Cars That Have Become Valuable

George Milligen of Stalham, Norfolk, died earlier this year at the age of 94, and today his collection of 38 cars is to be auctioned by Bonhams. The sale is expected to raise £4 million.

Milligen assembled his collection over 70 years. It includes a 1929 Mercedes Benz 7.1-litre SSK, one of only 30 made. Milligen bought it during the war for £400. It has attracted the interest of buyers all over the world, and could sell for as much as £2 million.

There is also a 1931 S-Type Invicta (my dream of heaven). Milligen bought it for £175 in 1942, from a man he afterwards discovered was on the run for allegedly murdering his wife. It is expected to fetch £160,000 to £220,000.

A 1931 Delage D8 tourer is estimated to sell for £80,000 - £120,000, and a 1957 300SL bought for £1900 in 1966 is valued at £50,000 to £80,000.

If I had won the lottery last weekend, guess where I would be today.

I'm sure many of us had cars that would have become valuable if we had kept them.

Let me open the bidding with a 1939 3.5-litre SS 100 4-seater tourer. I sold it in 1956, in good running order, for £15.

Worth today? £50,000 plus.

Peter

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Reply to
Peter Adams
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"What did you do in the war Granddad"....

Reply to
:::Jerry::::

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter Adams saying something like:

Some 30 years ago I was given a 1954 Armstrong-Siddely Star Sapphire limo. It was in bloody good condition, save for the nearside rear wing, which needed repair/replacing. I kept it for a few months and drove around in it quite the thing, being pleasantly surprised at its handling and smoothness for such a big old tank.

I eventually gave it away to a mate, since big old cars were worth nothing in those fuel-crisis days.

Worth today? I don't know, but certainly quite a few thousand.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

1960 Aston Martin DB4, bought for £400. Facel Vega HK500, swapped for a written off Sunbeam Tiger. Ferrari 250/GTE, £700 (most I ever paid for a car at the time). Jaguar Mark X. one owner, £100. Lambretta LD150, bought for a pint of Young's Ordinary and sold to the butcher's son for two pork chops (reckon I made a profit on that one).

Oh, and I bought my 1966 E-Type Roadster 4.2 Series 1 for £825, and I still have it.

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Geoff Mackenzie ( snipped-for-privacy@acsysindia.freeserve.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Go on, then. I'll give you a nice round grand for it.

Reply to
Adrian

In 1971, I bought a 1951 Jowett Javelin for £35. I sold it a year later (with a slipping clutch) for £10. It was tidy body wise, and ran well even though it used a fair amount of oil. Not sure of it's current worth, I haven't seen one advertised lately.

In 1974 I bought a P5 Rover for £75 to use as my only car. I kept it until

1977. I had bought a house in 1976 when motgages were at 9% interest, and when mortgage interest rates hit 13% the following year I just couldn't afford to run it. I sold it for £115. It would cost me over £5K to buy one in that condition today.

Jim

Jim

Reply to
Jim Warren

It's always tempting to take a profit, but I think I'll pass thanks.

Just tried the same thing - offered a mate £30 for a 3.8 Mk 2 with wires and o/d, on the grounds I sold it to him for £25 in 1971. Funny - he turned it down as well.

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Ah inflation - when I had my first company car the radio cost more than my first car, and the car cost more than my first house.

Thinking of houses, my first one cost £7,000. At the same time I was offered a Ferrari 250 GTO for the same amount. I thought about buying the Ferrari and living in a caravan, but took the "sensible" route. Today that same house is worth about £90k - anybody care to guess what a two-owner GTO might be worth?

Moral - trust your heart not your your head.

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

My dad was offered a Supermarine Spitfire for a £1 back in the 50's. Worth a £1,000,000 now.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

Reply to
Peter Hill

And keeping it in suitable storage and working condition would have cost about 2,000,000...

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yeh, but just ripping out the engine and shoving it into lock up garage would still have seen a good return on £1 !...

Reply to
:::Jerry::::

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:

Who said it had to be working... old spits now are fetching a half mill just for being in mostly one piece and restorable. If the op's dad had just parked it in a barn and left it it would still have been a sound investment

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Running Merlin XX's for £8K if you want one - no paperwork for flight, but basically good runners.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Where was that? £90K wouldn't buy a bedsit round here!

Jim

Reply to
Jim Warren

In the area I own a house, there aren't any bedsits.

Reply to
Ben Blaney

You don't live near a university then, do you?

Jim

Reply to
Jim Warren

Actually, I do, but I don't live where I own a house, and even where I live there aren't any bedsits.

Reply to
Ben Blaney

Used to see Spits, Hurricanes and Lancs being taken away for scrap on a load loader. I wish....

GeoffMacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

3 Albert Road North, Reigate, Surrey.

Geoff MacK

Reply to
Geoff Mackenzie

Geoff Mackenzie ( snipped-for-privacy@acsysindia.freeserve.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Either that's a kennel, then, or your 90k guesstimate is a little bit out... Probably somewhere around a quarter of a million (or 15 years) out.

Reply to
Adrian

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