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Collecting Cars Australia


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I see that Collecting Cars is now live in Australia and that there's a well-known yellow 1970 911 up for auction.  1970-porsche-911-e-2-2

Will be fascinating to see if the service catches on here the way it has in the UK.  They sold 1,300 cars in their first year.  CTS and Duttons must be a little bit nervous.  Amusingly, I noticed that Autohaus are using the new Collecting Cars auction to unload their Aston Martin.

Some people seem to enjoy it, but I find selling vehicles the most painful part of owning fun cars.  Nice to see a few options now available:  Collecting Cars is free for the seller but 6% for the buyer.  CTS, Autohaus, etc typically charge the seller 7%-10% consignment fees.  And there's a new service called Summon that will sell your car for 5%. Summon

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I think you may find CTS is embracing it. There's a couple of cars on there that I recognise, and the username seems familiar too.

A lot of high end dealers in the states use Bringatrailer, well explained from this email from one of them:

With travel challenges, one of the biggest changes we’ve seen is the reduction in showroom foot traffic, personal visits to see cars, and in-person decision making. This is where our expanded digital presentations, combined with premier online auction house Bring a Trailer, have become major forces in vintage and contemporary sports car sales. The online presentation platform, comments from a wide field of experts, and a community that professes their love of cars, makes for an ideal marketplace to promote and sell cars. While our sales on Bring a Trailer have been steady for a few years, 2020 saw a rapid increase in volume with BaT in part because of COVID restrictions, but also because this venue remains the industry leader in online auction sales and market penetration.

I think it's great. Very pleasing to see some decent competition to carsales.

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14 minutes ago, npvpositive said:

It's all the wasted time I can't stand.  Not to mention the way a good car brings every village idiot running to your door from miles around.

 And members of the armed forces/oil rig workers who can't call or text, but will pay full asking price

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1 hour ago, npvpositive said:

It's all the wasted time I can't stand.  Not to mention the way a good car brings every village idiot running to your door from miles around.

The hard part is when you actually do have a really good car. You get people who ring or email you to tell you you’re lying. You get people coming to see it and saying it’s too good (yes, this happened to me!). You get people coming to see it and saying how good it is, and then telling you that they don’t believe it despite them seeing it. And despite saying their welcome to have any test performed they walk away. I even had a guy spend a couple of hours going over the car and telling me it’s perfect. Then he proceeded to tell me he couldn’t afford it but he just wanted to see it.

 

But despite this, I really like the successful sale and the knowledge that I can get the next one. So selling is like an opportunity 

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Just like retail.  My teenage daughters have decided major shopping centres are no longer for them, laptop on our couch is way more convenient.  

Car buying is moving in that direction. I’ve bought at least 5 cars in the last 5 years site unseen from interstate.  Covid has accelerated this inevitable transition.  That means a UK based auction site can now go toe to toe here.

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4 hours ago, DJM said:

 Covid has accelerated this inevitable transition.  That means a UK based auction site can now go toe to toe here.

 Probably the governments sneaky way of bringing in a cashless society. Hope they're getting taxed on money going overseas! 

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16 hours ago, DJM said:

Just like retail.  My teenage daughters have decided major shopping centres are no longer for them, laptop on our couch is way more convenient.  

Car buying is moving in that direction. I’ve bought at least 5 cars in the last 5 years site unseen from interstate.  Covid has accelerated this inevitable transition.  That means a UK based auction site can now go toe to toe here.

I agree entirely with this.  

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I bought my VW Amarok and 944 sight unseen with little drama.  For me it is a case of getting a feel for the seller either over the phone or emailing.  And you have to have reasonable expectations... I buy my new cars through my work lease provider which is fantastic as I don't have to endure a stealership experience.

The online 'auction' type sales leave me cold though because (and correct me if I'm wrong) not only can't I see the car, but I have little to no contact with the seller - and Collecting Cars has me stoning up a few extra ponies for the privilege rather than negotiating a price that works for both?

I think you're spot on Chris, cars sell themselves so long as the seller has been straight up and honest - Porsche world is can be tough though; it's small, full of anoraks, and a fair portion of buyers are speculative investors ;)  I remember the 'good ole days' when old 911s were cheap and plentiful - I walked away from many cars that weren't as advertised.  Those same cars would have us scrambling now :D

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Selling my Boxster and have had 2 buyers so far, both interesting -

person 1 - shows up at my place and while walking towards the car asks me if I got the IMS bearing replaced. I tell him mine is a late (07) model and it’s not common to do preventative IMS bearing changes because it requires splitting the case. He goes, “nah mate, you should have done it. It’s $5K to do it, otherwise the engine will fail on you randomly. If I buy off you, I will replace it immediately, so $5K off the price is reasonable!”. It took all my patience to politely explain him whatever I know about IMS bearings on M96 engines. Afterwards he sits in the car with me and tells me he is from Northern Beaches 🤦‍♂️ and that’s when I ran for my mask. He wasn’t breaching any lockdown, they went into lockdown that evening, but it was already a known hotspot.

person 2 - on the call asks me about the car. I tell him it’s always been serviced at Porsche specialist (PR Tech). That’s when he goes “that’s a shame some guy in North Sydney has been looking after the car”. I tell him it’s not “some guy”, it’s a reputable Porsche Specialist, and he goes “never heard of them. I have had many Porsches and I always take them to Porsche Centre Willoughby”. I politely tell him if he has an issue with the history of the car, he can choose not to proceed forward with the sale. He is still coming over this week, so let’s see how that goes! 

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Most of that which occurred to you blue 911 is expected of anyone looking at the cars and seeking consistency with their knowledge which may be lacking to your level. You can help increase their knowledge in a friendly manner.

The biggest issue with all of that was the visitation from the northern beaches.

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17 minutes ago, Nicko82 said:

looks a very nice car. If it makes decent fair market value, I will be listing my car with this service too.

 

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2 hours ago, Nicko82 said:

Does anyone have any information on this car...

The text description raises more questions than it answers for me.

Nicko, I know nothing except what is shown in the photos. 

If I was interested in this car I would be posting some questions on the the page like:

  • Why are you calling it a "Sport"?
  • Can you detail exactly what the rust damage was and how it was repaired?
  • Given the above and the country of it's delivery, can you post photos of the underside, wheel wheels and hubs/suspension components please?  (Or even better a copy of a PPI from a reputable provider to avoid answering ALL these questions!)
  • The photos show indirectly some paint defects.  While most look inconsequential, could you post additional clear photos of these defects for reassurance please?
  • Why were the wheel studs replaced?
  • Can you post a photo of the invoice for the gearbox work please?
  • What's with the horrible wad of filler between the engine lid panel and the internal frame? Why has the lid been repainted?
  • What was the engine leakdown results?
  • Why was the exhaust replaced?
  • Can you provide photos of the floors with the mats removed and the frunk area around the battery mount please?

 

If you don't get a response, I wouldn't lose sleep and may even think I've missed a bullet!

If you do get acceptable and plausible responses and the bids have topped out to not much more than they are now, it certainly presents OK and would be worth considering. 

However, at the currently level of bidding plus the buyer's premium  and the likely need to spend a bit of cash on it straight away, even assuming the above questions check out OK, I wouldn't be thinking that this is the bargain of the year.     

 

   

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