by Mike –
This past week I received the latest issue of Sports Car Market Magazine which included the 2018 Print Edition Sports Car Market Pocket Price Guide.
I value the Sports Car Market Pocket Price Guide not because of the accuracy of the price listings in the past but because of the other valuable information they provide for each of the collector car models they list. Such as: the number made of each model, the years of each model, their opinion on investment grade ranking of A, B, C, D or F and median percent change.
I would not want to be responsible for creating and publishing a list of current values for a few thousand models of collector cars. This is one of the most difficult jobs I can think of – and it is always guaranteed to be wrong in many collector’s eyes.
Since 2016 they have published the median prices of cars sold at auction and in 2016 they also published the high price. Since last year they have dropped the high price and only publish the median prices for clarity and simplicity.
Below I compare the SCM median prices for some of my favorite cars. Let us know if you see a trend here.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
I think because some cars are sell in only a few units , and maybe one bad condition car is not meet reserve on an auction that justice not the real average price .
Also I believe the cars witch are selling on a higher price are not advertised.
When there are less than 5 cars sell on the same condition there is not a good average possible.
Thats why an Iso Grifo in your list have a -10%
But this is how I was thinking .
Simon
There are so few Grifo sales that one soft sale can pull the median values down. Thus may not be totally accurate.
Over the last year a number of Grifo’s have sold most were drivers or original cars and I can’t think of any of them meeting the expectations, Two that come to mind were rare series two with SBC engines, very collectable , but they fell way short. I would say this list is accurate for the Grifo.
There you go Mike, series 2 are not recommanded for series 1
The list is not accurate for the Grifo , list tells also nothing for the quality of th cars .
The estimate on the Grifo’s on auctions are way too high when you see the quality.
when they dont meet the estimate it looks like the result of the auction is bad.
the estimate is to high .
Simon
Simon,
I agree with you about the condition and the estimate. A number of cars at auction this year were represented to be better than they actually were “in the flesh”.
Does anyone know the status of this Grifo?
http://cars.clickysound.com/invading-the-best-of-france-and-italy-show-with-a-german/
This car was at C&C in Malibu recently. It was a extremely nice example and I believe owned by a Dutch guy that was local.
Some people are wish and dreaming that prices on Grifo’s goes down , because they cannot afford them when prices are going up.
I know this way of wishes and dreaming about a Bizzarrini.
Simon
Some very poor quality Grifo’s sold in the last year as well. I think a condition 1 car to a unicorn will still bring in 500k, despite the weaker market. Grifo 369 sold not too long ago at Gooding for this price, and if it went on the block today, IMO would STILL bring a big price as they are only ORIGINAL once, and not that many of them are that good. Unicorns are unicorns for a reason, and collectors will pay for that!
Grifo 369 should have sold for at least 25% more maybe 50% but the audience “the collectors” didn’t understand how rare that car was. 369 had all the options , essentially one owner in California and was very original, it doesn’t get much better than that. If it would have had a F on it the car would have been on every magazine around the world. Most of the new buyers seem to be attracted to new paint and interiors. It was a good buy for the new owner.
I saw that car (369) 24k miles, 5 speed with AC, and VERY original. IMO that is as good as it gets in the world of Iso Grifo. I’m sure the buyer whoever he/she was is extremely happy with that time capsule!
I think on such a small number of cars made as the Iso Grifo, it is difficult to ascertain whether an occasional high price means an general uptrend for the marque. To me there has to be at least 1000 of a particular car around , and 3 or 4 selling a year, to get a rough approximation.
Then too, there are the “wild cards” like did the Beatles own one? Was it ever raced?
In a movie (I saw a low budget Italian movie with two Iso GRifos in it…)
Who was it restored by–a “name” restorer.
The really crazy wild card is the non restored, heavy-with-patina cars that still fetch an outside amount. While you can decry someone owned a particular car for many years and never enjoyed driving it, they might have the “last laugh” over their rivals by selling that almost derelict looking car for far frar more than they paid for it merely by keeping it (ah, and I think I sold that long nose Iso Grifo for $16,000, thinking I did well…)
Wallace,
I remember reading your article on your Grifo from past days.
What a memory!
https://mycarquest.com/2014/01/lost-in-arizona-one-iso-grifo.html
Wallace, was that an actual picture of your car from the link above. If so it should not be too hard to trace today. Looks like a car prepared for the US market with the markers on the front of the car.
The car looks nice! Love the story..