Fire sale on CTs ?

May be I am just slow on catching up or may be I am bringing a taboo subject. If so Please excuse me and we'll move on.
I have come across a magazine showing sold CTs at the August Monterey auction. A real eye opener.
The famous Red 400S that was for sale at $150K late 2006 early 2007 made it in the upper $80K at the Steel auction. I was shocked to see the perfect euro DD price. Quite frankly I would have bought the darn car myself would I have known. I am not going to mention what the 500Ss brought. The buyers probably bought them for spare parts or they must have had a frozen engine.
By contrast, I am looking at the numbers thrown out in the retail market place and I can't help seeing some real disconnect.
Are CT price now becoming victims of the dreadful "subprime" bubble? It seems this is the univeral excuse for everything from milk to cars to go south and a tidal wave closing both housing and business.
The only car that made it was the Kashoghi (spelling?) car. Why is it that only cars seemingly owned by genocides supporters are the ones that command unrealistic premiums? I agree with Joe on that one. Was not worth anywhere the sold price. That was a seller's dream come true or a battle of 2 lost egos on the floor.
This kind of volatility and spread, it seems to me, benefits no one. Someone can enlighten me if there are good rationales on what happened. After all I was not there to see the dynamics.

But it seems that the CT prices at that 2007 auction have reached a paroxism in absurdity.
How can a 400 be worth 4 or 5 times a perfect euro QV DD or a 400S?

 

That, my friend, is due to good advertising

 

Don't believe everything you read.

I am still trying to get the stink off from that night.

 

All good questions! The "Market" is a funny thing indeed. But it sets itself aided and abetted by how much certain people are willing to spend. I will add a few more questions for you to ponder:

How can a Ferrari 250 GTO be worth 50 times a 250 GT?
How can a Porsche Carrera RS be worth 5 times a Carrera S?
How can a Lamborghini Miura SV be worth 3 times a Miura P400?
How can a dead shark slowly rotting in a tankful of formadehyde be worth $8 million?
How can a cabinet full of painted pills be worth $19 million?
How can a diamond-encrusted copy of a platinum skull be worth $100 million?

Funny thing this marketplace for collectibles...

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

ROFL !!!!!

You could build an aquarium with a live shark in it for less.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sWQGa-EBxzk
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I'm afraid you did actually miss a lot and what you are reading deosn't nearly tell the whole story.... the red 400S did go cheap but the DD cars actually did not
sell at all. It was all talked about back in August but since I was not there I'll let someone else re-cap the details.

 

Countach prices are starting to creep up, painfully slowly

DD 4 valves are going for around $150k now but injected 4 valves are still $85 - $100

 

My brain can barely handle the CT issues. Now If you throw a rotting shark for me to ponder, I probably could not handle the truth. M My head would just explode trying. How can you drive a rotten shark?....

 

To fill in the blanks a bit...

There were 2 Red 79' LP400S cars that were being sold back then. One of them took 1st place at the Concorso and sold 10 days later for what amounts to $170K (there was a trade involved worth more) so it was $160K + 10K equity in another car that is where the $170K number comes. That is car #1121036.

Car #1121056 was not an original car, not a show car, did not have it's original Bravo wheels, wrong wing, etc, etc... The car needed money spent on it and it would still never be like the other one. That said, it sold for $88,000 with auction fee and was a deal for sure. When you have collectors who know when a car is "special" and when one is a "driver" there becomes a huge difference in value, especially when there were only 50 examples made.

I was there, I was the head Countach class judge and I would not consider the red/black 79' car #56 for me, even at $88K

I am also the person who paid the $170K and bought the red/tan car #36, 10 days after car #56 sold for $88K.

The two black DD cars were both yanked from the auction, or bought back / no sale.

One of them sold for $135K that week, mainly because there were a few for sale at that time and the maket was cautious.

Unless you know a car and it's history intimately it is hard to set a value range for a particular class. Right now the "high" for a LP400S SERIES ONE with a know pedigree is $170K and the low is $90K for a driver. I am sure there are LP400 "drivers" out there that would only bring half of what ever the "high' is now.

 

Tony:

Thank you for this update. The info I got said nothing about the cars being pulled. I guess it was the high offer and was not taken but that did not print (bastards journalist never telling the whole story!).

as far as the 88K 400S, it is still amizing that it was on sale ofr 150K with a claimed 70K worth of work to make it "perfect". I guess again one may need to read between the lines and figure the 70K may have been over the life time then. Still the new onwer has about $80K to spend to bring the car up. That is a lot of restoration. Give 10K for the wheels, 20K for the paint, 30K for the engine and $20K for misc parts. Again this car must have been mis-advertised. I can't imagine anyone spending more on this.

 

LOL. Just my twisted way of saying that the market is the market. You can drive a GTO so explain to me why a 250 GTO is worth 50 times a 250 GT then?

Me I dont sit here and try and figure out WHY this model is worth more than that model. What I do spend my time on though is trying to be a very good student of WHICH are the best cars out there and WHAT are they worth right now...

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

Wrong info. The $70k spent relates to ANOTHER Countach: a black/tan 1988 car and not the red/black LP400S...

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

WELL SAID.

there was only one nice countach at that auction and keith martin says it clearly : my car ! the yellow lp 400...read his descriptions on the cars and your answers are there.
the cars were just cars...nothing special,nothing perfect.i was there during the bidding of these cars and they were bougth back except for the lp400s.

 

Steve,

"Nice" is subjective. Please clarify.

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

Could not have said it better myself...

 

Correct, the 70-K was on the Black DD that sold

 

Agreed.

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

At an auction in Geneva last week LP5000s CLA12511 sold for CHF 145k (premium included).
A QV recently sold for CHF 220K, related to the state of that car and the history of mine, mine should bring even CHF 250K, below I wouldn't even answer sell requests, that's about 150K Euros.

 

there is nothing no clarify ! keith martin,ersonally inspected the car and rated it himself in the last issue.. calls the car near perfect from what i recall i read...engine bay near perfect pr something of that nature..body superb,interior all original and superb...more or less in those terms.... basically, he called the car a straigther car that i would have....

that is why i called it nice !

 

Gotcha. I did see that.

Joe
www.joesackey.com

 

tks for posting Raymond

these results are more in line with today's market for countach in Europe

and i agree your car has a peculiar history and is a WELL know car: should bring easily more than an average one

 

there was a QV advertised in the uk for £55,000 a few weeks ago. (thats about 78.5k euros)
its not an aberration either, ive seen several over the last few months around the £60,000 mark (+/- £5000)

now i know yours has a nice history raymond, but your starting price is roughly twice what they seem to be advertised for here.
do you really think its worth that premium for a not so celebrity owner (eg one who whilst cool isnt going to be well known out in the real world)

besides your car is stunning - do you really want to sell it

 

I have no plans to sell mine, as my friend with his Miura SV #5080 had none but when he got that offer...

I don't know why the QV's are that low in price in UK, perhaps because you have plenty of 25th available, remember that after October 1986 no countach could be imported without problems anymore.

 

Thank you for correcting my confusion. You are right, the cost of resto was mentioned on the other car not on the 400S. Here is however the initial add of the 400S at the time:

"With only 9000 original miles,it has been pampered and babied it's entire life.Stored in a temperature controlled environment.It just went through a three year mechanical and paint restoration. With ALL RECEIPTS AND DOCUMENTS!!!! Nothing has been overlooked...from New Clutch, Pressure Plate, Throwout Bearing, New Shocks,Wires, Plugs,Upgraded Oil and Fuel lines, All new fluids....EVERYTHING! Motor has been DYNO TESTED with pictures of motor on stand and all Dyno Results! The paint on this car is STUNNING...GORGEOUS!!! The interior is in EXCELLENT Condition...Leather like New! Tires are Pirelli P7's and are in Like New Condition..mounted on Like New Condition Lamborghini OZ Rims.This car has been driven less than 50 miles since restoration.Under the hood is flawless with mint Condition Spare in Place. Motor Compartment redone and in flawless condition as well."

By reading this one would not think that this car needs anything north of $20K to prep most of it being the rims. I guess these statements were off based on those of you who looked at the car.

 

Those words were....well, words....to try and sell the car.

If I remember right the first asking price on the red/black car was $150K

The first asking price on my car was at $225K as well at the DD were asking $200K.

Seeing a car in person is a whole different story "IF" you know what your looking at.