Post by owdlvr on Mar 5, 2024 13:28:14 GMT -8
This past weekend I was in Amelia Island Florida for "The Amelia" a concours event now owned by Hagerty. As part of the weekend, there are a number of higher-end auction houses hosting collector car auctions. Goodings, Bonhams and Hagerty's auction house Broad Arrow all have auctions. We had a California Mille 2025 experience (complete with loaner car) in the Auction, and so Tuesday night I was trying to figure out when it might cross the block as I needed to be there.
Imagine my surprise to find out we had a European standard Zwitter as one of the listings, and no one told me about it!?!
www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/am24_r073/1953-volkswagen-beetle-zwitter
As you can see, the estimate for the auction was $40-50k USD. Dad and I have always talked about owning a Split Window, and there was no way I was going to get into that sort of money without his help. I reviewed the online photos, and the car looked generally fantastic, but could have issues...so I texted dad the link and asked if he wanted to "go in" on it with me. No reply. Hmph. I asked a restoration buddy (who I could trust not to scoop it) what his thoughts were and the reply was immediate. "Not the car for you Dave," he said, "25hp, cable brakes, crashbox. It's a trailer or ice-cream car not a driver."
The auction preview was Thursday, but as the cars and most everything was already setup I swung by on Wednesday to take a look. There is a whole process for getting registered to bid, including a "liquid assets" check, for which I absolutely didn't hit the minimum requirement. Fortunately, I know the staff team and as I was only bidding on one or two no-reserve vehicles with relatively low values, I was good to go. If you're not registered to bid, generally attending a preview is similar to attending a car show. You can lean in, look closer, but you're expected not to touch. Once you've got that all important bidder card and wristband...well, open that sucker up! Doors, engine bays, hoods, it's all up for access. I grabbed the keys, and with an auction house representative took the car for a short drive. Often buyers will have their mechanics come and do a full assessment, and I've seen multi-million dollar Ferraris up on axle stands after midnight getting a full compression test and more before auction day. It drove well, brakes were strong, steering tight. The 6V semaphores slapped in and out of the body with a bit of a scary snap. Well, I'm definitely still interested...
Walking up to the car, it looks fantastic. I believe the bumpers are original or at least OE Volkswagen. I've never felt a VW bumper so thick!
I knew right away from seeing it, however, that the estimate (in my opinion) was high. Every panel of the body had lacquer paint cracks. Almost impossible to show in photographs, but if you look carefully you can see them. In person, however, they JUMP OUT at you from 10ft away:
The floormats appear to be original, or at least NOS, and even have the thicker rubber under the heel of the driver's throttle foot, so as to not wear out so quickly. Underneath, however, something funky is going on.
My initial assessment answered three things for me:
1 - buying a car sight-unseen from an auction is very dangerous - the online photos look soooooo much better than what I saw in person
2 - I know beetles well enough to figure out a lot of the _good_ on this car, but not enough of the bad
3 - Some things aren't right...and I need an expert
Good thing I have a direct line to Beetle Bob! (as he's known in Port Alberni) A phone call to Bob, and soon I was getting a lesson on Zwitters complete with VIN and Body numbers, and then we went front bumper to back to confirm all the things this particular number should have.
It's got the wrong decklid:
It's got the wrong front hood:
Front apron has had some work for sure (though, I expect that on EVERY Beetle):
All four fenders are wrong / aftermarket:
Ashtray housing is missing. At the time of the auction I thought it had some funkyness with the dash metal, but have since confirmed I was incorrect:
After my assessments with Bob, and a few days of thinking about the car, I waited the long arduous hours for the auction to finally get to the car. I had a few positive things going for me:
This was a Broad Arrow Auction - they are the new kids on the block, so perhaps less attended(?)
No reserve Auction listing
The 4th last car to cross the block.
I figured the car was worth $21-25k. I knew after seeing it, dad would never be happy with the cosmetic look to the car...so I was on my own. A couple of clients had offered to back me up should I need to go above my budget, but I'm trying to be more responsible. Keep in mind after the hammer drops you have the following things to consider:
Buyers premium (12%)
Florida state taxes (6%) unless the vehicle is transported across state lines by a bonded carrier
Vehicle shipping
Exchange rate
BC taxes
So if we presume I thought the car would hammer at $25k, the buyer actually pays $28k. Then there is $4200+ in shipping (to Seattle), the exchange rate, and taxes and import fees. $28,000USD is $38,064 Canadian...and I'm not entirely sure if the BC government considers it a private sale or a dealer sale, but lets assume it's the full 13%. So now we're at $43,012.32 plus the shipping. If we pretend my time, ferries and gas to go and get it in seattle are free, a $25k car at hammer is now a $48,721.11 car out of my bank account by the time it is home in my driveway. Ouch.
I did the reverse math, factored in how much money I'm willing to part with (and, lets be honest, how much I can move very quickly to pay for the car) and had my maximum bid. I do benefit from having a friend who's garage I could toss the car into in Florida...so for a 6% tax hit I could park the car for up to a year in Florida, basically splitting the hit to my bank account into two halves. One for purchase, a second for shipping/import.
My bid was not likely to buy the car, I wasn't even sure I could lift the paddle. It would all depend on who was in the room or on-line. I was shocked to see the car hadn't been discussed on the samba (to my knowledge) and seemed to be a relatively obscure listing. Maybe I had a chance? The room was packed all day. The facility had to bring in carts and carts of more chairs, and they were stuffed everywhere. 92% of the cars were selling, and there were some big players in the room. One guy bought 8 cars just on saturday alone. But by 4pm? The room was sparsly populated. Most of the big players had left to prepare for the Honoree dinner. Even the guys in the CB Performance hats didn't wait around for this car to cross. Maybe, just maybe, I had a chance...
Opening offer was $25k, with no bidders. Then 20k. Then 15k. Just before I thought they would drop to $10k, a hand was lifted. There were two or three bidders in the room, the pace was slow, and it went up 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30. And there it stopped. $30k. Obviously, I did not buy the car. I mean, I'd have had to fire-sale a few somethings before the auction started to afford that kind of money.
The question of "what is it worth?" is always an interesting one. Clearly, this one was worth $30k. Someone bought it for that. For me, it wasn't worth that much money (even if I had it). If no one was in the room bidding, and I got the At $15k, I'd have thought I "stole it". But somewhere between 15k and 25k I went from seriously thinking about the car to "no way in hell". It had just enough wrong with it, that I probably would have popped the split window body off that pan, dropped it onto my '58 pan, and driven the crap out of a 'split window' until I was bored. Simply store the '58/53 chassis combo until I'm ready to put them back to their proper pans and sell?
Maybe I missed my last opportunity to own a Split Window. Maybe the cars I was thinking of selling to afford it need to go? Perhaps the fun of anticipation and maybes were the enjoyment I needed during a week of hard work and little sleep.
Perhaps I should focus most on expanding my covered/heated storage
-Dave
Imagine my surprise to find out we had a European standard Zwitter as one of the listings, and no one told me about it!?!
www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/am24_r073/1953-volkswagen-beetle-zwitter
As you can see, the estimate for the auction was $40-50k USD. Dad and I have always talked about owning a Split Window, and there was no way I was going to get into that sort of money without his help. I reviewed the online photos, and the car looked generally fantastic, but could have issues...so I texted dad the link and asked if he wanted to "go in" on it with me. No reply. Hmph. I asked a restoration buddy (who I could trust not to scoop it) what his thoughts were and the reply was immediate. "Not the car for you Dave," he said, "25hp, cable brakes, crashbox. It's a trailer or ice-cream car not a driver."
The auction preview was Thursday, but as the cars and most everything was already setup I swung by on Wednesday to take a look. There is a whole process for getting registered to bid, including a "liquid assets" check, for which I absolutely didn't hit the minimum requirement. Fortunately, I know the staff team and as I was only bidding on one or two no-reserve vehicles with relatively low values, I was good to go. If you're not registered to bid, generally attending a preview is similar to attending a car show. You can lean in, look closer, but you're expected not to touch. Once you've got that all important bidder card and wristband...well, open that sucker up! Doors, engine bays, hoods, it's all up for access. I grabbed the keys, and with an auction house representative took the car for a short drive. Often buyers will have their mechanics come and do a full assessment, and I've seen multi-million dollar Ferraris up on axle stands after midnight getting a full compression test and more before auction day. It drove well, brakes were strong, steering tight. The 6V semaphores slapped in and out of the body with a bit of a scary snap. Well, I'm definitely still interested...
Walking up to the car, it looks fantastic. I believe the bumpers are original or at least OE Volkswagen. I've never felt a VW bumper so thick!
I knew right away from seeing it, however, that the estimate (in my opinion) was high. Every panel of the body had lacquer paint cracks. Almost impossible to show in photographs, but if you look carefully you can see them. In person, however, they JUMP OUT at you from 10ft away:
The floormats appear to be original, or at least NOS, and even have the thicker rubber under the heel of the driver's throttle foot, so as to not wear out so quickly. Underneath, however, something funky is going on.
My initial assessment answered three things for me:
1 - buying a car sight-unseen from an auction is very dangerous - the online photos look soooooo much better than what I saw in person
2 - I know beetles well enough to figure out a lot of the _good_ on this car, but not enough of the bad
3 - Some things aren't right...and I need an expert
Good thing I have a direct line to Beetle Bob! (as he's known in Port Alberni) A phone call to Bob, and soon I was getting a lesson on Zwitters complete with VIN and Body numbers, and then we went front bumper to back to confirm all the things this particular number should have.
It's got the wrong decklid:
It's got the wrong front hood:
Front apron has had some work for sure (though, I expect that on EVERY Beetle):
All four fenders are wrong / aftermarket:
Ashtray housing is missing. At the time of the auction I thought it had some funkyness with the dash metal, but have since confirmed I was incorrect:
After my assessments with Bob, and a few days of thinking about the car, I waited the long arduous hours for the auction to finally get to the car. I had a few positive things going for me:
This was a Broad Arrow Auction - they are the new kids on the block, so perhaps less attended(?)
No reserve Auction listing
The 4th last car to cross the block.
I figured the car was worth $21-25k. I knew after seeing it, dad would never be happy with the cosmetic look to the car...so I was on my own. A couple of clients had offered to back me up should I need to go above my budget, but I'm trying to be more responsible. Keep in mind after the hammer drops you have the following things to consider:
Buyers premium (12%)
Florida state taxes (6%) unless the vehicle is transported across state lines by a bonded carrier
Vehicle shipping
Exchange rate
BC taxes
So if we presume I thought the car would hammer at $25k, the buyer actually pays $28k. Then there is $4200+ in shipping (to Seattle), the exchange rate, and taxes and import fees. $28,000USD is $38,064 Canadian...and I'm not entirely sure if the BC government considers it a private sale or a dealer sale, but lets assume it's the full 13%. So now we're at $43,012.32 plus the shipping. If we pretend my time, ferries and gas to go and get it in seattle are free, a $25k car at hammer is now a $48,721.11 car out of my bank account by the time it is home in my driveway. Ouch.
I did the reverse math, factored in how much money I'm willing to part with (and, lets be honest, how much I can move very quickly to pay for the car) and had my maximum bid. I do benefit from having a friend who's garage I could toss the car into in Florida...so for a 6% tax hit I could park the car for up to a year in Florida, basically splitting the hit to my bank account into two halves. One for purchase, a second for shipping/import.
My bid was not likely to buy the car, I wasn't even sure I could lift the paddle. It would all depend on who was in the room or on-line. I was shocked to see the car hadn't been discussed on the samba (to my knowledge) and seemed to be a relatively obscure listing. Maybe I had a chance? The room was packed all day. The facility had to bring in carts and carts of more chairs, and they were stuffed everywhere. 92% of the cars were selling, and there were some big players in the room. One guy bought 8 cars just on saturday alone. But by 4pm? The room was sparsly populated. Most of the big players had left to prepare for the Honoree dinner. Even the guys in the CB Performance hats didn't wait around for this car to cross. Maybe, just maybe, I had a chance...
Opening offer was $25k, with no bidders. Then 20k. Then 15k. Just before I thought they would drop to $10k, a hand was lifted. There were two or three bidders in the room, the pace was slow, and it went up 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30. And there it stopped. $30k. Obviously, I did not buy the car. I mean, I'd have had to fire-sale a few somethings before the auction started to afford that kind of money.
The question of "what is it worth?" is always an interesting one. Clearly, this one was worth $30k. Someone bought it for that. For me, it wasn't worth that much money (even if I had it). If no one was in the room bidding, and I got the At $15k, I'd have thought I "stole it". But somewhere between 15k and 25k I went from seriously thinking about the car to "no way in hell". It had just enough wrong with it, that I probably would have popped the split window body off that pan, dropped it onto my '58 pan, and driven the crap out of a 'split window' until I was bored. Simply store the '58/53 chassis combo until I'm ready to put them back to their proper pans and sell?
Maybe I missed my last opportunity to own a Split Window. Maybe the cars I was thinking of selling to afford it need to go? Perhaps the fun of anticipation and maybes were the enjoyment I needed during a week of hard work and little sleep.
Perhaps I should focus most on expanding my covered/heated storage
-Dave
Regardless, thanks for the story! Cheers. 
