914 Prices, Looking for a source Options

[horizontally-opposed]

Sports Car Market magazine has a database of public auction sales, so real numbers. They send an annual or semi-annual price guide to subscribers. Platinum subscribers have access to their database.

73-74 914 2.0 median price was $12k

Used to get hammered with those values all the time—but I was always hesitant to point to them as conclusive data points. Public auctions are a show/production and come with their own problems (good car? bad car? right audience with the right 2-3 buyers? no?). So they're a data point, but a suspect one for a variety of reasons. Each sale should be scrutinized before being entered as indicative, but that's not realistic.

Insurance values by specialty companies are another data point.

Bring a Trailer is becoming a better and better data point, for a lot of reasons.

Me? I'd put the three above together with Excellence values and a survey of the asking prices here on 914world.com and then...give data points later…you might have something.

[Unobtanium-inc]

The biggest problem with using price guides is no one is ever honest (to you or themselves) of the quality or condition of their car. If it has shiny paint it's always described as a #1 or #2, even if it's a 5. Or my favorite, when someone tells me what a price guide says and I have to politely tell them that the price guide stops at 5 and their car is a 9, if there was a 9!
Your best bet is check completed auctions on ebay and bat, that will give you real prices and you can actually see the cars, not a "value description".

Perfect example of an owner not coming to terms with the true condition of his car. I went to go see a car several years ago, described as,
"All body work done, ready for paint, matching numbers, new floors."

The "new floors" were put in sometime in the 80s, my foot went through them. The "body work" was tragic, and I asked who did it, he said he taught shop at the local high school, the kids learned on the car.

We didn't see eye to eye on the car.

Oh, and you can't go off of the big auctions either, that is a fairy tale land where rules don't apply. People often quote Scottsdale auction pricing and I give them a comparison. I say those auctions are like watching a Paris runway show, seeing an Yves St Laurent gown flow by, and then you compare that the dress that's on the rack at the mall, at the Yves store, yes they are both dresses, yes they are both Yves, but you can't really compare them.

[horizontally-opposed]

The biggest problem with using price guides is no one is ever honest (to you or themselves) of the quality or condition of their car. If it has shiny paint it's always described as a #1 or #2, even if it's a 5....

...I have to politely tell them that the price guide stops at 5 and their car is a 9, if there was a 9!

...and then you compare that the dress that's on the rack at the mall, at the Yves store, yes they are both dresses, yes they are both Yves, but you can't really compare them.

^ FULLY agree.

Applying one size fits all (or three sizes fits all) to vintage Porsche values doesn't make any sense to me. There also comes a point when mileage and other factors that affect new and late-model cars no longer matter with 40-60yo cars—unless we are talking about the literal "hen teeth" 40-60yo cars with extremely low mileage. When a car reaches a certain age, condition is king, and then it's a matter of establishing the value of that ONE car based on a lot of factors. As Bruce liked to say, that's usually done by adults behind closed doors.

I miss Bruce. A lot.