant and much more reliable runabout.
[
/quote]


Is Steve Baylis the name you are grasping for? 

[richard]

poor bob seems gobsmacked 

[Big Al]

Some interesting brits there. I suspect the sellers will be slightly stunned.
Please elaborate.... In what context?

Well simply we know British cars and their expected values here. Non British cars are less easy for us to value or understand. Clearly the majority of the British built machines will have been sourced from here as grey imports/collectors items and ended up in Florida. Therefore there is every chance a seller of those vehicles now looking at something he sold for thrupence ha'penny, very often to a private trader posing as an enthusiast, now being marketed for more dollars than you can shake a stick at. Some folk get rather bitter and twisted about this sort of thing, others just note points and are happy they did the right deal for them at the time. From the enthusiast perspective it is not pleasing to see very high prices for things that you might one day wish to own as it tends to take the price out of your valuation zone. Again this can be in real terms or theory. Some have got £50k for a Tiger purchase, some not, but some of those who have would not buy one as they are not comfortable with owning cars worth more than, say, £10k. In some instances they do own high value cars by choice but only because values went up from the £1k they paid to £15K while they were owning, building and enjoying the car. It is nice that your hobby can be an investment but to the enthusiast that is not really the point. That is why many of the old Micronauts can be found playing with East European stuff now. It is what Microcars used to be. Cheap and cheerfull and these folks really do not want to own cars worth thousands. This is where Stan Cornock and co thinkers, Stephen Boyd to an extent, come from on holding the values of Bonds down, say. I totally see their point of view. Without being rude or judgemental you could have someone who devoted 50 years to a marque only to end up unable to afford to own the very thing he spent all those years attempting to save. I think that would be rather sad but this has happened before and probably will do so again. But then enthusiasts will always value vehicles in a different way to collectors and investors. Some of the comments you get on this very forum show this in stark relief as both sides are represented and sometimes by the same people at differing times. It is an area of some debate depending on the topic.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 That there Tippen Delta, of about 1968 vintage and number 149-250302 on the ICR Mainfile, is the Ex. Andy Mutz/Ernie Freestone car which has been in the US for at least 15 years or more now. I'm not quite sure of the timeline but it was originally found in Nova Scotia by Andy Mutz. In about 2001/2002 it was placed on American eBay & was purchased by Freestone for, I believe, $8,000 (then around £7.400) which is still a world record price ever paid for a British invalid carriage. Freestone then restored the car, but with nothing else to go by, unfortunately repainted it the wrong colour (Delta's of that vintage are rather more greeny than the Model 70 Blue it wears now) Also, the brand new hood is black when it should originally be stone. But these are points of digression.

 Following the death of Ernie Freestone, the car has since passed through a few hands before being picked up by this Dezer Collection of Miami. Last year (2010) it came over to London in an attempt to sell it via RM Auctions. It failed to sell and so it is back in Miami.

 Meanwhile, Ian Hellings has the only other known Delta in America, a 1974 electric version.

 The below picture is the Freestone car prior to restoration.