I suspect a lot of Alpine owners do what I do and regularly check what Alpines are up for sale on ebay. I started looking just over a year ago before I actually owned one, because obviously I was looking to buy one, although mine was not an ebay car afterall. When I started looking there was a red Series V up for auction. (OK, I apologise in advance if this particular car belongs to a club member, but this is beginning to bug me now.) This red Alpine was advertised with four or five lines of text which told very little except the basics and with 4 or 5 of the worst quality photos you could possibly use, a couple of which were blatantly several years old. The condition of the car, (looking at the pictures) looked OK, but no more than OK. Definitely not a concours contender. Just an average car in other words, with a few rather horrible (but possibly period) accessories bolted on. What's my point you ask? Well, this car was listed with a 'Buy it Now' price of £8000 and a starting bid of £7000! Obviously a little more than it's worth.

OK, so this happens. People over-value their cars and don't do any market research before selling them. They usually learn. So, after 10 days and no bids, the auction ends. Within a few days the car is back up for auction with the same prices! Again, after 10 days there's no bids. After a few days the car is back with the same prices! And on it goes! After a few months of this, the vendor drops their prices a bit and at one point a few months ago, the 'Buy it Now' price ends up around the £5k mark and the starting bid around the £3.5K mark. Surprisingly, someone puts in a bid, but of course the reserve is not met and the car doesn't sell. So, it's re-listed again and the process continues with next to no interest right up until a few days ago.

By now the car has been listed for over a year with no sale and what looks like very little interest. Now, I've just checked ebay today to see what's for sale and this Alpine is now listed with a 'Buy it Now' price of £10,000 and starting bid of £5000!! What on earth is the vendor thinking? I can't remember how much it costs to list a car on ebay, but they must have spent a fortune in the last year. Unless there is something I'm missing, like maybe the Queen owned this car or it's made from solid gold, there's no way in hell it's gonna sell at that price!

This is a bit of a rant I know seeing as the car is nothing to do with me and the sale of it doesn't affect my life in any way, shape or form, but I just wish people would see sense and learn from their mistakes.

OK, rant over! Sorry if I've offended anyone in the process!

The starting price seems to have gone up. I know it's been on ebay at least ten times in the time I was looking for an Alpine. I did enquire a long time ago but got no response.
Whilst looking for an Alpine, I thought that most of the cars were overpriced for the condition and would need the asking price spending on them to make them good.

Hi.

As Registrar of the club I have been looking at Alpines for sale on Ebay for about 8 years. This one mentioned was first seen:

(Notes from club records)
Seen on Ebay 25/10/07 Car in Birmingham
Seen on ebay 7/08 8/08
Seen on Ebay 9/08
Seen on Ebay 30/4/09 12/5/09 25/5/09 12/6/09

Must be costing him a fortune in fees.

Lets hope any buyer reads this topic before he decides to pay £10000!!

I was told by the seller of my Alpine (the green one that's been on eBay a few times) that the red £10,000 car is bodged (given the state of my passenger door, a slightly unfair accusation) and really quite tatty - he suggested I popped around to see it in my Alpine. Which I would if the 1£@(@ thing would run properly!

I paid £4250 for mine. It's MOTd, taxed and underneath looks really very good, but the finishing is poor and it developed a horrid misfire when I filled it with fuel, so I need to get it tuned up. I'm sad that I didn't shop around, but when I look at the pictures of the blue one on eBay closely, I think I'd be just as unhappy - and my car has decent wires, sounds nice when it is running properly, etc.

If anyone DOES have a really tidy Alpine for sale for £4K or so I'll happily buy it and sell mine to stand a loss/move the wires over; but I like mine not being a GT and having had a hardtop (it doesn't fit brilliantly well; when I tighten it up it tends to pop out of the boot hinges, but I suspect they need to be aligned properly), and I like the green I have.

Wish more people used this forum though. I've got lots of questions about getting my car to run properly and it seems the traffic is slow

The good news for you RK is it's the clubs National at Warwick in a few weeks ! Not far from you.

The folks with Series V cars will answer every question you could wish to ask and you will see some of the best cars in the club.

Eeek, I don't want to see the best cars, I'll feel all bad about mine! Even the ashtray doesn't seem to fit right - I can't tell if the bracket goes over the carpet, or under - most pictures suggest it goes under, but the hole in the carpet is too small... and the bracket looks a bit manky to be outside the carpet.

I wish my car's body was perfect! Still, I guess £2K would get me a passenger door and a redone, properly finished scuttle, no?

Thanks for telling me where the ashtray goes - I'll leave it in place and ponder cutting the carpet. Surely it should be trimmed somehow, edged?

I welcome input on really good restorers in the West Midlands who could redo the scuttle and perhaps, once a suitable door has been found, paint and help get the alignment right then! I might want the bootlid repairing too as it's got a little bit of filler along the rear edge.

At least it sounds like you get to enjoy yours. Until I've rebuilt my 25D4, this is what i get...

Nick, I'm about ready to buy a new carpet for my restoration. One of my pet hates is a poor fitting carpet. Where did you get yours from? so I don't go through the hassles of trying to fit something that doesn't fit.

Unfortunately I don't get to enjoy mine at all at the moment, which is really annoying as the weather is so good! I've been rebuilding the interior since April and currently only have half a carpet set installed and no dashboard, so my car is completely un-usable . My MOT also expired in April, so I have to get a new one before I can drive it again and I'm not sure if that's going to be possible with oil leaking from the rear hub. At the moment I feel like all I've got is a very shiny, but useless hunk of metal in my garage which is costing me a fortune to keep. Like you, I'm almost tempted to sell it at a loss to get something else, but I know I could easily be jumping from the frying pan into the fire! I also can't afford to make a loss, so I'm stuck with what I've got. Oh well, I guess there's always next year!