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Possibly worth mentioning to any lurkers or guests viewing from an ebay link ....The green example from Grimsby sits on its own customer built home made frame....
Thats not a statement dissing it , I haven't seen it , it could be equal or better than a factory frame , just giving some background to the car....Jason bought a body only from us and decided to produce his own frame.
There is a video on youtube or similar of Gaz's red car driving along that may be of interest to any potential buyers as well....
Haven't seen Mulberry's car in the flesh ( maroon example ) so can't comment other than Gary has access to some pretty impressive tooling and equipment and I am sure thats reflected in the cars build quality...certainly looks nicely turned out.
Mr Towed , Oxford1360 - If you have no intention of selling then put yours on Ebay for £15,000 - £20,000 with a load of text describing the exquisite styling and noble heritage.
You won't get buyers but you might drive the price up for the others.
It worked for Zonda. Original price was £2-300,000 from memory but sales only really went up once he raised the price closer to the £1M
I get the feeling it's a bit of both reasons. For some, after building and enjoying one, the thought often occurs that if they were to 'do it again' they would do some parts differently and would probably take a shorter time getting to their aim since the brick walls have already been overcome once. Others have a desire to build a different model, maybe a Spyder builder now wants doors and the ability to build on a newer donor such as a Spitfire. Building and selling the first can, and usually will, fund the second pass at a build.
I'm the first to admit that i've built my Spyder to keep as an ongoing project, which is why i chose the 2L as a base as that gives me my 'ideal' engine and every time i think about doing another Sammio i just think that i've actually already gone for all the 'best' bits that i would want anyway, so for the time being I'll stick with mine
But things change!
Mine is now built, on the road and I'm really starting to get confident with it. But i know that i want to re-do the bonnet, re-do the interior wall cards and overhaul the engine and a few other things. And those are are lined up for this winter, and possibly next?
But....
In the meantime i have started liking some of the 3 wheeler kits that are out there and as everyone who knows me knows, i really want a Countach! And i keep wondering, if one did crop up at the right price would i sell/part-ex the Spyder? Quite possibly, who knows!
I was going to fit the Vitesse uprights and brakes that I have in the workshop, but a friend said, "If you do that now, what will you have to do when the car is finished!?!"
I hope mine will be an ongoing project. I'm starting with a sensible engine, but am stockpiling the components for something exciting in the long-term.
I originally bought a TVR to convert into a G46 but then bought a field find Scimitar and am using that instead. This leaves me a TVR wedge if I get the itch again, a spare Scimi engine and box to maintain the first G46 and I have found someone with a load of P5 Rovers, all 3.5s models if i get the itch for more...
Mr Towed , Oxford1360 - If you have no intention of selling then put yours on Ebay for £15,000 - £20,000 with a load of text describing the exquisite styling and noble heritage.
You won't get buyers but you might drive the price up for the others.
It worked for Zonda. Original price was £2-300,000 from memory but sales only really went up once he raised the price closer to the £1M
Yes, that's how it works sometimes. I did some management courses at Bristol University a few years back and the main lecturer also ran his own freelance business consultancy. One of the people he'd advised was an artist who wanted to sell his own work from a gallery, and who it was suggested should also act as an agent for other aspiring artists. A couple of the questions the artist had asked were 'how much do I charge for a piece of artwork?' and 'what do I do if it doesn't sell?' The answers were 'charge what you think someone might pay' and 'if it doesn't sell after a month, put it in the basement for a month then put it back on display for double what you were asking.' After a year in business the artist reported back that the gallery was doing well, but that he often had to double the price of a painting four or five times before someone would buy it.
I've tried this practice on ebay once or twice when something failed to sell - put the price up and pitch it again and it's worked just fine every time.
If I do ever decide to sell my Spyder it will be for a six figure sum.
- Niche Marketing. Sir John Harvey-Jones used the practice quite often as a marketing tool. The opposite would be to pile it high and sell it cheap, but it doesn't necessarily work in all cases....
Things do change that may cause people to sell - like sudden lack of job, career change, or loss of space.
I hate to be a party pooper but I'm thinking the £5-6k prices people are putting up are, shall we say, a little hopeful??? Have any actually sold at this level? £3-4k seems more realistic in a crowded kit car market. We all know that completed kit cars are usually worth less than the sum of the parts.
Build a car to get buried in it, build lots of cars if (like me) you just like doing it. The wife rightly points out it keeps me close by and it's cheaper than playing golf.
Building cars to make any kind of profit (or even break even)? Nice idea. Good luck with that. Just ask John Delorean!
And before any smartarse points it out, I know you can't actually ask John Delorean.
I know a medium who might disagree...
On the subject of prices realised, like art, an old car/kit car/Koenigsegg is worth what someone is prepared to stump up for it. In addition to building cars I do a bit of metal detecting and I once found a small silver coin minted by the Earl of Northumberland during the Angevin civil war of the mid 1100's. It was a penny, 17mm across that had been cut in half to make a halfpenny for small change. The intrinsic value of the silver would be about 25p, but it was extremely rare. At auction it made £750 because a couple of wealthy collectors really wanted it.
I also recall an article in a kit car mag in the eighties where a chap with a 718 RSK replica he'd built for £5k had been hailed down by a young guy with red braces and a Countach. He offered twenty grand on the spot for it (enough to buy a decent two bed semi at the time) even after the owner explained it was a beetle in a party frock. IMHO I don't think people are asking anywhere near enough for their Spyders - the starting price should be in five figures if you want people with money to take notice.
I hate to be a party pooper but I'm thinking the £5-6k prices people are putting up are, shall we say, a little hopeful??? Have any actually sold at this level? £3-4k seems more realistic in a crowded kit car market.
The last time my car was listed I had several offers around £5-6k, all of which I turned down. In the past several have sold for upto £7k with I beleive the lowest price sale being £5300.
At the end of the day, if you want one of these cars and dont have the skill or confidence to build one yourself then you either pay somebody to build it (not cheap) or you buy one thats already built so we as builders set the market.
I completley agree with Gaz and others and i'll throw in a few facts in here to try and back up what is being said:
There are only ~100 Sammios in existence, and that includes those being built.
So far only a very small number (1/2 a dozen?), have actually been sold (66, 48, and a few others) and that includes part-finished cars
All of those sold so-far have been Herald and not Vitesse based, apart from the unfinished GT6 based one.
So far all the completed cars that have sold, have sold for >£5k
This latest fail-to-sell, is the cheapest i've seen for one so far. BUT you have to remember that he states that ATM it isn't correctly registered (that will put people off) and that he says the paint needs redoing (that will also put people off)
So i have to agree with what has already been said and what my father has always said "something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it!"
The unsold car was also on a home made frame. How easy will it be go register seeing as the chassis is already altered ( the parts that fall off after inspection). I would certainly be hesitant to part with my cash . Pops
i never built my sammio to sell on ebay or even try to make a profit. the time and money i have put in this build would cost easliy 15k upwards. the seat`s came in at £980 . But there has been a huge change in things at home so sadly she has to find a new home. with fingers crossed i let here go for 8k
i agree with you other guys im sure these cars are far to cheap. it would only take few good examples to push the price up.
a part of me hopes it wont sell, and she stays with me.
its been great building one of these cars, somthing i never thought i would every dream of. but thanks to Gary Janes and his IDEA/VISON , he has made 1 of my dreams real, and wot a joy these cars are to drive ... to all of you starting out with your build or half way through happy building and driving its worth every penny at the end ..."gary you know any winning lottery numbers"
Going to need a few extra pallbearers though... 
