Found a 68 Mustang.....salvage title...thoughts?

Copart and IAA prices have been insane since Covid. Then gotta tack on the crazy fees on top of it. But good luck there’s still some deals here and there…all you can do is try.
 
FWIW, me thinks few ways to view this as I work on Corvettes and originality is big with these folks.
1. If you like it and plan to keep it, I would not worry about a salvage title. It is your play toy, so what?
2. If you are buying to sell one day, you need to factor in a discount for the sales price for a salvage title, same as NOM engine and color change for the Corvette nuts. So, if you get it "cheap" enough and sell it with a discount one day, you still make the same amount of net income, eh? So, always good to think about what you plan to do with any auto purchase down the road I believe (although I seldom do that, LOL's)! But, ... these things are always changing, look at what the restromod Corvette are selling for as an example.
 
20mercury said:
FWIW, me thinks few ways to view this as I work on Corvettes and originality is big with these folks.
1. If you like it and plan to keep it, I would not worry about a salvage title. It is your play toy, so what?
2. If you are buying to sell one day, you need to factor in a discount for the sales price for a salvage title, same as NOM engine and color change for the Corvette nuts. So, if you get it "cheap" enough and sell it with a discount one day, you still make the same amount of net income, eh? So, always good to think about what you plan to do with any auto purchase down the road I believe (although I seldom do that, LOL's)! But, ... these things are always changing, look at what the restromod Corvette are selling for as an example.
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That may be so for the Corvette world, but for a Mustang, unless it's a more desirable trim level like a 428 CJ or SCJ, Shelby, GT, Boss, or Mach, a tasteful restomod bring significantly bigger bucks than a stock restoration.
 
I'm with Dean Jenkins, Get the body nice in primer and flip it, I'll bet your percentage would be much better there. Prob make some good money.
 
Slofut said:
I'm with Dean Jenkins, Get the body nice in primer and flip it, I'll bet your percentage would be much better there. Prob make some good money.
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Think it would bring less IMO doing it like that. At least that's how I view cars in primer, and I think others do as well. If I was to flip it I would get it running, repair the burn damage and blend the paint.
It's on Copart and the bids had got up to $19000 yesterday, although no sale date had been set. Today the bidding has been reset to zero. Strange.
 
That is strange about the bidding.

My suggestion may have been misunderstood. It was not to get it in primer and flip it that way.

My thought was to present a clean, rust-free shell, in primer, ready for restoration.
They buy the car AND your restoration services.
They get it exactly the way they want (color, drivetrain, interior, suspension, etc.)
And you don't pay out of pocket to finish the car and have to guess what the ultimate buyer wants.

I looked at buying a finished car before I decided to get a project and do it myself.
A big factor in not buying a finished car was that every one I looked at involved compromises in the choices that the previous owner/restorer made, even if the work was done well. I.e. WTH is up with the "Houndstooth" interior? Ugliest thing I ever saw, but popular for the Camaros.

I really wanted a 69 Camaro (still do!) But if I'm going to pay $50-$75K for a car it will have to be exactly what I want. (That was 3 years ago, much more now!)

And, I'm glad I went the "build vs. buy" route with the el Camino. I'm having fun!
 
Looking at the site on my phone, the bid is showing 18100 which is less than yesterday and different than what my browser on my desktop shows. I have no clue
 
Copart is weird like that. The car has no sale date. But people can still place preliminary bids. They’ll update it once in a while and people bid again. Once there is a listed date it’s for real and game on. Ive had vehicles on my watchlist for a few days…some literally a few years.
 
Sale date has been set and the winning/leading bid went down from 18100, to 11,100 (???) (now a little higher) with the sellers reserve not met yet. Think the reserve is around 16K. I still don't understand how that site works. Gonna try and go to the auction site in Fredericksburg take a look at it on Monday. Back in the day I used to be at that Sale quite often when I worked with a Dealer. Back when it was an in person sale only. Ironically, I got my first Fox body Mustang there in '92, a rollover 91 GT with 1100 miles on it. Think I paid $4200 for it. Had around 6800 in it when done. It turned out nice. Drove it for a year and sold it for $11,000. Those were the days. :)
 
My guess is that at least one person retracted their bid once they looked more closely at it. This caused them to drop the price back down to the highest remaining bidder.
 
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Bids can't be retracted once its a live action. According to my local Registered Broker, who I would bid through, any bidding done before an actual sale date is set is a waste of time, because once a change is made to the action, either details, or sale date, all bids are cancelled and everything starts over. high bid is currently 15,600 sale time, March 2, 12 pm. This is probably about the time the whole line of cars this one is in starts to be sold. Chris, how are you going to bid? Do you have an account with Copart?
 
ksungela said:
Bids can't be retracted once its a live action. According to my local Registered Broker, who I would bid through, any bidding done before an actual sale date is set is a waste of time, because once a change is made to the action, either details, or sale date, all bids are cancelled and everything starts over. high bid is currently 15,600 sale time, March 2, 12 pm. This is probably about the time the whole line of cars this one is in starts to be sold. Chris, how are you going to bid? Do you have an account with Copart?
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So why would they allow bidding on a car that doesn't have a sale date? Sounds odd to me but hey, these auctions are way out of my league anyway. LOL
 
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