ERA ad idea: IE: I'm so unloved these days

[badrich]

Another vote for Cobra Country. That's where I found my beast many moons ago. And if I ever decide to sell it, I will use Curt's excellent photography advice. Rich

[James Stern]

Bill, I agree with Rich. I found Cobra Country before I found out about Club Cobra. I think you would find a much larger audience who is on the net to buy (or dream to buy).

[azfordman]

Bill, I know this may not be helpful, but I do not think you could do that much more to move the car aside from getting more exposure. Just a matter of finding the "right" buyer. Your pictures and description are in the top percentile compared to many I have seen on the market. Like I said in our phone conversation, if my dream cobra was a 427 car I would have sent you a hold deposit already! Hang in there.

[PANAVIA]

Its the gerbil brown carpeting.

-- change to black or actual tan. or a deep green, -then the car would sell.

Steve

[Got the Bug]

kgs365,

I'm not 100% clear on this, but I think what you're saying is that the car is overpriced (in your opinion). Others seem to disagree. Now that price issue has been discussed, is there anything else that can be done to support your fellow ERA owner and help him sell his car?

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by Got the Bug

... Now that price issue has been discussed, is there anything else that can be done to support your fellow ERA owner and help him sell his car?

Well, although I'm the only current ERA owner, Buckley, Steve and I have attempted to do that. Lower it, change the carpet and tires but realize that the market has been telling you to reprice it. Sexy pictures and Curt Scott will only catch a fool, not a home-work studied buyer. Bill, as an experienced pro, is surely entitled to ignore that advice-but he did ask for it.

Cashburn is totally correct-wrong car to flip and worse yet, bought 'wrong' (too high) for that purpose.

If the car had: the Griffin/ERA aluminum radiator, Wilwood big front brakes, Tilton/ERA brake masters, Billboards or Avons and probably a black wool/leather interior instead of tan, the car could be considered 'good value' at 45K. The powertrain alone cannot support that ask price. The advert does not specify any of these so I conclude the car does not have these later ERA upgrades. Bill's specified a 'non-race' car aimed at the lawn chair and tour buyers-which is fine-but they've shown they'd need this kind of content at Bill's price point. I'd venture that Billboards alone would bring more interest but Bill's made clear he's not going to sink another K into an already too costly car.

In my business, we had an expression to die for: "A good out". If we bought something too high and market conditions turned against us, to free up capital and turn to a better play, we sold at a loss. The trick being to sell at the least possible loss. That was "a good out."

Bill doesn't have to listen to any of us-the market has been telling him what to do. I just don't think he can accomplish the zero loss transaction he desires-but I surely wish him luck.

Uncle Sammy taught me that "There's an ass for every seat..."

[elmariachi]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Uncle Sammy taught me that "There's an ass for every seat..."

Ditto.

This is a really nice looking, WELL POWERED car. Either you wait it out for that buyer who wants this very car/color/engine combo (in which case price will not be the primary buying driver) or you start cutting the price until you find the guy who thought he wanted a silver Backdraft with a 408 until he saw your compelling price. I am also a firm believer that the word "firm" in a car ad is a bad word. Firm says you won't negotiate, so a guy with $40k to spend won't even come look. And if he won't come look, you miss the chance have him and the car together where the car can cast its spell. And you can still be firm at $45k and he can beg momma or plunder the kids' college account for the $5k.

But then, you already knew all this.

Just my 2 cents...

[mrmustang]

Guys,

I want to thank each and every one of you for your posts/view points, this is the type of stuff that really helps..........


Last question for now, if you were to redo the carpet (seats are 2 years old and not going to be recovered again), would you do light tan(similar to the seats) , dark brown, black? If black, wouldn't it look funny with the tan seats and door panels?

Bill S.

[xb-60]

Hi Bill,
Been a member for a while. Never posted before. I've seen your car advertised for a while and thought 'really nice'. I'm in Australia, and import restrictions are very 'restrictive', otherwise I'd definitely be in touch. Price sounds very fair to me. If I bought the car, the only thing I would change would be to put in a black carpet. Best of luck.
Cheers,
xb-60

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Guys,
Last question for now, if you were to redo the carpet (seats are 2 years old and not going to be recovered again), would you do light tan(similar to the seats) , dark brown, black? If black, wouldn't it look funny with the tan seats and door panels?

Brown is never a classy color-especially on Cobras. Gotta avoid the 'clown car' variety.

I'd go with a very deep, rich green. Just don't clash with body color but compliment the tan. And don't forget the trunk carpet. That will work with the black dash.

[427Aggie]

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Well, although I'm the only current ERA owner, Buckley, Steve and I have attempted to do that. Lower it, change the carpet and tires but realize that the market has been telling you to reprice it. Sexy pictures and Curt Scott will only catch a fool, not a home-work studied buyer. Bill, as an experienced pro, is surely entitled to ignore that advice-but he did ask for it.

Cashburn is totally correct-wrong car to flip and worse yet, bought 'wrong' (too high) for that purpose.

If the car had: the Griffin/ERA aluminum radiator, Wilwood big front brakes, Tilton/ERA brake masters, Billboards or Avons and probably a black wool/leather interior instead of tan, the car could be considered 'good value' at 45K. The powertrain alone cannot support that ask price. The advert does not specify any of these so I conclude the car does not have these later ERA upgrades. Bill's specified a 'non-race' car aimed at the lawn chair and tour buyers-which is fine-but they've shown they'd need this kind of content at Bill's price point. I'd venture that Billboards alone would bring more interest but Bill's made clear he's not going to sink another K into an already too costly car.

In my business, we had an expression to die for: "A good out". If we bought something too high and market conditions turned against us, to free up capital and turn to a better play, we sold at a loss. The trick being to sell at the least possible loss. That was "a good out."

Bill doesn't have to listen to any of us-the market has been telling him what to do. I just don't think he can accomplish the zero loss transaction he desires-but I surely wish him luck.

Uncle Sammy taught me that "There's an ass for every seat..."

Bill,

I'll give you my experience on selling #122 and I did that 4 years ago. I had black carpet but red seats and pockets..that caused some concern but I was willing to lower the price $1000 to get it sold. I had the 427SO with 48IDA Webers on it and I got $45 for the car. It had ALOT of the new upgrades.

ERA brake masters, Billboards, aluminum in the engine compartment, new gauges, new steering column, wheel, STAINLESS SIDE PIPES...go on and on. I even bought a new wiring harness for the engine compartment because it was dingy looking to me. I bet I put $10K into upgrades to bring it up to par for what I wanted after I bought it Your competing against much newer cars and unfortunately your going to be compared to an SPF thats probably only a year old and has 3K miles on it.

In my opinion if you want to sell it then your going to need to list it at the current price but put something in the add about a credit to change the carpet and seat color. It needs to be black just because of the broad appeal. Ultimately I sold the car on Cobra Country after about 4 months listed. I know you don't want to hear it but I don't think you will get over $40K for it unless you just catch a person that has to have it and hasn't done their homework.

I know of another ERA locally that sold for $45 and was a newer car with, so it had the exposed rollbar and round tubes on the cross brace. It also had a 427SO but was blue and white stripe so it appealed to a greater audience.

Good luck with the sale.

Matt

[ZOERA-SC7XX]

Not even close. You cannot compare a BDR or SPF with an ERA w/427 side oiler. I don't know where you get your prices from, but this car would cost 65k min to build. Buyers are fickle.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ZOERA-SC7XX

You cannot compare a BDR or SPF with an ERA w/427 side oiler. I don't know where you get your prices from, but this car would cost 65k min to build. Buyers are fickle.

Look, I'm the first one to agree with the ERA/BDR/SPF comparison -- there's no doubt about that. But the truth of the matter is that there are a whole lot of SPF and BDR owners out there that never even heard of ERA. They don't have the slightest appreciation for the differences and, frankly, ERA doesn't put much effort in to educating the pool of potential Cobra buyers. They don't have to -- there's a hefty line of guys waiting to have their's custom made to their liking. All of that though conspires against Bill. Bill has to compete against cars that are not on an equal plane, but the prospective purchasers don't know that. It makes for a tough sell.

[Cashburn]

An ERA is not a car to flip, I think you are learning that the hard way. Stick to cars that are built on par ("factory" types) or down the chain with a $23K FFR. That's the reality of the market.

If you are thinking an FIA is a good candidate for flipping... I think that's even further out there.

Old car, older version, colors are not at the top of anyone's list (and I am a huge green Cobra fan). It's a buyer's world on used cars. I don't know if the changing price has anything to do with it either

[patrickt]

I agree with Cashburn. The reason most of us went with ERA was to get what many of us believe to be the finest Cobra made tailored exactly the way we wanted it. I didn't want an ERA -- I wanted a custom made ERA that has unique settings and characteristics that are exactly geared to me. Now if I were to sell my car, I would either have to drop the price down to where it was a real bargain or find someone out there that was exactly like me (and RodKnock already has a Cobra).

[RodKnock]

I think we all can pick on things with everyone's car, Bill's and mine included.

I think it's probably a combination of what everyone has said so far, but mostly, as someone once said, "It's the economy stupid."

[Cashburn]

And dollar vs. euro ain't helping no one

[rustyBob]

Bills not doing anything the rest of havent done whe we have tried to sell a car.....
he wants what he thinks is a fair price for his investment....
as far as the ad goes "keep it simple" leave the cute stories for the grand kids....
as for the car...change the carpet to black....when they ask why the seats arent
black....ask them if they have ever sat on a black seat after it has set in the sun
all day long....you couldent give me a car with black seats.
the only other change is i would turn the tires around on the rims...black wallsout
and DETAIL the heck out of it....put a for sale sign in the pass. seat and everywhere
you go put that sign up in the windshield for people to see....and hit every car show
in your area...put it out there for people to see....
good luck Bill........

[PatBuckley]

Then raise the price to $55K.

[patrickt]

Bill, I just showed this exact picture to my secretary and said "what do you think?" She pointed to the first car and said "that car looks great" and then pointed to the second car and said "that car looks horrible." No kidding; that's an exact quote (and she is an old car buff as well).