2004 SL55 immaculate on 29k miles....

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I think by definition though, the market price for this particular car, at this time, is £29k - until it is next sold of course. Then it can by higher or lower than that amount.

It was sold via auction, anyone could have gone and bid for it, the resulting price was - £29k :)

What someone else who didn’t buy it wouldn’t pay does not affect that of course.

I’ll have to be careful here in case I get accused of trying to talk SL55 prices up - I don’t own one fortunately :D
 
Agreed, but by market value, I don't mean price. I'd regard market value as what the various professional organisations estimate it to be; I don't think many would have estimated it at £29k.

The auctioneers certainly didn't...
 
Mileage and age comes into it, sure. Desirability and resultant demand also on older (and sometimes brand new) stuff also.
My point, really, is there’s an accepted process of valuing cars and if a car goes for more than than that valuation then it’s generally accepted that it’s an exception.

Hence why we see some cars for sale for months/years and some barely last a day.
 
Agreed, but by market value, I don't mean price. I'd regard market value as what the various professional organisations estimate it to be; I don't think many would have estimated it at £29k.

The auctioneers certainly didn't...
That’s common though for auctions - they want to entice interest from bidders. Often guide prices are set conservatively (I’ve been frustrated a few times as a potential buyer seeing stuff sell for well over the ‘guide’) :)

Again as per private buyers, professional opinion will vary.

Not all traders will value stuff the same. They bid against each other for stock, and the under bidders will all believe whoever won a particular lot paid too much as they didn’t want to pay any more for it.

Likewise the online valuation places - some will offer more than others. Not that they have seen what they’re buying of course, and the amounts offered are usually automatically generated from a computer program - not from someone who wants a particular vehicle or knows a good bit of stock when they see it.

I recently sold my E63 to a trader, for cash, who valued it at a good bit more than the computer-generated ‘trade’ values from the likes of WBAC etc. He knew what he was buying and paid a fair price for it.

If these were mainstream volume cars, of average condition/mileage then generic valuations maybe of use. But when dealing with niche stuff like this the only way of ascertaining it’s value is to put it up for sale and see what it achieves :cool:
 
I think you're both right. As I've often said, an auction is the only certain way of finding out the value of something.

In theory, but shill bidding can be a problem. I'm watching a silver shadow coupe listed on two auction sites.

The dealer only site has a BIN for $17k that nobody is buying. Bids on the public site seem to quickly climb to $17k and stop before being relisted because reserve is not reached.

That said, it's my most preferred way of buying cars.
 
To be fair though even allowing for shill bidding, so long as the shill doesn’t win, the winning bidder has paid a price they’re happy with for something that they want.

No auction has a gun to someone to pay more than they’re comfortable with.

With auctions like these though, if a shill bidder was to accidentally win a particular lot then they stand to lose a fair chunk of cash - Historics take 10% + VAT from both the buyer and the seller, plus the entry fees of course.

That’s around £7000 for this particular car! :doh:

So you might find shill bidding is not quite as much of an issue as with online auctions/eBay listing etc :thumb:
 
It depends on how the car is sold. If it's a no reserve auction, sure. But many have either reserve or conditional bidding where the seller has a final say after the auction ends. In which case it's usually just the fee to run the car which is not a lot.
 
SL55s aren't all that niche, though; there are forty of them on eBay right now. Only six of them are up for more than that car sold for. If you want a real niche car, there was an SL65 on 55K miles, and that went for less than that too.

I'm not convinced that I wasn't right; I think a couple of bidders got carried away.
 
SL55s aren't all that niche, though

Yep, as a car it's worth every penny but unfortunately that's not how economics work. It's not like it's a MK2 escort with 2 extra spot lights or a worn out 500E with 250,000 miles.
 
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I still don’t believe your friend thinks he overpaid for his 7k miler @ £21k, I think he’s winding you up :D
Not my friend just someone I know. He bought it off a customer who needed money fast - he didn't even know what it was really and was looking at other SL's as price comparison. He's not a car nut really, deals in heavy plant. I suspect the car will get wasted, judging by the condition of his daily hack Range Rovers and his butchered Rolex watches.
 
Someone's forgetting that this particular one owner SL55 was genuinely immaculate with 29k miles on the clock.

Comparing it with SL55's that have been parked outside for 15 years, been owned by multiple people, with differing maintenance budgets, and have been driven three or four times the distance, seems to be missing the point.

Looking at Autotrader at the ten SL55's on there with that kind of mileage and ownership pattern, the Historics auction price seems quite cheap.

Now, what kind of fool pays £130,000 for an AMG SL in the first place ? (Losing £20,000 a year in the first three years of ownership)

Now that's an interesting question.

(One answer to that question is someone like Colin Montgomery, who bought such a car for his second wife - who barely used it, preferring her Lexus)
 
The trouble is though, some of the posts on here are of opinion - not all of them are facts.

The fact is that this particular car sold for £29k, that was it’s value at that time to those who wanted to buy it.

Whatever the bidder/s reason for bidding that amount is not relevant. The fact is it was worth that to the winning bidder. If someone who didn’t want that car feels they paid too much, that is their opinion - but it doesn’t change that fact.

I wouldn’t have bought it, for that amount but then I am a) not in the market for one and b) didn’t see the car in the flesh. From what’s been said it was in truly immaculate condition - subjective to a point but probably accurate bearing in mind the amount it sold for. The mileage and number of owners speak for themselves. Yes there’s quite a few for sale on eBay and elsewhere, most will be higher mileage/more owners/less thorough history etc and/or perhaps not as nice in the flesh. If they are priced correctly they will sell too.

Most of what else has been said is speculation.

These are desirable cars, and they are niche - maybe not as rare as some of the older stuff yet but this shows that there is strong demand for good examples. Average examples seem to take a while to sell, unless they are cheap.

The sort of person who pays £29k for one of these knows exactly what they want, and are willing to pay for it. They won’t be interested in the average ones, and may have other reasons for wanting this car. The premium for getting the best and/or exactly what they want is worth it to them :)

As I say, one car only needs one buyer :thumb:
 
Think we are all stating the obvious here. The car sold for £29k. The winning bidder thought it was worth that amount. Others didn't think it was worth that amount. No speculation involved, just discussion. Nothing to get excited about here.
 
I thought it was obvious - but you said it was overpriced.

That is only an opinion, based on what you’re willing to pay.

A lot of people seem to forget that what they’re willing to pay and what others who are in the market are willing to pay can be different :)

As agreed, nothing to get excited about but no point in arguing against facts when the car has actually sold for that amount :cool:
 
SL55s aren't all that niche, though; there are forty of them on eBay right now. Only six of them are up for more than that car sold for. If you want a real niche car, there was an SL65 on 55K miles, and that went for less than that too.

I'm not convinced that I wasn't right; I think a couple of bidders got carried away.

Yes, I can understand an SL65 going for 30 big ones as those are indeed rare.

I wouldn't pay that for one but it certainly makes more sense.

Having looked at carandclassic this evening, I can see the ridiculous pricing continues.

I wonder how long it will be before the rse falls out of it and then you are stuck with an overpriced SL55 amongst the other cars with fantasy prices.
 
If someone is in the market for a cheap SL55 they will always have the opinion that any SL55 is overpriced.

There don't seem to be many buyers for the ones that are overpriced, though...

Plenty of supply, but not much demand.
 
If someone is in the market for a cheap SL55 they will always have the opinion that any SL55 is overpriced.
And conversely, those selling a car will always talk values up; I see it on every car forum I’ve ever been on, someone starts a thread “how much is my car worth” and by the fifth post it’s worth double the highest priced one on Auto Trader!
 

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