[LoBelly]

I recently had a couple of blokes ring me to discuss cobra's and values.

One was looking to buy, the other - a workshop owner - looking to build to sell.

Neither were in the Cobra 'scene'

In the case of the one looking to buy I think the brand did make a difference, he was looking at a Robnell which IMHO would qualify as a premium cobra in the Australian market. Even though the kit was a bit older (1988/82k from memory) it was not that much more than a lot of cars priced like the ones mentioned above - but looked to be in great condition. We talked about various kits but the guy (who had/has a number of portia) knew of Robnell and had a positive impression of them.

The build to sell guy was asking questions like "What could I get for ...." / "What if it had..." / "How much does it cost to..."
It was almost as if he'd just realised that if you bought a kit and could get 65K for it (there were few priced under that amt at the time) and it cost you less than that to build (expected to spend about 40-45k) then you'd make money (!) And he could do it.

I said to him that educated buyers would have an idea about the comparitive starting price of the kits/brands and that unless he could establish himself as a premium builder he'd have trouble over coming that starting point in terms of resale value compared to others available at the time - I think this is true.

(that is not to say that an expensive base kit always turns into a valuable car)

LoBelly