1977 Oldsmobile Toronado XS

I can understand a not 'market-savvy' seller raising a 'too-low' price after getting some interest, but an honest seller should stand behind an original offer, particularly if it was discussed by phone or in person, even if no 'deal' was reached. I know I would.

 

All of this discussion will be moot if I never hear from him again, and that's the way we left it. He is going to contact ME if his two prospects this weekend don't pan out. However, he also said early on in our conversation that he's had "a lot of interested in it." The ad has only been up for two days, so, yes, you would possibly expect some flurry of interest initially with a new ad. So he might not contact me even after the weekend ends if he's still getting local calls about it as he did make it fairly clear that he would rather deal with someone locally than long distance by phone and email. I told him I would pay him any way he wanted and would be more than willing to wait for any check to clear before proceeding so he can be sure he has the money, but I can understand his position. One reason I had no trouble buying the '78 out of Georgia two years ago was that it was in much worse shape and didn't run, and I'm sure the seller was happy to have any interest at all and didn't care if the buyer wasn't local.

But this car is different. It sounds nice and it probably is, and the seller is probably willing to give it a little time before concluding that dealing with me is his only reasonable hope of getting it sold in a timely fashion. So I might not hear from him tomorrow or this week, but I'll keep watching the craigslist ad, and, if it continues to be there, I'll assume the car isn't sold, and he might contact me a week or two or three from now if he still has the car. But, in the meantime, we keep looking!

 

As of this morning (10 a.m. Mountain time), the ad is still up.

I'm thinking now of waiting this out. My schedule is such that I could to Seattle and drive it back after May 8. I know that's about a month and a half from now, but we've seen cars sit for sale for months, so maybe it'll still be available then. If it is, I'll get back in touch with him (if he hasn't contacted me first) and, if we can reach a deal, I'll go there and drive it back. He'll be happier because he'll get cash handed to him, and I'll be happier because I'll get to see and check over the car before buying it.

 

That sounds like a very cogent plan. With the number of cars you have, I’m sure you’ve bought your share of blind ones. It’s probably the best if you can go see it with a pocket full of Benjamins. That usually pries a lot of pumps.

 

The listing is now deleted. He apparently sold the car. Good for him. I keep looking.

 

Well. That’s always half the fun is the hunt. By the number of posts on here, there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of those floating around out there.

 

Yeah, no kidding. The problem is grabbbing the best pickle from the barrel, though.

 

I wonder with a car this nice, will we see someone else trying to flip it for a quick buck? There seems to be a somewhat limited market for these and if so, that person might not know that. I personally would want to set that great Harrison AC setup on its coldest setting and drive the wheels off it this summer......

 

The thing as a collector of these that would drive me crazy is that they’re all over the spectrum as far as price. I would think any nice ‘70’s Luxo liner would/should be in the $5-9 g area. Although you can buy a sweet ‘76 Torino for a mere $54,000.

 

They're all over the spectrum as far as asking price. We really don't know what they actually sell for if they ever do. I wouldn't draw any conclusions from asking prices alone.