Jeff Ward

Ceboyd,

I'm afraid you are right, but there must be hope. Although I'm sure most of us who have bought and sold old sports cars over the years have made our share of mistakes, we are not all whiners and cry-babies. I have chalked up my mistakes to tuition payments.

Part of the fun of this hobby is the gamble of it all. We try to educate ourselves, look for the problem areas, and ask the right questions, but when the new purchase comes home, it is always a bit of a heart-stopping experience to get out the shop lamp and give it a good look. Seems to me a car always looks a little different when my check has been written and the new acquisition is sitting in my garage.

I know we hear horror stories here about weird sellers, bipolar purchasers, etc., but I have found the dedicated Porsche community to be top drawer all the way. That is a blessing and a curse because Porsches do not suffer fools lightly. The real Porsche people are generally very knowledgeable buyers and they won't pony up for junk. A good Porsche is a wonderful thing, but a bad one can almost never be made good, no matter how much money is thrown at it. And avoiding junk is what real Porsche people have learned to do.

The best thing to do, to the extent possible, is deal with folks you can trust and are knowledgeable. And buy good cars, and sell good cars. Stay away from edgy projects and worked over junk- they're pretty much sale-proof. The only buyers who would be interested are the unschooled, who will then become big whiners because they can't resell the car.

Worse than that, as in Ty's case who started this thread, are the whiners who don't appreciate that they have bought a good car. I don't know what the heck you do about somebody like that.

And a literary footnote, from "If" by Rudyard Kipling:
......
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;.........
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling



Best to all, Jeff

Ty Smith

Well, I can say first hand that I have learned something huge in all of this.

Getting the car was a life long dream for me and I spent years thinking about it and saving. My son and I bought it together from the proceeds of my father and my car ( a SL ) Therefore selling it was extremely emotional for me and my family ( that's another show ). I figured someone with a love of 911s would buy it and appreciate it as I did. Wrong ! Instead it appears that the buyer did an impulse buy and now regrets it. It seems obvious that he has no appreciation for a 911 or what he now has in his driveway. It kills me that it is just getting poked at and nitpicked and no one is going to appreciate it.
Initially if the buyer would have shown and respect and appreciation for what he has in his driveway ( like a Rennlister) I would have helped him because I wanted to, not because I had to. I really assumed that someone who loved Porsches would get it and appreciate it.

Appreciate all the comments from everyone.

ceboyd

yes.. I can totally understand where you are coming from on wanting that person (hoping) was a porsche enthusiast that loved it as much as you did..

sorry this had to happen to you like this

Wilder

That sucks Ty. I very much feel for you and I hope you can take some comfort knowing that it can also go the other way around. I just sold one of my 993s that was the right model with the right options and the right pedigree which is extremely rare to find and highly desirable to me. It was very relieving to have found a buyer who has as much appreciation as I do for the very same attributes of the car. I hope I'm two-times lucky with the sale of my other 993. Best of luck with this and ultimately, I don't think you have anything to worry about. This seems to be a case of a buyer with a personality problem so don't take it personal.