Hakosuka on E-Bay

[SER240Z]

I'm not selling this, but I thought that this site would be interested in this. Is anyone from here already bidding on this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6392&item=2492594876&rd=1

Scott

[Alfadog]

Cheap so far! Someone buy it please

[EricB]

Hey guys,

You know me, several of you have seen my Z - you know the specs:

'73 240 orange/black w/ newly rebuilt F54 L28, newly rebuilt E88 with big N42 valves, new electric fan & 180deg thermostat, new triple Mikuni 44, MSA 3-2 header, Japanese Trust exhaust (just like Fairlady 432), Japanese tail lights, Japanese head light covers, Japanese Watanabe steering wheel & NARDI hub, Euro bumpers front/rear, Classic Datsun Nissan OEM fender flares, 15x8.5 front & 15x9 rear Watanabe's with new Yokohama sticky 120 treadwear rubber, 2 ZX 5spd's, one 4.11 R160 open diff, one brand newly rebuilt 4.375 R180 with Nismo LSD, great interior with the exception of no dash pad (still waiting for those SanDiego guys to finish they fiberglass Z dash).

Basically: SEE my gallery...

I want this Skyline real bad but can't come up with the $$ I expect it to sell for that quickly so I want to know if someone would want to buy my Z this week so I can then buy the Skyline when the auction ends in 7 days.

Ideally I would have wanted a Z and a Skyline in my garage but with this one being here and ready to go that saves the hassle of going to Japan, finding one, buying it, having it shipped, clearing customs, etc... I figure I can always find another Z here at a later date?

-e

[Alfadog]

I hope you've thought long and hard about this Eric... your Z isn't something you'll find every day

[HS30-H]

Eric,

Can I urge you to think long, hard and slow about this particular car and this particular auction?

You are a seasoned traveller to Japan, so you know what kind of price a fair to good GT-R-cloned C10 GT-X costs in Japan. I don't think this seller will have got this car for much less than the average market value unless it is in a condition that is lower than average.........

Its the body you need to worry about. It might look quite nice on the outside, but other pics show tell-tale signs of at least some body rot, and repairing that on a C10 Skyline in the USA is going to be a difficult and costly job. Trim and detail parts on the C10 are also LOTS of money in Japan compared to the relative ease you have in sourcing parts for your Z.

I'd also urge caution on the situation as a whole: No disrespect to the seller, but he's not doing himself any favours by posting up photos of the car in Japan rather than in the USA ( even though he says that he has already imported it..... ). That would ring alarm bells with me, and make me wonder whether this is another of those auctions where the car stays in Japan until the buyer has agreed to purchase it. We see this kind of thing in the UK quite often. In my experience, it almost always ends in tears or recrimination......

Your car is a lovely example, and if you took the time to sell it to right person you would stand the best chance of getting the right price for it. That would give you enough money to search for a GT-R clone in Japan to import to the USA yourself, rather than taking a huge gamble on something that may or may not actually be in the USA already, and which the vendor will not let anyone see anyway.......

Sorry to be Devil's Advocate on this one, but I smell a small mouse - if not a rat.

Cheers,

Alan T.

[Bambikiller240]

Seller is:

too busy to show it

too busy to provide recent pics of it

requires bidders to have 98% feedback (his own feedback is less than 98%)

something's fishy

[Victor Laury]

As much as I'd like to bid, I'm put off by the sales pitch and attitude. Too bad for him. I believe it will limit the sale price. That rear panel looks kinda scary, like it may be rotten around the tail lights

[texasz]

In case anyone is interested I sent the seller this email:

Dear ahl4sale,

You won't take bids from anyone with less than a 98% feedback rating yet your own is lower than that. What's that all about???

There's a lot of talk about this car already but the attitude you put forth in the auction has already turned people off. If you expect to sell a car for the price that this one could fetch people will want to see it. I assure you there's no way you'd get the big $$$ that this car is worth from me without me seeing it first. No, don't worry...I live in Texas so I won't be asking to come look at it.

I just think that you should be aware of what is already being said about this auction. Think about it and best of luck...the price is getting up there already.

and I got the following reply:

This is more of what I hate about ebay.. You sound like a person with a good head on your shoulders so I will reply to your email... I have been overwhelmed with demanding emails, nonsense questions, and tons of insults, and demands to see the car.

I will only be showing the car to the bidders and people who treat me with

respect, and who understand that I am offering a rare and unique chance to own something that most have only seen in Videos and Magazines... To add to that, the bidder and price and time will have to be right as well before I start contacting people... My request for bidders to stop emailing me demands to see the car and to not bid unless they have a 98% feedback rating is a simple auction tactic.. This tactic is in place to help weed out the people who have no real intention in buying something like this....only intention being to waste my time..which may include viewing a car they have no intention on buying.. Its not my job to fufill the dreams of every car lover.. There are over 120 watching this auction....yet the bid is only $6800.00. Now if all of those watchers had the cash to spend and really desired to own this car, the auction price would be thru the roof..... This means that there are alot of people just curious about the car..and that is fine.. I am curiuos about alot of cars as well but I believe its wrong to waste a sellers time when I know i do not have the resources to complete a business transaction of this type..and, what I am am doing will not bother a person who really has the cash to spend and can step up a buy something like this..If people are angry that I will not hold a car show to display this vehicle, than they will just have to be angry.. I would have to quit my job in order to show the car to every person who emailed me asking to see it...

I think I made a mistake by listing it without a reserve....this mistake i

believe has started a kind of frenzy of people who believe I am some sucker who knows nothing about this car nor the Value.. Well, I am not the sucker that people must believe I am.. Been in the game for years!!! Imported and owned alot of high dollars rare cars. The silly part of this is that, now I am

getting crazy emails and people telling me off...What part of selling a car is

this??? This is Nonsense and childs play...

Listen my intent is not to disrespect anyone nor be disrespected... If the car

sells great!!! if not, that is fine TOO... Not sure how much longer I am going

to be willing to deal with this..

Best regards BG

Some of what he says I can understand. I hate all the tire kickers when I am selling a car but that's part of the process and must be expected. It sounds like he is just unwilling to deal with those types and does not have the time or patients to either. However, some of his attitude is a little negative and would probably tend to put me off too if I was in the market to buy this car.

[Gav240z]

I think it's fair enough the fact he took the time to write a long reply back to you suggests he's not into wasting time which we can all understand costs us money.

If i was serious about buying the car I'd put down a fair bid to start with and contact him saying I'd really like to view the car before I start bidding to high up for what i think it could be worth judging by the pictures.

I read through his history on E-bay and the complaints seemed to be reasonable and on his side so you can view for yourself and make up your own minds about that.

I say good luck to the buyer and the seller in this case looks like a nice car. Sure this stuff is expensive to repair and get parts for but it's half the fun sometimes .

As for EricB well I think you should think hard about this I know I wouldn't want to sell my Z and I don't mind you. Especially with all the goodies you've done to yours .

Think about how you might feel in 2 years time ;-).

[EricB]

oops...

i replied to the thread last night but somehow it doesn't appear here - must have gotten lost in cyberspace....

first thanks for the kind words from lachlan, alan, and gav - don't worry guys i wouldn't jump into this thing with both feet without taking some prior precautions.... There are a lot of ifs and maybes for me to be able to unload my Z in a week AND get this KGC... As Alan has pointed out yes I do know what a clone GTR sells for in Japan and I know how available they are if you know where to look... The thing is when you think about all the work of going there, finding one, paying for it with an international wire transfer, understanding the red tape in Japanese car registration and how that applies to a car that is being exported, finding and organizing a reputable shipper, getting it across the ocean, dealing with US customs, getting the right import papers, getting a new title made a CA DMV, etc, etc, etc....

All of that is of course totally do-able but a big headache as you can imagine.

Here (if this one really is in decent shape) we have one already here, and suitably hopped up with the right bits, super rare in the US, etc... I think of it in the following manner, supposing I did buy this car here in LA I consider it would be a lot easier a couple years down the line to find another clean Z here in LA and turn it into what mine is now than to do the whole shenanigan I wrote about above in getting a Skyline over here... Know what I mean?

Now who knows, maybe I get no offers for my car?

Maybe the only offers I get don't make it feasible to do the swap from Z to KGC?

etc

etc

etc

Regardless I'll keep you all posted.

What you might not know and this is probably the reason I am after this one is that I already missed out on another Skyline - it was a Ken&Mary and languished in a local junkyard for a LONG time before one of the AE86 Toyota guys found it and bought it - the tragic thing is that while he knew what it was he had no interest in driving or restoring it - it sat in his yard for a while while he refused my $$$$ offer and then he got rid of it for a fraction of that to some friend of his... It had a built Turbo L28 with a lot of Nismo stuff when I went to look at it in person and was in considerably worse shape than this one (no interior, blown out rear window, no side glass)...

Oh well, right?

-e

[Gav240z]

Oh mate sorry to hear about it. I would be going mental also if he wouldn't accept my $$$ for it.

[EricB]

Seen over the weekend in the SF Bay Area...