Someday, I hope to meet the owner behind the eBay account, porforauto. They’re the ones that seemingly bought every wrecked Porsche 356 from the 1960s-onward and are now sitting on a stockpile of precious metal. Well, I guess that depends on your definition of precious, as everything they put on eBay has been wrecked or bent in some way. It’s no different with this 1959 Porsche 356, which was apparently involved in a roll-over accident in 1972 and stored by the seller ever since. Find it here on eBay with a $13,000 Buy-It-Now.
It could just be my eyes, but it looks like the car was also involved in a moderate fire. Whatever the list of tragedies actually is that befell this poor 356, the seller must be optimistic that the hysteria for vintage aircooled is still very real, as the VIN tag is all that’s useful here. Amazingly, there is an odometer, and the seller seems confident that it still reports actual mileage of just over 50,000.
The engine, transmission, and seats have all been removed. The interior shows very little of value to a restorer, unless that is the best dash panel or steering wheel you’ve ever seen (hint: they’re not). Door panels are long gone along with all glass, the latter likely lost in the accident. What’s most intriguing to me about the seller’s inventory of vehicles is how they held onto these hulks for so many years, staring at them every day and confident they’d generate income at some point.
Of course, that’s exactly how some of the old-timer junkyards work – and thank goodness they exist. I visited one Connecticut yard about five years ago, and took a picture of a first-generation Isuzu Trooper. Fast-forward to today, when I’ve taken possession of a twin Trooper to that junked version and needed a few parts. I’ve now purchased about $200 in used-but-solid parts from that yard, all for a rig they probably paid $50 for a decade ago. They just had to wait me out, much like this seller is doing with cash-heavy 356 owners.
Uh, nothing more to say.
The diamond industry is doing the same thing they release only so much stock each year in order to keep them considered ( rare gems ) clearly these 356’s are not as rare as one might be led to think, in order to keep the prices high. The mistake this seller is making is he’s showing of his stock the diamond guys don’t do that. No we all know this car is not that rare and his asking price for this piece of $h!t is redicules. Why not just cut off the vin tags crush the cars and sell the vin tags. In the end this is what this seller is up to. Personally I wouldn’t give this guy $100.00 for this wreck. If you want to make this car rare crush the ones beyond hope vin tag and all. And the salvageable ones will be legitimately more rare. What a scam game these Porsches are.
Wow, $13K for nothing more than yard art…
I think the seller might want to ease up on the medication. ;-)
Really……as a country we’ve gone around the bend in every way possible
Around the bend and into the ditch!
“Around the bend and into the ditch!” The analogy holds: This can’t be all rollover. Some of this has to be Fire Damage as well. Save the constitution, scrap the politicians, start with a brand new shell.
Not even decent yard art, at that.
Or double up on it.
Dear Lord take me now.for I have truly seen it all. 13,000 for this is a insult to every sane car lover. If I see one more pile of junk Porsche like this for sale at a insane price I will go insane myself
What the &#@% could you possibly do with this?
I had a car just about this bad when I built Da Spoodster, if you need an authentic 356A chassis to build the Speedster of your dreams, this car is probably what you need. I sold Da Spoodster for good money before I even finished it.
It looked good from the back too…
Last shot, but I hope this answers everyone’s question on what you do with a hunk of rolled 356 metal.
Adam, you are a true craftsman!
Sure it say 50k miles, but obviously it’s turned over.
Gee nonbody jumped on it can’t imagine why?
patina !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s takes patina to a whole new level.
A little bondo, and the rest will buff right out.
Even Porsche people can’t be this stupid….and the seller…
I sold a VW once by using the line: “It has only been rolled once” It not only sold, but I got my money out of it.
I have a difficult time believing that anyone would use anything more than the tag off this hulk, and I can’t see just the tag being worth that kind of money.
Bob
It is just simple math. A restoration shop can make it look new for x dollars. You take the asking price, add the restoration price, and subtract from the expected finished value. Either there is a suitable return or there isn’t. But a wreck like this will never be bought by an enthusiast. Just a numbers guy who is in the car business.
Hahahaha!
Looks like it rolled off a cliff.
This should buff out after straightening with the right blacktop roller
Rumor has Elvis drove this car with Steve McQueen on a bender and rammed three cop cars prior to arrest .
Then rumor also has it Elvis’s Precillia took a Louisville slugger to the Porsche due to a Elvis groupee discretion
Looks like that car Toonces the cat kept driving over the cliff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvsItXYgzk
It is only crazy if someone actually buys it at this price. Otherwise, it is just fishin’…
If you caught a fish every cast, it’s not called fishing, it would be called catching!
It is worth what the dumbest rich person will pay for it.
They have some amazing cars hidden away in there and they only ever seem to want to sell the worst wrecks..over 20 years ago I got to see just a couple treasures stacked outside when i needed some bits for a Ghibli. It was surreal even in the 90’s to see a couple Mercedes Gullwings in the stacks. I’ve never known anyone to get to see the cars hidden inside. Mercedes offered to restore one for free if it could briefly be displayed, they turned them down. It’s a one-of-one Mercedes-Benz 1935 Caracciola 500K built especially for Silver Arrows race driver Rudolph Caraccioloa.
Someday I hope to maybe be in line for one of the Miura’s (rumor has it there are 6 there). The also have one of 29 alloy-bodied Mercedes Gullwings…; a couple of BMW 502s and 507s and the last surviving example of the seven Horch 855 Spezial Roadsters ever built is hidden away there too.
I don’t understand the business thinking behind this. Seems to be maybe some sucker will buy it. What is not taken into account is that he exposes himself as a scammer and turns away buyers on future sales. GLWN(ext)S
I’m betting this wrecking yard owner is in love with the Porsche fanaticism going on. So you have x no. of totalled 356’s and you want to cash in now. Do you flood the market? No. Sell the best first? No. Sell off all the worst condition cars for the most you can get and work your way up to the best stuff. That way you may just get some repeat customers who need one off parts that were too far gone on the cars they bought. Good business plan.
IF he can sell the first one for 13k. I think he’d accomplish the same thing by selling the first one more reasonably, then you’d actually have someone who has a demand. Unfortunately, I don’t think the seller knows what reasonably is.
Cube it and make a coffee table.
Looks like it got stung by a bunch of bees and its allergic.
Hammer + Dolly + A Gallon of Gatorade + Adam From The Post Above Phone Number = Good To Go
I think’s an ex wife took a sledge hammer to her ex husband mint condition Porsche 😭
50,000 miles in 13 years is about 4,000 a year. Not sure – back in the day were these things daily drivers (getting groceries & making fast food runs, commuting to work, taking kids to school, etc.) or more of a weekend, recreational kind of vehicle?
The last mile must have been really exciting.
At Auto Trader I got 7 results on 2005 Porsche 911s in a 500 mile radius. 3 are over 50,000 miles (61,600 to 86,931) and 4 are under 45,000 miles (2 of them are 26,xxx miles,).
Not that mileage makes any difference on a wreck, but I doubt this one would be 150,000 miles on a unit that was driven for 13 years.
They must be joking!
It does feel like a joke.
It seems like they purposely put the worst looking cars on EBay, when the racks in back have better looking ones just sitting there.
Looks like the body can be hand formed. I mean with your hands ( no tools) the metal looks thin enough.Or to paraphrase Jaws”gonna need a bigger can of Bondo”.
Geez. Could have washed it. Ha! Ha!
Sigh….
If the seller thinks this hunk of rust is worth $13,000 he surely thinks the others he has total up to a billion dollars.
Worth nothing. Won’t even roll. Not even Yard Art. Pay someone to take it away. Include a nice tip.
This guy may not be as dumb as a lot of you think. He got people talking about this hulk while showing off some of his inventory in the background. That will get people to the website and actual location of his yard and they’ll buy stuff. All for the cost of an eBay ad. You can’t buy good advertising like this for so little money.
Plus, he’s obviously got a sense of humor.
If anyone uses the expression “buff right out” again I’m going to scream and throw something. So original!
BTW- did anyone see the ALFA SS on ebay in similar condition? Crash damaged and sprayed with a rattle can to hide the rust. $44k!
looks liked a baked potato.
Or a turd.
bring a dumpster
You are on the wrong site.
You can’t save everything, sometimes you have to let some go to the crusher. It will make the others more valuable. But hey if someone comes up with 13k and feels they can fix this then more power to them. Me, I would have crushed it without thinking twice.
All I want is one thing either the mushrooms that guy has been taking the the pills he’s been taken or the LSD there is not one good thing to salvage on that car the only good thing on that car is the VIN tag and that’s probably smashed up to
I better call Hagerty and increase the insurance on my ’59 356A, it must be worth more than I have it insured for. :})
It’s looks like the car I’ve been searching for my whole life. The only question I have is, does the radio work?
OMG, they finally found it, albeit a hard top version…
I gotta git me one nim
Multiple choice here:
This seller is :
1. Suffering delusions
2. Joking
3. A crook
parts and junk.
WOW Numbers matching!!!!!
If this was on the BHCC site they would be saying “just out of storage- been sitting for many years- great candidate for a full restoration”!
This looks like my ex…
(two tons of fun)