Ridiculous Prices

[Mk1Lover]

Is it just me, or have Mk1 prices prices become frankly ridiculous?

For instance:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

I'm in the maket for a restoration project, but with prices like these? NO chance.

What would be a good value for these sort of cars?

And, crucially, does anyone know of a good, cheap, honest Mini in need of tlc for less than £2500?

I certainly can't find one!

Cheers!

Enzo

[cpr1]

the HT leads and windscreen washer bottle alone are worth a lot of money on that car

[App K]

the HT leads and windscreen washer bottle alone are worth a lot of money on that car

Bollox.

Sorry to be rude, but its about time we all got a grip.
People who pay £400 for a glass washer bottle and £250 for a set of HT leads are quite frankly nuts.

[Frogeye61]

I bought two like that for $400 the pair. OK, it was a few years ago, OK, maybe 30 years ago.

[guru_1071]

the market sets the price, and we just have to get used to it, its a bugger when your buying, but great when your selling.

the last mk1 i bought was 1500 quid with tax and test and a host of good bits and a fairly amusing history (too be fair it also had a gearbox fault that manifested its self after a particually lusty downshift, and a smoke cloud that would embarass the red arrows, but those are minor issues that are easily resolved! )- that was within the last 18 months off ebay, so they are out there still if you look

[ricardo]

That washer bottle is a real pickles jar, not a Mini one.

[Dean]

Prices have gone stupid. Or is it that some people have deep pockets, well a lot deeper than mine

I bought my mk1 off eBay 5 years ago and only set me back £350. Yes it was a non runner and needed a full restoration. but that seems a fair price

Most cars theses days can bring more money stripped for parts, than sold as a whole car, but I know it would never happen ,but I can't see £6000 odd in spares on that car. ( unless it's sold on eBay with " works ,cooper s,Downton,speedwell" written in front of it. )

They say that the reg is worth £3000 odd but don't most cars this age have there reg numbers non transferable, meaning it's worth nothing. So really can't be added to boost the price of the car.

As long as people are happy to pay theses price and continue doing it I can't see it stopping or reducing.

[cpr1]

cpr1 wrote:
the HT leads and windscreen washer bottle alone are worth a lot of money on that car

App K wrote:

Bollox.

Sorry to be rude, but its about time we all got a grip.
People who pay £400 for a glass washer bottle and £250 for a set of HT leads are quite frankly nuts.

a lot of frankly nuts out there then by the prices being paid you are right Guru, the market sets the price, and if you are selling you are more than happy with it

[cpr1]

and who wants his car to fail those anoraks spotting the not correct parts? originality comes at a price then.

[Chalkie]

Mini's over all are Ridiculours prices these days

Yeah its a classic now but still :/

[cpr1]

Mini's over all are Ridiculours prices these days

Yeah its a classic now but still :/

thats why my car is only 75% original and i'm happy with it

[App K]

and who wants his car to fail those anoraks spotting the not correct parts? originality comes at a price then.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mk1-Mini-850c ... s_CarParts

lets all get bidding then, might be a bargain !

[cpr1]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMC-mk1-mini- ... 1049018440

[JC T ONE]

and who wants his car to fail those anoraks spotting the not correct parts? originality comes at a price then.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mk1-Mini-850c ... s_CarParts

lets all get bidding then, might be a bargain !

He does state, that its been cleaned

[turbochargedstu]

they are out there as rich said. my elf was £1700 with 12months mot and tax and i drove it back from rugby to gateshead!

[steve1071]

Original advert doesn't even include the glass washer bottle! Available at extra cost!

[mk1]

As has already been said in this thread, these prices are set by the law of supply & demand. While people are prepared to pay the stupid prices we all regularly see this price will inevitably continue to rise. We have to accept that this is a situation we can do absolutely nothing about.

Personally speaking, it is in a large part this catastrophic rise in prices for early cars that has to all intents & purposes turned me off Minis, a magnificent obsession I have enjoyed for 35 years. While I do own 3 really nice early cars there is no way that I will ever be able to buy a similar one ever again. I am therefore happy to stick with the cars I have & to all intents & purposes withdraw from the hobby.

It is only when this happens on a much larger scale that you will see prices inevitably fall.

I feel that a major complicating factor is that since the beginning of the last recession Classic cars have been seen by some people as a safe (or at least interesting) place to invest your money if you are lucky enough to have any. We have therefore seen people buying Minis & other classic cars as investments as opposed to simply wanting to buy & enjoy them. This to my mind will inevitably lead to a monstrous crash in prices like we saw back in the late 80's & early 90's. I will however concede that there doesn't seem to be much sign of it at the moment.

Thankfully the classic car world is a very broad church & if you want a Mini you can still pick up a very nice later model for very little money or if you want a 60's or other classic car / vehicle, there are some absolute bargains to be had, it's just that they aren't Minis.

M.

[aquamini]

I agree prices are getting a bit silly, but there are still good cars out there you just have to look.
The biggest problem is poorly restored cars at high prices minis are expensive cars to restore properly and cheap to bodge, good cars will always command good money let the tryers keep trying

[Pete]

The thing is that I myself could be seen as part of the problem if I take Mark's post literally (though hopefully I'm not ! ). I have always bought and sold the odd Mini, still do if one turns up cheap.

On the other hand I do appreciate the fact that the investors who previously had property portfolios etc are definately getting stuck into the Mini game, there's ring of dealers now who know zip about Minis and are hoovering anything decent up (I had one at my door last month !), they pass cars around between themselves and in a way may well be trying to rig the market for early cars by hoiking their asking prices up to a ridiculous level. This may create some kind of hype in terms of asking prices but I personally believe that they don't affect selling prices that much because as everyone has surely noticed they really struggle to sell their cars at those prices, if they sell any at all !

The actual reason I think early Minis are appreciating (though you can definately still find decent cars for reasonable money) is that there are simply more people after them than people selling them. The resaon ? Well when I first got into Minis collecting was quite a rarity, I had the odd mate that had more than one. Nowadays most people into their MInis seem to own two, three, half a dozen, they've become a collectors piece and not neccesarily a driving tool. They're something to study, restore and to talk about as much as they are fror driving. The other obvious reason is that there's not an unlimited supply of cars waiting to be discovered whilst in tandem they are still being exported all over the world and rarely come back to the UK.

We just have to accept that the Mini is seen around the world as an icon leagues ahead of MG's, Imps, or any other classic of the period that can still be picked up for the same money they could ten years ago. In terms of value the Mini's actually a victiim of it's own popularity it's as simple as that, (you could barely move for bodies at Bingley at the weekend, it was rammed !) and that popularity has not faded over the years as it has with other classic cars, many of which youngers generations don't relate to in the same way or can even identify. How many twenty year olds even know what an Imp or an Anglia looks like ? Everyone knows what a Mini is.

Sorry for the rambling post but though I 'm equally as gobsmacked at some of the prices of bits on Ebay I see little point in terming them as 'stupid' because they're only worth what they're worth. The days of the Mk1 Mini or Cooper as a common car you could pick up in the back of Loot every week are long gone and prices are reflecting that. They only reflect how popular the car still is and how few there are left in comparison to the number of peole that want one, I really don't think it's any more complicated than that. They're a prized possession of owners from the binman to billionaire despite the dealers not because of them, and actually considering what a load of fun they are to own I'd still say a restored Mk1 Mini is an affordable thing to have when you can buy a restored example at way less than the actual cost of restoration.

[guru_1071]

there's ring of dealers now who know zip about Minis and are hoovering anything decent up (I had one at my door last month !), they pass cars around between themselves and in a way may well be trying to rig the market for early cars by hoiking their asking prices up to a ridiculous level. This may create some kind of hype.

this is exactly what happened in the mid 1990's with e-type jags, a cartel of dealers would wheel and deal cars between them selves and auction house's, walking the prices up and up until people started to believe that e-type jags where a super rare car - they jumped from 15 odd grand to 100,000 in a couple of years, this frenzy dragged the rest of the market up the same way and it was the land of milk and honey until the bubble burst!

the fact that 20 years later e-types are still cheaper then the mid 1990's speaks volumes....

some people made a lot of money then, just as some people will be making a lot of money now from minis.

the loosers are the people who get caught up in the frenzy who dont really understand the market and assume that if they buy high the price will only go higher - just like the people who have got their fingers burnt in the housing market.

the old saying 'fools and their money....'