Avanti Values?

[Bob Preston]

Thank you. 

[Bob Preston]

63R-3080, a 1963 R2 with a GM automatic transmission just sold at auction for a hair under $45K. It had undergone a refurbishment in 2007-8 that included an engine rebuild. 

[Bob Preston]

The sale price for R-3080 was revised to $41,888 as of this morning. Below are two screenshots that show average sale prices for R1’s and R2’s. 

[Bob Preston]

Below are more 5-year sales charts for a random selection of classic cars. FWIW: I’ve also included a 5-year chart for a S&P 500 index fund. 

[aardvark]

There are a few options in the "For Sale" section that I found interesting..

Take a look , Friends.

[Bob Preston]

There’s a similar discussion going on on another manufacturer forum. It’s more about the current market and I’d say that the market is similar for all 60’s “muscle cars” in general. 
 

One point mentioned was demographics.  Many owners of cars from the 60’s were teenagers back then and are now in their 70’s and 80’s. They probably have one or more cars already and given their age aren’t in the market for another. The speculation was that younger folks with disposable income, looking to buy a vintage car might be in the market for cars from the 70’s-90’s. 
 

Another point was that a large percentage of owners have made their cars trailer queens and they’re only seen at car shows, if that. The idea here was to leave a few concourse points off the renovation and take the thing out so people can see it. 
 

One more thought was that people see a 1965 Fill in the Blank sell at Mecum for $100,000, so they’re all worth $100,000. 
This is along the lines of sellers believing they have a car that is one number higher than the actual condition would indicate  

The person who opened the discussion had his car listed for months, with little to no action. He lowered the price as well as stating that it was also OBO. One complication with OBO is that the seller has to actually commit to selling it for the best offer. If it’s listed for $30K but he won’t sell for an offer of $25K even though that is the best offer received, it isn’t really for sale for the best offer. It’s for sale for a price that’s fixed in his head and he’ll wait until that offer appears. 
 

 

[aardvark]

^ Sir.. I opened the discussion and am selling nothing.

Edited January 23 by aardvark

[Bob Preston]

3 hours ago, aardvark said:

 

^ Sir.. I opened the discussion and am selling nothing

 

The post wasn’t about you. 

[aardvark]

Read para 5

[Footer]

Read paragraph 1.

[Bob Preston]

16 minutes ago, aardvark said:

Read para 5

I wrote it.

The entire post was about information that I read on another forum (see paragraph 1). I felt the information was relevant to this discussion so I shared some of what was said on that forum.
 

Is that clear?

[mfg]

7 hours ago, Bob Preston said:

I wrote it.

The entire post was about information that I read on another forum (see paragraph 1). I felt the information was relevant to this discussion so I shared some of what was said on that forum.
 

Is that clear?

Fascinating thread.

Edited January 23 by mfg

[Bob Preston]

Recently, I’ve seen a few price reductions on Avanti’s that have been on the market for quite awhile. The one I looked at last October in Ohio has dropped $5K from $54,900 to $49,900. At the time the seller said there was no room for negotiations because he didn’t want to sell the car. 
 

An R1 that I’d inquired about just dropped from $43K to $39K. This isn’t unusual, since a seller typically wants to get as much as possible and a buyer isn’t likely to offer more than the asking price, so starting a high, but reasonable price is to be expected. 
 

I do believe that there’s some spaghetti being thrown at the wall and this could be driven by the possibility that the sellers saw a single car sell for a handsome price and they’ve priced theirs similarly. As an example, the seller of the one in Connecticut specifically mentioned one that had sold for $57K and his is priced at $58K, even though the car most recently sold for $37,500 and is a $45K-$48K car at best. 
 

He has a multi-million dollar car collection and a $50K car is little more than a rounding error in the big picture, but his asking price is preventing car from being sold, driven and seen. 

[Hogtrough]

I'm a former classic car appraiser and have bought and sold four Studebakers over the last several years- a '54 Conestoga, a '62 GT Hawk, a '57 Silver Hawk, and the '63 R1 Avanti (R4223) I still own.  When putting one up for sale, I always try to read the market and price it at roughly 110% of what I expect it to sell for. A much more realistic approach than the pricing I see on many cars listed. I don't use the spaghetti at the wall approach. So far, every car I've listed has sold within a few weeks. 

Not currently considering selling it, but if at some point I were to sell the Avanti, I would price it between 25 and 30K. This is based on observing the market over the last year or so. The car has an inch thick book of receipts from the previous owner for mechanical repairs, including a thorough engine and transmission rebuild. It has automatic, PS  and TT. I've repainted it in Avanti Gold , updated the A/C to a modern system and installed a Turner brake update. Original wheels and hubcaps are in storage.  Had I not done much of the work myself, I would probably have 50K in it. I'm probably giving away my labor, but that's OK as that is the part I enjoy. 

Edited yesterday at 04:50 PM by Hogtrough

[aardvark]

Pretty car, but I would start at $40k... maybe higher. After all, it is a original R1.

Anything in the $25-30k range seem to need some work and has some minor flaws.

 

[mfg]

I like the updated seat belts!

[Bob Preston]

$25-30K is in alignment with actual selling prices for cars in a similar condition. Declining prices are quite the trend across the board for many classic cars. 
 

From what I’ve seen, there’s a minority of sellers who price their cars reasonably. 

[Dwight FitzSimons]

On 1/1/2026 at 10:52 AM, mfg said:

Another ‘J’ owner… NICE!

Would you have an extra Caribbean intake manifold you’ve been tripping over and want to sell????

Mine… stick o/d with p/s!

Just have the one, and it's going on 56J no.1.  Both of my 56Js have P.S., but I've become shiftless in my old age and will stick with automatics.

--Dwight

[aardvark]

You ask for X and anticipate Y.. and if it falls to less than Y, ya don't sell and find another method to advertise.

Disagree that $25-30K is a sellers price for a car of that caliber.. It definitely is a Buyers price.

[Bob Preston]

6 hours ago, aardvark said:

You ask for X and anticipate Y.. and if it falls to less than Y, ya don't sell and find another method to advertise.

Disagree that $25-30K is a sellers price for a car of that caliber.. It definitely is a Buyers price.

I certainly respect the experience and knowledge of a former classic car appraiser. It is their job to determine a fair market value for a vehicle without bias. 
 

Individual objectives also come in to play. It may be beneficial, in some cases, to sell the car in a timely fashion and move on to the next project rather than wait months or years trying to get top dollar for the car. Like it or not, classic car prices are in decline and have been for several years. A quick sale at a reasonable price may be the prudent option. 
 

In your example of ask for X and anticipate Y, when Y doesn’t hit the table then one may need to consider that Y is still too high of a price. Otherwise , the inevitable outcome is having a collection of items that have perceived values which exceed reasonable market values. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Bob Preston

[aardvark]

Some cars have come down,, others. seem to rise. You can't make a general statement on the entire Collector Market.

[mfg]

14 hours ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

Just have the one, and it's going on 56J no.1.  Both of my 56Js have P.S., but I've become shiftless in my old age and will stick with automatics.

--Dwight

I’m sure glad my 1956 Golden Hawk (56J) is factory stick o/d with power steering…. Our resident 56J guru indicated that only about 150 or so were equipped that way!!