question of value

I think I only saw two Spider projects in BaT in the past few months. There are several Giulias and Giulietas, at more selling prices than these two Spiders. I think it will depend on the interests of people willing to take your project and finishing it for their collection. In any case, great news you are thinking to get another Alfa in your garage.

MRS RBNSN said:

I think I only saw two Spider projects in BaT in the past few months.

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Aw c'mon MRS RBNSN, those two aren't comparable to rusty mayes' roundtail. The 1750 is just a body, and the 1600 looks like something that Beverly Hills Motoring Club would offer. While I'm arguing that rusty's car is nicer than either of those recent BaT sales, I also agree with what vintagemilano wrote in post #3: Your market to sell the disassembled project into is tiny also. Whatever you think it’s currently worth, in real life it’s likely half. So maybe the lower bound is the $6,500 that the green 1600 sold for on BaT, and perhaps $10K is an upper bound, just because it's a round number.

As an alternative to slamming it all together in its current state into a running, driving car, as vintagemilano goes on to suggest, what about just getting it running and stopping, and leaving paint / upholstery / trim installation to the buyer? As vintagemilano said, as long as you can demonstrate that it can make it to the end of the driveway and back under its own power, it will be worth a lot more and sell a lot faster than a pile of parts.

A slightly different slant…

There are many different points of view that motivate buyers. These can be price, collectibility, return on investment, the pleasure of the chase, among others. I did a few restorations in the last couple of decades.

My last car may apply insight, here.

An old associate reached out and asked if I wanted to buy his project. Price, $25,000. I replied I’d fly down over the weekend to take a look. He asked if I had concerns for the price. I replied, “If it’s not worth $25,000 I’m not interested”.

The car was a 1960 2000 Touring Roadster. I think 3,400 were ever made. He’d owned the project since the 80s, and although largely dismantled and in boxes, it was mostly complete. Some rust, but no apparent impact damage.

The price (at his insistence) included delivery, and it arrived over the Christmas holidays, 2018. It earned “Best of Marque” at the 2020 Concorso.

I’m not a big fan of 105/115 Spiders, although I sort of still have one. Mine is a 77 that has never been restored, still rust free, backdated to light bumpers and pre-air pump engine configuration. Original interior, but improved suspension. I like it.

I don’t know how many 69 Spica 1750’s were made, although I should as I was the parts manager at a dealer in the early 70s. I don’t think there were very many, and they seem to tick off many boxes for fanciers of the model.

I think a buyer like me is turned off at the prospect of hastily assembled, or less than 100% top quality work. Well preserved, but dismantled original car is a delightful starting point. I can get a good look and quickly assess how much time I’m likely to spend searching for pieces, or paying for painful rust and panel repair.

A big factor is having the original engine block. I think it’s stupid, but we must respect that future buyers will have that as an adder, or negative. A “freshened” engine or trans is a negative. A buyer who wishes to produce a true #1 car will want to advertise that these two items were overhauled to factory new standards.

My personal policy was to aim for the top spot. People can recognize the value that represents. If this car was a later S2, or 3, I’d just sell it to the first buyer with cash. It’s a rare S1 Duetto 1750.

Unless you want to restore it, put it on BaT with no reserve. You’ll be surprised by the result.

I continue to appreciate the input on this guys. Good points are made by all. In order to put it together enough to run, I could at this point pretty easily if I left the engine room painted black. My plan was to reshoot it in the body color before I installed the power plant. There are just so many variables here. I was not going for a 90 point plus original restoration as the car does have some damage history and a replaced engine block. I was just going to do a high quality restoration for a weekend driver and club event car at best. I am hoping rather to trade it out for a car that I can just dabble on at this point though.
Cheers