I have been trying to sell my 356 so I could join you guys in 914 ownership. Two phone conversations and 40+ pictures later to a very nice man overseas and he wants more pictures, more written explainations and a photocopy of the reciept of an engine that was re-built twenty years ago!!!

This morning I emailed and said I had had enough. No more nothing. No pictures, no notes, no phone calls. I can't take it!!!


I hate selling cars.........my god, you either want it or you don't. I don't want to be his friend.

I'm suprised he didn't ask for the guys numbers that built the car!

He even wanted to talk to the prior owners...........what the hell............the car is rust free....46 years old and the prior owners are dead...........

Thank you for letting my rant

That would be a cool bumper sticker!

I guess if they all died in a car wreck or separate car wrecks in the car, that would be very pertinent to the sell

personally, I'd have checked out way before then, my friend. pretty much as soon as he said "overseas" unless he was ready to escrow the money .

on an unrelated topic, can we see the 356 pics?

I'm sorta the other way, and I've been on both ends plenty... As a seller I try to over describe any car that I'm selling. Usually with about 150 pics including everything underneath while it's on a lift. I like the buyers to be informed, and ask even the small silly questions, that way, I know it's been covered. They buyers who see one or two pics, and say I'll take it are the one's who scare me as they are the one's most likely to be unhappy when it's off loaded from transport.

As a buyer, any seller that refuses to take the pictures I want, or seems annoyed with me when I ask questions is a big red flag.

Yes it's a hassle if you don't enjoy it, but try to remember the guy is buying a dream, from across the pond no less. 2 phone conversations and 40 pics would not be near enough for me for a overseas purchase.

Ferg

true enough, I would just have more patience with someone in the states, I guess, even try to get them close enough to it they can inspect it.

if I was buying over seas, I wouldn't be done with 1500 pics, if I'm dropping "dream car money" it'd be worth the extra couple grand to fly over and see the car myself...

The first sight unseen purchase I did on a car was a 912E on ebay. I talked to the seller a few times on the phone, got some pictures etc. I flew out to San Diego to drive it home. When I arrived, I started punching holes in the lies the guy told me. Finally the title was not in his name and signed over to some other guy not involved in this deal. I flew home sans 912e. Waste of my time and money.

On the other hand, I bought my current daily driver from another guy in San Diego. It is everything he told me it was. However, I did look at before I bought it because I didn't believe his description.

The point is, as a buyer you have to be educated and vigilant.

I forgot about this.
I will call you tomorrow.

Rich

Click to view attachment

Sorry I didn't explain more as I am still stewing. I always point out the worst in a car when I sell. I don't want any problems and most of all I don't lie very well. I have gone overboard with pix and close up pix and underneath pix and the car was inspected by a 356 expert, not a friend or affiiate. All of this was explained to the man and he even contacted that 356 expert about this car.
One more thing. The guy wanted me to find a stationary point in the garage and measure to each wheel center to see if they are the same. Well thats fine but there are way to many variables to be spot on with that proceedure. This went on and on as I have only scratched the surface on the questions. I been around the car game for a long time but he doesn't know that or how honest I am so I do understand, its just frustrating. I am loosing money on this so I suspect that is another thing.

I just needed to vent. Thank you

Patience has its limits. I would have told him to pound sand at that point.

Hang in there. As I'm sure you are well aware, its just not a selling market.

If it's just about owning a 914, i guess I could be nice enough to just trade you.

mighty fine lookin 356...

Can we see more photos? how is the clutch? Can we talk to your mechanic? Can we call his mother to see it he was a liar when he was a boy?

sorry..... just trying to lighten the mood...

Nice Rick.

OK I see your point, hang in there.

I feel your pain man, 3 years ago my brother and I bought a building fulll of vintage japanese bikes,mostly 2 stroke variety, H1,H2 T500 GT750 YR1s you know the cool stuff. Every single one of these bikes went to either the UK,Australia.or New Zealand. And these blokes wanted documented history,40 times we told them"dude I got nuthin I bought these in a lot of 160 bikes,it runs great looks great do you want it!!" Some of them wanted pics of EVERYTHING to the point of redundencecy. We ended up selling everything minus an early cherry Yamaha YR1 . I think we cleared out 4 dealers of thier new bike crates so we could ship them out !! Looking back now I totally understand it,If I was to spend that kind of money for a 40 year oil burner that was 7000 mi away I would want a zillion pics too. My point being let the buyer do their due diligance,provide what you can within reason and if they are not satisfied then move on to the next willing buyer. Good luck with your sale and beautiful 356 BTW Cheers !!

Paint it silver, and I will buy it tomorrow, assuming you would agree to my terms and conditions.

Beautiful car. I wish that I had the money and/or space for it.

beautiful 365 btw

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Nice 356. Good luck with the sale. What kind of 914 are you looking for CW, driver, 4, 6?

I'm with you Cal44. I love buying cars, but selling them is a whole nother ball game. I just sold my Real 914-6 project roller. I got a ton of pms when I specifically stated to eMail me. So I had to answer pms then another eMail. I had people want more pictures, argue with me, insult me, etc. I even had a "Broker" hijack my car and put an ad in Europe.

Now I've got some expensive parts on the "Bird" board and I got people with thousands of Posts hijacking my thread to talk about their crap.

T.C.

Nice 356 you've got there

I feel your pain. I had a guy off this board gig me on a parts deal a few years ago.

This guy wanted all the NOS and reproduction sheetmetal parts I had or could get. Floor pans, upper and lower firewalls, inner fender, factory flairs, rear trunk floor, longitudinals and stiffeners, a huge "package deal" is what he wanted, best price I could for the lot, and wanted me to figure truck freight for the total shipment.

After I gave him a very fair price it started: "well what about just this piece" and "what if I just get this now and then later blah, blah, blah".

I later find out from my friend Dave Shepard (^RIP^) that guy is one of the most notorious cherry picker/deal welcher on the west coast! Dave just laughed and said the guy "will get mad at you and cancel the whole deal", which is exactly what happened!

Fortunately most of the guys on this site are stand up guys.

Mr. Ginter, that is a tough question, about what kind of 914. One thing I know for sure is air cooled.

I started out wanting a 914/6 but now that I read about Raby's babies.....its a tough one.

I have other cars so I know how wonderful a 3.2 engine is.............
I can just imagine a 3.2 in a teener.
The jury is out, although a factory 914/6 would be nice.
I'm so confused

..BLOW-OFF any overseas proposed purchaser....WAAAAAAAAY too many car purchase scams going on (past and present). Contact a reputable exotic car dealer/broker and offer to sell the car to them. Yes you won't get a "retail price", but you will not have to worry if the financial transition is a convoluted mess , and as such LOOSE your car and have NO MONEY also. Just try selling it in your area/region . As a good car, you want people to see and inspect it personally so they will be motivated to purchase it. Some buyers hire appraisers to give them a non-biased opinion., and THEY will take the multitude of photographs and inspections . when this happens, as a seller , you know the potential buyer is serious.

No Way! The overseas guys are the one's with the $$. I sold my 73.5 911 T to a real nice guy in Spain a few years back, if you do your research the transaction can go smoothly, in my case he wired me the $$ while the PPI shop held the car. 2 days it was done. Easy.

Also, I agree on the 3.2 in a teener having owned a conversion with that combo, I can tell you it's so fun, and if I did it over again, I would do another one.

Ferg

Great looking car, I'd keep it, but that's just me.

Have you tried joining the 356 Registry Forum and posting it on there? Should get lots of looks and good feedback from those guys. No need to deal with overseas people, just do a west-coast sale.

You should be able to get a good $30k for it, that'll buy you a really nice 914/6 in any form you wish.

Best of luck.

that is a sexy car, I can't believe it's not sold

good luck on he sell!

As you guys know restoration costs are incredibly high. This car needs to be returned to its Ivory color and interior done. The upside is Kalifornia car and no rust and numbers correct. I belong to the Registry but people being people want something for nothing.

I don't give stuff away like I used too so that I could move on to the next project. So I shall stuff the little guy in the back of the garage.

I guess I could never own a 356... I'd say Fuch it, it looks good in black

The JDM side mirror is a nice touch.

The guy may have been stalling you as our currency has been falling to his. In a few weeks there was a big difference. The Euro is 148 to 100 US today.

They are back to getting a great deal. The wiring of the money is no big deal. Sell it to anyone that has the money. If you are desperate or tight for the money then you are in a tough spot. I have been there before selling land and cars when I was younger.

Just keep trying to sell it at your best price and take you best price from the first guy with the right funds.

Bob

Bob,
I was thinking the same thing. There is no sign of the dollar getting stronger. After all is said and done this guy would still probably spend twice as much for a crappier car over in Europe. It is a win/win for them right now.

No rust and numbers are the key...BTW seems like SOOOO many of these cars were repainted black, I know mine was. I can't afford a repaint, so black it will stay.

I'd stuff it in the back of the garage with some sta-bil and wait for the market to come to you, good plan.

....In past economic downturns in the U.S.A., old /rare sports cars/porsche.s were a good "investment" against a stagnet/or faltering/ risky / stock market. Europeans especially ,took advantage of the dollar vs German currency fluctions.It,s still going on, but to a lesser degree at this time. Generally the "CAR" market is down in terms of value , close to the same ratio as the Housing markets devaluation. (and they are a whole lot harder to finance). Selling your car(any car) for anything near it,s "true" value right now is going to be v e r y difficult. As for your particular 356 coupe, as original as you say it is, IT DOES NOT HAVE the original paint color / code color. As you probably know, (and it,s hard to admit) Your/the / value will be demished by the repainting costs which will be considerable. Many years ago I did prepurchase inspections for Porsche collectors/buyers. You have a nice looking 356, with a non original color. Value is there for the right buyer and right now it,s a buyers market (advantage) .This is probably not the best time to be trying to sell a collector car. I.M.E.

that would drive me crazy,

when I bough my car it was in another state, we decided to use an escrow company. It cost me $150 bucks. Shipping back would be split if I didn't OK the sale.

I can say from experience of owning Exclusive Motors that us Porsche car guys are the biggest pain in the a** when it comes to buying cars, ESPECIALLY sight unseen, and even worse overseas. The real question is that if you don't have another buyer, is it worth parking in the garage out of 'spite'?

Here's an idea - send the 'buyer' and email that says something like:

"Dear Mr. Buyer,
By the questions and discussions we've had to date, I can tell you are extremely interested in my 356. I have been honest and truthful with you at every point and know you will be getting exactly what I described. If you choose to purchase the car, you will be quite happy with your purchase. If, however, you are hesitant in any way, I thank you for your interest and hope you can find a car that meets your needs.

If you are still interested in my car and have additional questions, please take a moment to put together a list and ask me all the questions at once. I want to be as helpful as possible, but at some point a decision has to be made that you will either purchase my vehicle or we both go our separate ways.

I look forward to your reply.

-Call44"

The latest is.....he and I are back on the communication track. Lucky for him there is a 356 fellow who lives close by for support. So within a couple of days I should know. Then comes the tricky part of getting the funds. I went to the bank today and got the info needed to do the deed if the guy follows through. The upside is I don't need to sell, thank goodness. I just need the room for my yet to be purchased teener. I will try and add a couple of pix of a car in SoCal I thought was interesting. The fellow lives in Orange County. It has a 3.8 mated to a 915 for good measure.

Its simple if you do it this way.
Buyer sends money to your account via wire transfer.
No other way. Wire transfers are secure, period.

Buyer arranges and pays for all shipping.
You need a real title.
A bill of sale does not work for overseas, so make sure you have a real title for the car.

Rich

Seems like there is a lot of interest in buying/selling 356s right now. Good luck on your transaction!

The Cap'n

Well Cap'n, as you probably know, selling a Porsche is not always easy. In this case the car ('63) comes from your general area and is rust free and a Maestro engine that purrs.
I am honest to a fault. I want the guy to know everything thats wrong with the car. So I tell them, lousy paint, so-so interior but numbers correct down to the fuel pump. When I go to look at cars I usually keep my comments on a tablet written with a number 2 pencil. Now I'm showing my age. I don't start telling the seller everything that is wrong with car unless they ask. There were almost 80 thousand 356 cars made. Suprisingly there are many left and there are always a good selection.
The saga continues...........

holy crap on a cracker batman, I think I love that car...

very good looking!

Just a heads up on the wire transfers. NEVER give your complete account number. All they need is the bank routing number and your bank can give you your customer number, which may or may not be part of your account number.

I hate to say this but I don't see any issue with the guy asking all these questions. He is looking to buy a car as an investment and would be stupid NOT to ask every question he can.

On another note. Very nice car but that 914 looks like it will be a great replacement. In my opinion it will be a much more fun car to drive as well.

Good luck with everything.