GSA auction on line: TRUCK, 1966, KAISER JEEP MDL M35A2, W/W, 6X6, 2.5 TON,
VIN: 4J7493 (00-0064-1), EST 3,264 MILES. (47651G-1114-0002) 1 EA. VIN#:
4J7493 Mileage: 003264 Current bid is over $2800
The following is just my own personal opinion based on my experiences and now
shared with you who may be thinking about picking up a mil-veh for the first
time at auction. I think it's good information to know, but others with more
experience might be able to add their two cents or correct me where I'm wrong.
The truck noted above was one I was bidding on, not sure I will continue
bidding on it even though the auction doesn't close until July 10th. That
means there is plenty of time to bid this truck and plenty of time for it to
go much, much higher too.
GSA have better descriptions and better pictures, where DRMS sometimes has no
pictures and no relevant description of condition other than to tell you it's
a truck...thanks a lot DRMS. GSA bidding is also a public bid so you can see
how many people are bidding with you and how much the last bid was... that
adds to the price frenzy for sure, unlike DRMS which is a sealed bid. As a
result, I suppose that a wider variety of people are more likely to bid on a
GSA auction, as opposed to a DRMS, that means prices tend to be higher on GSA
auctions.
Seems odd that this truck located in Nebraska, (which is not close to anyone
in the civilized world-just joking with the cornhuskers) will likely go for
almost $4000 or better (basing this on current price and recent sales). My
old country boy thinking is unless you are located close by then you're
bidding off the net and you won't be able to inspect the vehicle, that's high
risk. For a big risk it ought to be a deal right?
Course this one looks darn nice, but it's still a 1966 deuce with a winch.
But, if you are the successful bidder a deuce in good shape with winch is
sure worth that, however you've shipping to contend with and that is likely
somewhere around .70 - 1.50 a mile, depending on how much you can do yourself
and how close you are. I'd say the average sale is probably 1000 miles
away. If you low-bed it (ship by flat bed trailer) that's got to be fairly
expensive. So for arguments sake, add another $1500 as an average bill, then
there is tax and license, another $200-800 depending on your state. Now if
there are repairs needed... who knows how much that could be, like I said,
it's a pig in a poke. Probably on average you gotta spend a little here and
there, maybe $300-$500. You don't have to buy too many duece parts to equal
$500! At the very least, there is always paint and some small cosmetic
repairs to bring it up to your standards of pride.
It would be real easy to get up around that $6000 range or even more in a
hurry for what started out as pretty good buy at auction for a $3996.01
deuce. So it may or may not be such a great deal once you total up the rest
of the incidentals, depending on your long range objectives. At say $6000,
it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room when it comes to time to sell does it?
Now buying it off DRMS, things get a bit better. Deuces at DRMS seem to go a
lot cheaper.... but are they not in as good shape as at GSA? Lot of people
think if GSA is selling one, it's a pretty good truck because they are
specially selected for their own use. Some truth in that too. For some
reason, maybe the rust factor, trucks (GSA-DRMS) tend to be cheaper in the
east and south than on the left coast. A deal in North Carolina might be
$1400 where that same type of truck in California would be $2400. But, then
our electrical bill in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia is almost that
much, so why should $2400 for a truck bother anyone? To digress a bit, I was
reading an article on power production in our sister state (Vietnam) and they
produce much cheaper and more reliable power than this, the 5th largest
economy in the world. PR of Kalifornia has come such a long way, hasn't it?
lol
Next. Wonder if our club is gaining some popularity or somehow contributing
to a new demand? Since the mil-veh truck prices seem to be going up lately!
lol Funny too, since the trend on other trucks (civilian commercial) is just
the opposite. They are getting pittyfully cheap thanks to operational costs
in the US. Lot of truckers going broke.
Currently I would think a fairly complete deuce in good shape ought to go for
something in the ball park of $1500-2300 at DRMS and $2500-4500 at GSA and be
reasonably close to home before I would buy it, but that's just me. I've
seen them going cheaper and for more, but this is sort of my best guess
average range. Well, I hope this info helps out when you are tempted to push
that bid button for that online bargain! Good luck.
Jack Lee
Ferret Mk 2/3
(Currently deuceless)
PS Ferret starter is working fine again. Never did find the phantom
problem. Thanks for all the good advice. I've saved the posts in case it
happens again.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:38 PDT