[IRONBLOCK]

There is a beautiful Montreal currently listed on eBay. The car appears to be very well prepared and documented; rebuilt engine, new paint, blasted and painted underside. Everything sounds so right for a very high dollar sale, except one comment that the seller wants to sell the Montreal for a VW...Camper Van (California)?

1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal Green | eBay

Mark

 

[DPeterson3]

Suddenly, this metallic green is my second favorite, after the Orange.

 

[spiderserie4]

crikes! someone get that man a VW california!! (Unfortunately the california is darned expensive here, ca. $100k new!)

That Monty is stunning from the looks of it.
The eyebrow hangs droopy in the video and the shifter part is non original, but otherwise nice!

 

[malex]

Very nice car. The green is actually my favorite Montreal color followed by metallic orange.

I noticed his car has the silver torsion rods for the hood, while my car has black. I think someone rattle canned the rods on my car satin black many years ago. Also wish that my tri fold hatch cover underneath the rear window looked as good as the one in that green car. Mine looks like crap, and that's before you consider that someone cut holes in it for 6 x 9 speakers

 

[alfa2go]

The owner is a true alfisti too, having had multiple other classic Alfas. It does look like a splendid car. I am sure the new owner will be very happy!

 

[classicalfas]

Mark, I'll be restoring my red car you have seen its original green color, and I do believe the torsion bars are painted black from the factory. Peter.

 

[alfajp]

It is a beautiful Montreal. Well restored and documented by the seller. Can't wait until mine (hopefully) looks like this. Also my torsion bars are satin black too....looks like original paint on them.

 

[IRONBLOCK]

I exchanged emails with the seller of the green Montreal on eBay and he seems like a real nice fellow (and a legit seller as opposed to many of the scam artists that appear drawn to eBay while eBay does not appear to be able to prevent them from creating false listings, etc.) I am watching his auction and hope he does well. I suspect that his car would do very well in a major auction (like Scott M's did at RM Arizona although $176K may be hard to duplicate). It will be interesting to see how a Metallic Green example does; ah the color of money!
Mark

 

[spiderserie4]

just a pity it is a private bidder listing.........soon as I see that I disregard the item.

 

[ianellisalfa]

just a pity it is a private bidder listing.........soon as I see that I disregard the item.

Why's that Dom?

 

[spiderserie4]

I ask myself why go 'private'?
there is absolutely no benefit to the seller. Potential bidders can't see how many different bidders are after an item......sometimes seeing the bidders tags makes a decision easier whether to bid or not......some sellers get sham bidders (friends etc) to bid on their items, and this you can sometimes tell if the bidders tags are visible, you see how many bids they have had with a particular seller, what their feedback is etc (ie, if a new bidder with zero feedback is bidding big bucks on an item you can be pretty sure it is either a nutcase or someone associated with the seller)

just my personal opinion!

 

[ianellisalfa]

Fair enough. I'm always amazed people with such a high value car are prepared to pay the substantial fees charged by ebay if it sells - I think they often use it as a noticeboard & put a high reserve on, hoping to do a deal 'off ebay' & so avoid the 'final valuation' percentage commission charged....

 

[IRONBLOCK]

I think they often use it as a noticeboard & put a high reserve on, hoping to do a deal 'off ebay' & so avoid the 'final valuation' percentage commission charged....

eBay is a good way to publicize that you are interested in selling something; with over 100 million viewers. The seller has his phone number in the listing so you may be right. When selling a car on eBay (it has been a while for me) they have a fee schedule and allow you to list up to six vehicle listings in a year.

I sold a 164-L a few years ago and paid a final item value fee of $125 but I used up my six 'free' listings per year. The next car I listed was a Giulietta Spider and eBay required that I pay a $50 'listing fee' since they considered me a "high volume seller" -notice I sold one car. When the Giulietta Spider sold for mid 30's money, I expected a slightly larger final value fee but there was none! The $50 listing fee for a 'high volume seller (or in my case Lister)' eliminated the final value fee. Either way feeBay is still pretty reasonable for some cars. To enter a car in a major RM or Gooding's type auction I believe there are some fairly significant upfront charges, the expense of getting the car to the auction and a 10% or more seller premium.

As the owner of the red Montreal that sold last year for $176K found out, auction results can be a little unpredictable and a 'home run' is still possible. I suspect that Carl with the Green Montreal would do better selling his car in a major auction, since it is so outstandingly nice!
Mark

 

[IRONBLOCK]

I don't see any benefit to a 'private auction' either, now that fe-eBay hides the bidders identity. With less than one day remaining (22 hours) going private does not appear to have hurt the auction action much. There have been 55 bids to this point (currently GBP 55,100 or $86,245). I fully expect it to bring $110,000 to 150,000 or more but time will tell.

I wrote Carl, the seller, again and asked if they had to change out the speedometer sending unit when they changed the KPH unit to a MPH unit as this is something that I may like to do someday but not if it means replacing the sending unit!

Peter, does this mean that you will have a Metallic green Montreal to go with your purple one? Far out man...

Mark

 

[IRONBLOCK]

Ebay says the car sold for GBP 55,100 or $86,573 which I think is way low for a quality car like this today! Perhaps going private did not help...I believe RM or Goodings or a similar large auction house would have done a good deal better.
Carl did reply to my inquiry about the speedometer swap; he said "as far as he could ascertain the drive unit is the same (for KPH and MPH) so its just a straight swap".

Mark

 

[malex]

Ebay says the car sold for GBP 55,100 or $86,573 which I think is way low for a quality car like this today! Perhaps going private did not help...I believe RM or Goodings or a similar large auction house would have done a good deal better.
Carl did reply to my inquiry about the speedometer swap; he said "as far as he could ascertain the drive unit is the same (for KPH and MPH) so its just a straight swap".

Mark

Probably right Mark. But from what I understand, RM is starting to limit the number of sub-$175k cars at their auctions and cars like Montreals are being pushed down to Auctions America. AA is not a bad venue by any stretch, but RM clientele tend to have much deeper pockets and more likely to bid top dollar since an expensive Montreal is but a rounding error for some of these guys.

From what I've heard, Gooding & Co is similar in that they're simply not taking as many low end cars as previous years. There are exceptions. According to a friend of mine in the know, to get a Montreal into Gooding in 2015 is going to require a connection, or be a seller consigning a more expensive car or two who requires that a Montreal be included as a package deal. Fwiw, they're not auctioning a Montreal at the upcoming Scottsdale auction where the record setter sold for $176k last January.

 

[Dale Whitney]

US vs Europe Monti Prices

Beautiful Car in my favorite color. The result continues to show that US Monti prices have gotten ahead of European prices - Maybe because Montreals are considerably more rare in the US than Europe. Regarding RM and Gooding selling only cars valued at $150k plus - I hope we all remember them when the speculators once again leave the market as they have several times in the past and values return to more reasonable levels. Like all other markets the collector car market runs in cycles.
Dale

 

[Erik]

For the moment Continental Eupean sellers are asking between € 50.000 - €80.000 (aprox. US$ 60.700 - US$ 97.200)
Montreal Suchergebnisse: Pkw bei mobile.de

 

[Gabor K.]

In US the Montreal must be really scarce so that good cars end up in over 100.000S!

Obviously good cars in Europe command more and more higher prices but far away from US prices, which means that furter importing to US of good cars could be good business although market must be small there also!

Although I am Montreal fan, for the US prices I would certainly consider a 4C and the 8C in the same price region and then get a much newer car!

Possibly Montreal buyers for 150K also have an 8C and 4C in the collection!

GK.

 

[IRONBLOCK]

I 'tried on' a 4c last weekend up in Greer S.C. and love the looks but could not gracefully get in or out of the car; actually had to have help getting out but was comfortable behind the steering wheel...

If anyone out there is looking to trade their 8C (the other 8C) for a Montreal please send me a PM. I might be interested in an even trade...

Dale, it is good to hear from you again. I saw you in the photographs with the 4C in Greer and now I do remember meeting you at ICD! (much younger than I expected...) I want to see that beautiful 8c Montreal next. I have studied the parts manual regarding Montreal hose clamps. Many are shown, some are not. I used the term 'Zip tie' when it could be a more generic type of "cable tie". In the crate with our Montreal's A/C lines, compressor, etc. I found a black twist type black plastic tie and remember thinking this is not an "Alfa" part; well it is shown in the parts manual and unfortunately I don't even remember what I did with it!

My son watches all the big auto auctions on Speed Channel and he says they still a lot of cars in the 40- 50K range; they don't have to be 150K or more per car. Good news but it may not matter much longer...

Mark