Selling Cars on Craigslist

For sale:  1972 Pinto w/ Firestone 500 tires  ($250k)

I have this piece of crap ‘72 Pinto wagon, with 350,000 miles, three bald tires, rust in both quarters and running on 3 cylinders, for the incredibly low price of $250,000.

It has original paint, or what’s left of it, ripped upholstery, a place for a radio, drain hole in the floor and duct tape on both vent windows.  And yes, it’s a classic.  Never needs smog!

And many wonder why I am letting go of this creampuff for so little.  Well my uninformed friends, after seeing a butchered, rusted-out ‘65 Chevy 4X4, ¾ ton pickup listed at $6,500, a rusted out, dinged up ‘52 Chevy coupe, with busted out windows, and an empty hole where the engine is supposed to be, for $5,900 bucks, well then the Pinto is beginning to look like a bargain. 

Nevermind that on any given day I see listings for cars that insults everyone’s intelligence.  For instance, I see offerings of $6 or $8k, that would lead to a total investment of $30k to yield a $20k vehicle.  Yes, do the math and you too can go bankrupt building classic vehicles. 

And of course none of this financial wizardry would be possible without the help of reality tv and America’s collector car auctions, who are ginning up the values of “project” vehicles to the stratosphere, while the producers of these tv shows are subsidizing the project build-ups and the auctions are catering to clientele doing their damndest to spend grandpas millions, before grandma finds out. 

To be fair, I haven’t seen such mauling of reality since our president told us Obamacare would lower the cost of our health insurance.   Dumbplumber