PART V – STRIKE ONE! STRIKE TWO!
Welcome back to my dumb journey of trying to find a muscle car to own. I say it’s a dumb journey because, well, in all honesty, I’m a dummy and I am in charge of this quest. Once again I find myself sitting in a chair driving a keyboard, instead of feeling the wind blow through what little hair I have left on my head behind the wheel of a classic car.
I’m up to Part V. Let that sink in. I started this search back in October 2018. I came close to owning what I thought was the one, test drove it, and then said I better keep looking. That car is gone now, as well as the second one I had my eye on. After that, I focused on a couple of other cars and had been watching them pretty closely. Both were Mopar B bodies from 1967. Both had been for sale for a couple of months. Now both are gone.
(I had written about both of these cars before, you can read more at the links at the bottom of this post.)
STRIKE ONE!
The first car was a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T for sale at Cruisin Classics in Ohio. It had pretty good provenance, as they say. The owner had been a Vietnam vet and acquired it when he got back home. His name was on the paperwork that was in a posted picture and I researched him and found out he had passed away. The car had been sold a couple of times prior to being bought and offered for sale at Cruisin Classics. Tons of paperwork for the car as well. I studied the pictures thoroughly and the only thing I could see wrong with it was a small paint chip on the front right fender. Not a big deal, but I wondered why they didn’t try to fix it or at least cover it up with photoshop. The trouble for me with this car was that it was in Ohio and I am in Illinois, and I’m pretty busy to take time out to go see it.
I do most of my searching for cars on the Hemmings website. I was checking my list of favorited cars and noticed it was no longer listed on there. I double checked the listings for Dodge Coronet R/T’s and it was nowhere to be found. I pulled up the Cruisin Classics website and sure enough, it was listed as SOLD. To add insult to injury, I follow them on Facebook and they posted the car had been shipped to Phoenix, Arizona and enjoying new ownership along with this picture:
- Photo credit: Cruisin Classics / Facebook
It looks like it is sitting next to a 1967 GTX convertible, too. Now we are just pouring salt into my wounds.
STRIKE TWO!
The second car that I lost out on was local, and I had no reason to have not gone and looked at it. Well, that’s not true. The main reason that I hadn’t gone to look at it was that it was priced at almost $60,000.00. This car was being sold by Auto Gallery Chicago and was located in Addison, Illinois. I have followed this one a while as well and the dealer eventually lowered the asking price to $54,900.00. Now I was a lot more interested.
They offered the car up for sale on eBay several times and I bid on it and won the auction two of the three times, with it going unsold after not reaching the reserve price each time. It was put up for sale again on eBay just yesterday and I put in my max bid again. I also promised to invest my Saturday and go look at the car. I checked my email today and saw a notification from eBay:
Dear eBay Community Member,
The bid that you entered for the item has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.
What gives? They canceled my bid? Why? A check of eBay revealed that the auction was no longer active. Ah, now I am starting to see the light. I checked the dealer website and sure enough, the car is no longer listed there. Someone came in and bought it.
TIME TO DIG IN
So it’s time to keep looking. I’m still interested in the 1968 Buick GS and a 1966 Pontiac GTO convertibles that are being sold by Primo Classics Intl., located in Florida. Both cars present themselves nicely but seem below market price for some reason. I will have to look a little closer at them.
I used to tell the kids I coached on my baseball team that you will never hit a pitch if you don’t swing, and I certainly can learn from that. I haven’t been swinging. I’ve taken too many pitches. Time to keep swinging, even if I just foul a few off. Sooner or later I am going to connect.
Previous musings on my car search:
My Search For American Muscle – Part I
My Search For American Muscle – Part II
My Search For American Muscle – Part III
My Search For American Muscle – Part IV
an amazing run 