Weekly Newsletter |
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Weekly Newsletter |
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Volume 1 Issue #5 Well, what can I say about prices this week! For the last 3 years, I've looked forward to the late spring and summer to bring out all those GOOD DEALS and UNDER PRICED models that had ALWAYS shown up during this season! NOT SO this year! Both the D4C auction and e-Bay, notorious for SLOW and LOW PRICED summer auctions, have been hotbeds of activity! A recently announced NOT AVAILABLE, 1896 Ford Quadricycle (a what?), in 1/6th scale brought $405.99 on e-bay early this week! A handsome and interesting model, this is not usually seen on auction, and has NEVER caused much of a stir! Seems the NOT AVAILABLE specter has given rise to the speculation that these models MIGHT really be gone for good, (as F.M. did with the '40 Duesenberg and '55 Ford Sunliner L.E. with NO FANFARE), and as such, caused a GREAT price hike! So few of these are offered on the secondary market, it might be months before another is seen! Last week, I mentioned the 1955 Red/White Chevy Hardtop as being QUITE SCARCE, and only selling for +/- $100! Well, shut my mouth, but one was offered midweek on e-Bay and brought $307.00, (e-Bay# 369406194), with 2 KNOWLEDGEABLE collector/investors battling it out! Congratulations, I believe this to be a GOOD DEAL, and I TRIED to steal it at $200! Excuse me, but this is a QUOTE from my column last week "Seems the Bonnie & Clyde with bullet holes continues to SLOWLY advance in price, as mid $200 prices are now the common place on auctions! Anyone care to make 50% on their INVESTMENT MONEY over the next year? This is one to watch!" I WAS WRONG! Three (3) of them were on D4C, and e-Bay this week with the D4C being the HIGH water mark at $505.00! YES, those numbers are 5 0 5 !!!!! The other 2 on e-bay were sold at $382.77 and $375.00 Both to the same SMART collector/investor! If a Black 1997 Corvette with almost identical mintage brings $600 (Confirmed private sale this week on this one!) I see no reason for this not being worth as much! Remember, this model was NOT HOARDED! I see one is currently being offered on D4C, and is already at $500.00, and should top the price of the current record holder! I also mentioned the NO NUMBER 1956 L.E. Chevy that was then at $175.00, (No it was not mine, and I DID bid on it!). If curious go to e-Bay# 370147642, (it had 6 different bidders on the closing day!) A D4C Corvette was a NO SALE when bid only to $511.89 and rightly so! This is still MUCH under-rated as is the 1986 F.M./Mid-America 1986 Corvette Pace Car, ( there were 2 CONFIRMED sales of this model, this week, at $950.00 each!) I called this a $1000+ model by Christmas in one of the previous columns, and I guess I'M WRONG AGAIN! Another model that is JUST starting to get some play is last years 1955 L.E. Packard! On e-Bay this week, a mint car with styrofoam box only, with no outer cardboard box or papers, brought $266.00! It looks like its taken almost a year for a majority of this HOARDED model to be sold off. 
This scenario has
happened each year a Pebble Beach car has been issued, but the NEW 1930
Ford P.B. model will be issued with 4500 as the mintage, a FULL 1500
more then last year! I HEAR that PRE-SALES of these models are already
pushing 1000 and F.M. will SELL this model out again with no problems!
Don't expect this model to bring SUBSTANTIAL profits for AT LEAST a
year, BUT the first few that are put out on auction WILL gather HIGHER
bids then subsequent ones! I suggest an order of ONE if you just want
the model for your collection, and perhaps a few for the more
adventurous collector/investor, as there are MANY other models that will
have better growth potential. ( I also suggest you buy Microsoft when it
goes under $20 a share in the third quarter! Do I sound like a stock
broker or what!)HOT! HOT! HOT! The M-B 450 SL L.E.! There are 3 currently out on auction, one on D4C and 2 on e-Bay! As I write this, the e-Bay models are at $601 and $610. They will NEVER sell this cheap! The D4C auction car is at $685.00, and is near that $700-$800 price range I've been quoting! A RUMOR has it that a wealthy and smart INVESTOR has acquired 100 of these, and has decided to put them away for a period of time! If so, the availability of these has been drastically reduced, and prices SHOULD move higher! Let's see if our out of country brothers flood the market with the remainder of these, or are they just about GONE from the Mercedes-Benz coffers! A signed F.M. Shelby sold on D4C at $430.00! To my mind, a very decent buy, (again a RUMOR that a collector bought 25 of these a few weeks ago, to put away, and F.M. is now down to 100+ in stock!) Retail is now $595.00, and being signed, it is UNIQUE to the F.M. line! (I personally collect FM/DM/CM models that are signed! Seems everyone has forgotten the Jan & Dean signed SURF Woody that was done at a California Gallery store with our fearless leader, Jay Olins overseeing the event! Only 52 were signed there, and perhaps 5 more at different concerts that they did in California.! I sold one this week at my LIST price to a collector that had BROKEN the one he had! Make it 51 pieces extent! How many of our NEW collectors have even HEARD of this one! Did you know that these were signed in three different locations, on the top, on the hood and on the musical base?) The 1929 R.R.re-issue is still MIA in models and information! Will they be a HOME RUN or a STRIKE OUT is probably the biggest gamble of the year! Latest speculation is that the wheels are way too wide for this model, and can't be rectified! You decide, are the painted wheels wrong, or is it the width of the wheels, or is it a licensing problem? Perhaps the RED Chinese put in a last minute POLITICAL donation in order to obtain them all! One thing is for sure, it will be interesting when we DO find out the REAL story! I observed a MIB with papers 1940 Duesenberg on e-Bay, that is currently bid to $425.00! This model, just about completely disappeared from F.M. stock a little less then a year ago! No fanfare, no notice, no nothing! Seems that now it is listed as NOT AVAILABLE, and NOT Discontinued! Fear not, as it is in illustrious company, along with the 1896 Ford Quadricycle 1:6 scale, 1910 Cadilac Model Thirty Roadster, 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C Tulipwood, 1939 Maybach Zeppelin, 1941 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet, 1953 Cadillac Eldorado, 1955 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, 1961 Lincoln Continental Convert-black, 1988 Porsche 911 Targa-black. So far, some of these have been NOT AVAILABLE for years! I'd like to mention, one to watch, and that is the soon to be discontinued 1930 Yellow and Green 1930 Duesenberg Gary Cooper! It's been on F.M.'s lists since 1987, BUT just how many have you seen on auction lately? You either HATE it or LOVE it, no in-betweens. It was not a good seller in recent years, and the small supply left should be gone before its retirement date of 12/31/01! If you don't have it, you should, and if you do have it, get another. This one will sneak up on us all of a sudden! Remember, it's a Duesy! Just one more sale of interest on e-Bay this week. The NEW 1958 Corvette Diorama with RED Corvette was PARTIALLY on the auction block! Seems the collector that owned it just bought the piece for the car, and put the Diorama out for sale by itself! With spirited bidding, this little cherry finally sold for $159.40! Seems like a VERY strong price for a peripheral piece! I'm a great believer of learning from history, and there is a story out here that no one has talked about! C.M. had released their beautiful, BLUE, Camaro in an issue of 3000! If you remember, there was a RUSH to buy these models with cars selling for $150 or more for a $115.00 list models! AFTER the RUSH, MANY of these models were left over, and are now selling for DEALER COST at $75.00 each (IF interested, please visit, my friend, Tim Stockwell at www.quartermilemuscle.com for THE BEST DEAL on these!). NOW, and I hate to spoil anyone's sales, the NEW C.M. GT-40 is due out in August! With a presumed issue of 2500, I see that there are some PRE ISSUE sales going on at e-bay! Prices of $112-$120 are bid on the advanced sale of one of these, so far! PLEASE, step back here and look at what has happened! None of us need to spend MORE then is necessary, and being the FIRST KID on the block to have one is nice, but wouldn't you rather sit back, wait a few months and buy this one for the same price as the Camaro??!! I have not seen, or heard of C.M. releasing these any differently then their Camaro, and history dictates that the same price DROP will happen! Time will tell, but anyone want to bet me a quarterpounder with cheese, that this sequence of events will happen again? My pick for "What's Hot" this week, is, of course, the D4C MIAMI SAND with OXBLOOD interior F.M.1940 Packard in an issue of 1500 at $150.00 per model! I'd like to publicly thank Jay Olins for his ability to get us, for a second year, a truly great model. (How many thought THIS would have made a GREAT P.B. car? RAISE your hands, I'll count 1, 100, 1000!!!) Let's see, here we have a 1550 issue, 1997 Black Corvette, at $600, we have a 1500 issue, Bonnie & Clyde bullet hole car, at currently $375+++, and I KNOW this is a BETTER deal then the 4500 P.B. car! Besides it LOOKING better (Miami sand WASN'T my color choice, but, hey, who am I?), being A PACKARD, AND being a D4C car, a definite HAT TRICK model here! Now for our HOT pick from D.M.------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------D.M.?-------------------------------------------------------------, OK, forget about it! He's STILL sleeping in the corner!!! Let's turn this around as a "What's Not" again this week! Hey, D.M., how about a 1500 issue REPAINT of something NEAT from your long list of excellent models! WOW, a 1958 Plymouth Fury in CHRISTINE colors, in a L.E.!!! Sold out, 2 weeks!, A BLACK Bumperless 1955 Chevy, 1/16 scale, in AMERICAN GRAFFITI markings,1500 issue, BAM sold out one month! Hey, a JAMES DEAN style 1949 Mercury, with DA MAN himself sitting in the drivers seat (Hell, if you can put Betty and Garfield there, J.D. should be A SNAP!) 2000 issue for the Millennium and POW, 3 week sellout!!! Want more? E-mail me, I have a MILLION ideas! (God, why was I born so smart and good looking, but poor as a church mouse?). Much more to talk about next week, such as the impact of the new C.M. models on their RARE counterparts, perhaps another one or 2 Hot Picks for upcoming price rises, some peripheral collecting associated with the FM/DM/CM models, and, of course, more of What's HOT, What's Not! As they say, keep those cards and letters coming in with your thoughts and comments! Regards, Roy return to franklindanbury.com |
roy@franklindanbury.com |
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