Imagine uncovering a 1971 Mercedes 280 SL in a garage to find it only has 14,600 miles! Great surprise, right? What I don’t understand is why the seller is excited enough to ask a super high price for the car, but not excited enough to uncover it from the debris, take more than two pictures, or write one word in the description of this eBay listing. We do know that the car is in Surprise, Arizona (which I verified is a real place), and it appears that it’s in a garage, but that’s about it.
I’m afraid we don’t have much more to tell you about this one. Oh, what’s that super high asking price? I’ll get there. First, let me tell you that production of the “Pagoda” type W113 SL models ended in late February 1971, so if this really is a 1971 model it would be one of the last ones produced, and one of only 830 for the model year. That means it has the largest engine fitted to a W113, with a displacement of 2,778 cc and producing 170 horsepower.
This picture is downright scary. Courtesy of silverstarrestorations.com, this is a diagram of the “typical” places a W113 car rusts. Oh my! I thought Triumphs rusted in a lot of places–no wonder a W113 can be very expensive to restore, even if you do it yourself. So what if this car really is that nice? What if it really is a time capsule with no visible wear, corrosion or mechanical issues? Is it worth the $175,000 opening bid? No, that’s not a typo, the seller has posted an opening bid that’s well over three times the median salary of individuals in the US ($56,516) based on two pictures and a mileage figure. I think I’d want more than that before I placed a bid, that’s for sure. What do you think?
Interesting. The seller/flipper seems to have a number of small, non-automotive items for sale. Clearly, they are clueless about cars; no description of any sort and a truly awful selection of photos.
My guess: they saw a high-priced SL on the Internet and decided theirs was worth at least as much. No reason other than the make and model. And, maybe, the age, which elevates any worn-out hulk to “collectible” status.
If I had that kind of money to put out for a car, this wouldn’t be it. Even if it was a fully-restored Euro-spec model with a 5-speed manual, the factory top-lifter and a generous selection of unobtanium spares (which would be a SL worth owning in my book), I’d flinch at that price.
I’m afraid the seller is in for an unpleasant Surprise, and I don’t mean Arizona.
Its ass-hat flippers that can kill a hobby through sheer ignorance & greed.stupidity ..or a combo of all… vreat cars when not as rusty as a triumph….(triumphant if you find a solid one)
175k?
You’ve got a better shot of seeing Paul Lynde Junior.
THAT is quality humor! .Hell this nutcase must have either overdosed on peyote buttons or metamucil.
Only 2 pics, that looked staged and only has sold 2 items on eBay…
Uh, no thanks.
Either a dreamer or a scammer. No one is going to pay 175k without some serious documentation and an independent appraisal.
Jay M – He managed to sell 2 items on eBay recently? Ask any seller on eBay who isn’t a Chinese “Enterprise Seller”, if they are able to sell much. eBay has made some incredibly stupid decisions and added new requirements for sellers recently. And we are told there are more stupid ones in the works. It’s almost impossible for the little guy with single items to sell on eBay today, as the search engines now favor the big power sellers selling thousands of identical items, most made in China. And no, I’m not alone here, check out Ecommerce,com to see exactly what kinds of stupidity are running rampant at eBay.
Ok,
Here is your fun car story for the evening.
About 7-8 years ago, a friend of mine wanted me to help him get rid of a 71 Pagoda that his buddy had bought in a 3 car package deal. This was a running, driving car, in respectable driver condition. He had tried to unload it at the Kruse auction that month, but couldn’t get anyone to offer more than $8K. This was before the prices began to spike on these cars. He even told me he would sell it to me for $15,000, but Mercedes are not my specialty so I told him I would sell it and he could pay me the standard 10% selling fee. He dropped it off with me and told me to let him know when I had a buyer.
Imagine my surprise and amazement when I discovered it was VIN # 23885, the LAST Pagoda EVER produced. After verifying that was indeed the correct VIN for this car, and even contacting Mercedes directly to confirm it was the last one, I told the disinterested owner what I had discovered and that there would probably be some increased interest in it.
Of course the very next morning, the owner picked up to “sell it himself”, without so much as a thanks for relaying the information about the car to him. From what I understand, he sold it for $40,000 to the Mercedes Benz Classic Center in California. Guess how much of that I saw😂 Supposedly they were going to restore it and send it back to the museum in Stuttgart.
I run Google searches on the VIN from time to time, but it never pops up anywhere. I wonder what happened to it. The moral of the story boys and girls is to keep valuable car information to yourself!
Or……….. even your friends will screw you out of a buck! :)
He wasn’t a true friend.
427Vette – I’ve had the same experience. Usually people dealing with the estate of a family member who passed away. They have no idea of what they have or no interest in it (emphasis on NO interest) . They contact me about the item (in this case, a certain brand of Italian motorcycle) and I do all the leg work digging up information and production numbers. Once I inform them what they actually have, I never hear from them again and sure enough, it pops up on E-Bay. The description is a virtual copy of my e-mail tweaked to make them look like the expert and asking top dollar.
Now a days, if I run across the same situation, I just ask them what they want for it, pay them and pick it up. They’re happy they got something for what they considered nothing and I get a bike to sell/trade to a fellow collector for stuff I need to finish other bikes.
The only problem I have with your story is the word “friend” in the first sentence. Friends don’t do things like that to each other. Sad.
Standard seller fee also comes with an exclusive right to sell, keeping this sort of thing from happening. I operated a very profitable collectible auto consignment operation in DFW back in the 80’s and had a 12 point contract that spelled out this very point. Had a guy with an E-type that went through the contract marking out the points he didn’t like. When he finished, I gave him another blank one and said that it wasn’t negotiable. He wound up taking his Jag back home.
There is more to selling a car on consignment than most people recognize, just ask the folks at any of the large collectible auctions.
Have fun
Rufus
No good deed goes unpunished….
Not to be mean but i kinda think u deserved it. U gotta know how much of a PITA it is to go look at a car only to hear the owner say: “Oh well so n so told me this blah blah blah” only to run the vin and find that the car came with a slant effing 6. So many cars i walked away from just for hearing those words….
The pagoda is one of the more timeless Merc designs. Anything can rot/rust away if not cared for. Another example of German engineering equating to reliability.
Does anyone else think MB has “jumped the shark” with the backlit grill star on newer models? Maybe they should have under body LEDs.
The “830 for the model year” is incorrect. There were 774 produced in calendar year 1971 as they were winding down production. The actual model year production from Sept. 1970 onward was approximately 3200.
According to Hagerty, pagodas got pulled up in value by the 190SL rising tide. They peaked and are now one of the five top losers in value. I wouldn’t buy any pagoda for a while until the prices stabilize.
IMO only someone with more $$ than sense would go for this one with the little info available. I don’t know MB, though the wife wants one of the early 2 seat convertibles, but there’s little likelihood of that ever happening.
Seller has 2 feedbacks (surprise), which means they have probably sold 5 or 6 items max on ebay (surprise). The “description” portion of the ebay ad won’t load (surprise). The start price is too high (surprise). There are only 2 poor detail pictures (surprise). The boxes and few books laying on vehicle look posed to imply this is a real ‘barn find’ (surprise). Did I leave anything out?
“Barn Find in Arizona and no dust……nuff said……
I thought I was the only one that got ” taken advantage of by friends?”. Sold cars for friends, 30K deals and they thought 1% commission was fair compensation! $300 on a clean 30K deal, and they didn’t do anything but count the money. The worst was a 60K deal, and the trust fund baby played the poor car and thought $200 was a fair commission. I know, I am the stupid one, don’t expect much and you won’t be disappointed, and make the ground rules clear.
I almost always provide proposals for any work I do for someone (even if it is a friend or family member) before I begin. I like to tell them that down the road if one of us (or even someone who represents us) has a question about the agreement we can always reference what we signed so there will be no misunderstandings for everyone involved. The signed proposal acts as a written reminder of what we committed to on that day. If they are unwilling to read and sign the agreement (with modifications we may concur on of course) then I question what problems I will have through the process and in the future. Many “friendships” have been lost over one party being taken advantage of (or at least feeling they were being taken advantage of).
I’ve owned 2 280SLs, one 70 and one 71. never again! pretty car, fun to drive, outrageous repair prices, and the market is so overheated on these pretty little cars that i think it’s best to wait until the bubble pops. then buy one.
Sent a request through ebay to seller. Ebay sent back an error message saying email undeliverable though site. HMMM??????
I remember going thru Surprise. This doesn’t Surprise me..
The guy probably gave up trying to find the Lost Dutchmen’s gold after 40 years of wandering in the mountains and ran across this, thinking it’s his gold mine.
It gets hot in Arizona..real hot. So hot it does things to the mind if you’re out there too long, which is apparently the case here.
too little information. I sell on ebay and I try to be as accurate as possible. Daily I look in the bus for sale section. Any one who has a rating of less than 90 I will not bother with.
“…no longer available.”
Does it come with the house?
I had a used car dealer friend. He was successful because he never sold cars.
He allowed people to buy cars from him.
When a potential customer walked onto his lot, he walked away.
If they followed him, he got a sale.
This tends to look like one of those deals … they advertise the tasty bits only… If you fish for more …..
Here’s a 1987 560SL with 5960 original one owner miles that I purchased from that original owner (pictured with car) a few years back. Sold it to a doctor in Stutgart, Germany. It was literally brand new and totally original with exception of the battery. She couldn’t tell me what color the top was because she had never taken the hard top off, ever. One of my nicer “finds.”
Morning fellas. So I emailed this pagoda seller about a week ago, letting him know that he needed more pictures in sunlight(being Arizona), spot welds on fenders, etc. Two pictures of a car with boxes on it was unacceptable for a mid six figure car. I think he is British by the spellings of the words used in his reply. He replied with an explanation of the provenance of the vehicle, and then proceeded to remove the small description, AND jack the price up by $40,000. The car was initially listed for $135k. Sad. Something’s up.
Well don’t have to worry about it any longer it isn’t available seller ended auction!! Imagine he caught wind of all the heat he was getting on here I can imagine he found anyone who was willing to buy it for the outrageous amount he was asking!!
Pulled ! Busted !