Technical Putting a value on vintage speed parts

I’m looking for some feedback on how to value vintage speed parts. A friend is helping family to clean out a shop and raise money to help pay medical bills and end of life care. There is a ton of really cool stuff in there! Some complete cars, lot and lots of parts. Brand names like Moon, Weiand, Wayne, Hilborn, Halibrand and Winfield. So far we’ve just scratched the surface but I’m sure there’s a lot more. Other than eBay and a few here and there parts for sale we are struggling to put a reasonable price on this stuff. I can’t find any listings newer than about 2010 for a Wayne head. We all know that if we could buy at 2010 prices we’d buy all we could! At this point I am not authorized to sell anything. Without a detailed list of what’s available I know it’s going to be difficult to say an exact price so I’m simply looking for a way to place an appropriate value on some things based on 2024 prices. Thank you for any help!

Picture is not for sale, that’s my car at Bonneville Speed Week 2023.

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I'd sell it all in one package, one buyer. It will take years to liquidate at market prices. I'm on year six of selling my last buy out.

 

Just remember that the goal is to generate $$ for medical care, which is an immediate need. Setting pricing at max value would be optimal, but if the stuff remains unsold for any length of time, it has served no purpose. A bird in the hand is worth what?......

 

The price you'll get depends on who sees it for sale, and how fast you need to sell it. If you want to sell it quick with pretty decent exposure, but not get top dollar, you can put it on ebay auction for a week, and start the bidding real low. Although I think not as many people look there as they do other places, I've been able to do pretty well with muscle car parts. Older stuff, not quite as good. You also have to deal with shipping, and the other issues.

Pretty hard to get a real value without offering the parts for sale, and then the value is pretty hard to determine unless two people want it...

 

How about an auction company that may specialize in automotive memorabilia. Depending on the amount of items they may be the most experienced in selling.

 

To me it depends, it depends on how much money you need, how fast you need it and do you need a quick fast lump sum or can it be drawn out and add a little cash each month ?

If it's quick and fast then I'd look at finding a broker to buy it all or start throwing parts up on ebay at lower prices and let the buyers drive the price up and take what I could get as fast as I could get it.

If slow and study income is fine I'd start selling stuff I could get a estimated price for and then while selling that take the extra time to try and chase down prices for the unknown stuff.....

P.S. Top dollar and sell fast usually don't go together....
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Auction is the best way to go. Less hassle. Less time. No shipping. Immediate income.

 

I'd argue that a private buyer is the best way to go. less hassle, less time, and more income. I've seen some auctions go very poorly, especially when handled by someone who doesn't specialize in speed parts. They don't care about this stuff. They just want their cut.

 

Local auctions are limited to local buyers, unless it's a big enough deal that folks will travel to it.

And the auction company will take a big cut...but it could be worth the discount if it all goes away in a reasonable time, at higher than scrap prices.

 

The actual size of the item, as well as what it is also play into it. If it's reasonably rare and small enough to ship easily, Ebay would probably work out well. Transmissions, engines, fenders and doors...they'd have to be pretty desirable for someone to pay a good price, plus shipping. I've bought some vintage engines cheap on Ebay only because I was the only one within reasonable driving distance who was interested.

 

A fast nickle is better than a slow dime.
Bundle it off to one reseller and don’t look back. Even at .50 cents on a dollar the amount or time researching along with pictures and listing/shipping etc will eat up family and volunteer time.

 

There are always a lot of people looking in the Hamb ads,,,,,might be your best bet for a quick start .
And remember,,,,,there have been several big sales recently of people that have died off and families are liquidating their stash .
I hope it goes good for you and your friends .

Tommy

 

I think someone/business who could buy it all, would be looking at resell.
So after labor/etc to get it, would they pay 1/2 the going rate?
Asking because I have no idea.

 

last batch of stuff I bought, I paid 5% of the retail sales value. I worked hard for the 95% profit, though!

 

I'm with squirrel, I bet it's a lot less than 50%

I'd say a generous buyer would pay 25 % maybe 30% tops.

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I resell for a living and I try not to pay more than 10 cents on the dollar, unless it's a really high value item that's easy to sell, then I'll come up a bit. How much stuff are we talking? 100 items, 1000, 100,000?

I work at this full time and I probably average 700 to 800 sales a year. If there's 50 nice things and some chaff, no big deal. But a couple building loads? Are you ready to spend literal years chasing retail value? Because a huge part of the value of an item is it being available when the buyer needs it, and shipped to their door. That kind of value added to an item can double or triple its price. The internet price, the swap meet price, and the rummage sale price are 3 very different values, even for identical items.

If it's a really large collection of stuff, and if it's good stuff, I'd see if Yvette Vanderbrink would come and do an auction. Vanderbrink has a really good following of old car people who go to all of their sales. They might charge a bigger percentage, but they'll bring more in the end than some local guy. And I'm no mathematician, but I'd rather pay 25% fees on $1000 than 10% on $250.

 

If you find things in the pile that you're unsure about, don't be afraid to ask people on here for information and opinions. There are some real experts here who excel in their area of expertise.

 

I am with Squirrel and Squablow on this about doing buyouts at a low price. i did a buyout last weekend at less than 2% and after i get it i will still have less than 3% into what they think it is worth. I will admit I thought their original price of what the items were worth were over valued that is why I came in with a lower number but I am usually in the 5-10% ballpark too when the stuff is fairly appraised. I wasn't the only one that submitted a bid so the other buyout people must have offered less than me to get it.

that is why on the other thread about the business in Tn. selling all to one buyer, I don't see them getting a single buyer and have it all wrapped up by oct. 31 at a decent price unless they sell it pennies on the dollar.

 

I saw that too, and I didn't want to be a dick and respond but I agree, nobody's going to buy it all unless it's a tiny fraction of retail. That's a perfect auction setup, blow it all out and just make sure the pickup dates are all in by the end of October. If they think someone's going to pay 50 cents on the dollar and clean it all out they're going to be in for a rude awakening.

Reselling stuff is a huge, labor intensive task, it requires a lot of skills and knowledge, and there are huge opportunities for the people who do it already. Every seller I know is already stocked to the rafters with goods to sell, I don't know anyone that's really truly "hungry" for inventory.

 

"Reselling stuff is a huge, labor intensive task, it requires a lot of skills and knowledge, and there are huge opportunities for the people who do it already. Every seller I know is already stocked to the rafters with goods to sell, I don't know anyone that's really truly "hungry" for inventory."

Totally agree.

 

That Wayne head will bring some bucks from the Chevy 6 cylinder bunch. A Wayne head is somewhat like a holy grail to them.

 

Stick em on marketplace
Don’t answer “is it available”
Local pickup, meet em at Walmart unless you feel good about the buyer.
Don’t match E-bay pricing

 

What does Wayne stuff go for these days. There’s a couple of straight 6 with valve covers and I’m pretty sure at least 1 of them has the full head on it. I’ve only seen pictures taken by a non car person in a really crowded shop.

 

A good friend used to run the FB Vintage Speed Equipment page (until recently). He's in Park City. Might be worth a little sleuthing to have a conversation?

 

What about placing an ad in Hemmings and list the parts that are for sale and that you are open to reasonable offers.

State that the offers will have to be made thru a Paypal account and that they must be good till a "cut-off " date you select. That way you can take an offer immediately or wait to see if you get other offers. Also put that the buyer pays shipping. You might have to get boxes and wrap them yourself as UPS costs might kill a deal. That way, the market for what you are selling decides the price. If you don't like the offer, you simply let it expire or decline it. You can also say that you are open to selling it all to one buyer. You need to take pictures so you can send them to prospective buyers on line.

Now thats going to take some effort on someones part. Having an auction usually means way lower prices for things unless its a big time auction with lots of other related things for sale. I'd stay away from auctions, but they are easier.

 

Valve covers are about 400-500 each to the right guy. Chevy 6 stuff takes a while to sell. Period. Not as much demand as flathead stuff and as a whole the inline guys are rather cheap.(no offense intended). The head maybe 4-5k if you sit on it, and sell it to the right guy. I got 2500 for a Howard 12 port, that needed major work. That was 2 or 3 years ago. And it took a solid 2 or 3 years to find a buyer at that price.

 

I can tell you after doing this for two friends it is a huge time consuming project. Doing your best to get top dollar is a difficult task. I took me 3 years to liquidate the first time. Second time I did best I could with reasonable offers, making concessions on prices for large amount of parts. Hard to look up every part to see what current prices are.Just use your knowledge of what is in demand and what is not. What worked best for me was letting someone look at items and make an offer. Basic knowledge will let you know if they are trying to steal the item. I hope no one asks me to ever do this again,GOOD LUCK

 

I have found that the real value of my stuff is what I can sell it for tomorrow for cash.

 

saw a Wayne head at Turlock where the guy was asking $5,000.00

 

Probably went back home with him too...


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