Hello everyone! I'm a first-time poster. I'm an attorney who is handling an estate of a gentleman who owns a 1965 Shelby Cobra CSX4246 Convertible Roadster. This is the 24th of 40 made. I'm getting conflicting accounts of what the vehicle is worth. The family wants to liquidate. For instance, Sotheby's wants to auction and placed value at $1.3M. Other appraisers have stated between $140K and $400K. I'm told it was built by Carroll Shelby himself and signed the vehicle. It has a little over 2000 miles. The pictures I'm posting are not post-detailing of the car. It's in Mint collection.
is it a glass body or alloy body?
Assuming it's fiberglass, these seem to trade around $110,000 - $125,000.
The graph below is from BringaTrailer for continuation Cobras over the last three years.
Didn't these 40th anniversary 2002 component vehicles use different badges?
"Sotheby's wants to auction and placed value at $1.3M" They must have been told it was an original Cobra not a 2002 Shelby replica. I'm sure they have not inspected the car ;)
Quote from: smith0494 on March 06, 2020, 11:01:00 AM
Hello everyone! I'm a first-time poster. I'm an attorney who is handling an estate of a gentleman who owns a 1965 Shelby Cobra CSX4246 Convertible Roadster. This is the 24th of 40 made. I'm getting conflicting accounts of what the vehicle is worth. The family wants to liquidate. For instance, Sotheby's wants to auction and placed value at $1.3M. Other appraisers have stated between $140K and $400K. I'm told it was built by Carroll Shelby himself and signed the vehicle. It has a little over 2000 miles. The pictures I'm posting are not post-detailing of the car. It's in Mint collection.
First off it is a valuable car being a SA built continuation car. I will try and put the value range in perspective. The 1.3 Million are for the vintage Cobras built back in the 60's. This is not one of those . Carroll Shelby's company Shelby American built the car just like the other vintage and other continuation cars. The vintage high value Cobras stopped being produced in 1967.There are many different companies that build Cobra replicas. Since Shelby American made the vintage cars ,when they started to build them again in more contemporary times they were referred to as "continuation cars". Carroll Shelby's company built the cars but CS was not out in the plant wrenching on the cars to build them. It is a 40 anniversary edition which is more or less special badges on the car to commemorate the time. It is apparently one of the 40 built or badged to commemorate for the occasion . It is a sub group of the many hundreds of other 4000 series continuation Cobras built between the early 1990's and present day without the badges basically. It is important to mention that unlike the vintage cars where Shelby American sold a running driving car so as to get around emission and crash standards the continuation cars were not built complete and were sold in various states of completion . At the very most it was sold as a roller with out engine or drivetrain . Someone else had to add those components and get the car running. Because of being sold as a roller there are countless variations some worst then others. As has been mentioned it is important to determine if it has a fiberglass body and the more expensive aluminium alloy body option. That difference is maybe 80K more if aluminum. Best of luck with marketing the car.
2011 SAAC Cobra Registry lists #4246 as Aluminum body
Made my day
This is the poster child for why cars built after the model year should not be titled as older cars
Hagerty's valuation:
Current Values
#1 Concours$190,000
Condition #1 vehicles are the best in the world. The visual image is of the best vehicle, in the right colors, driving onto the lawn at the finest concours. Perfectly clean, the vehicle has been groomed down to the tire treads. Painted and chromed surfaces are mirror-like. Dust and dirt are banned, and materials used are correct and superbly fitted. The one word description for #1 vehicles is "concours."
#2 Excellent$157,000
#3 Good$122,000
#4 Fair$94,500
Value Adjustments
+$15,000 for aluminum body. Quality and correctness of this series Cobra vary greatly and can have a tremendous impact on value.
Good luck with the sale. If the estate has the Shelby binder with the original paperwork and documentation it will help with the sale and price justification.
~ Steven
The body is aluminum. Thanks everyone! Sotheby's has modified their original $1.3M to $250K. They have been down to see the car...they took the seats out and everything.
Quote from: Bob Gaines on March 06, 2020, 12:31:05 PM
Quote from: smith0494 on March 06, 2020, 11:01:00 AM
Hello everyone! I'm a first-time poster. I'm an attorney who is handling an estate of a gentleman who owns a 1965 Shelby Cobra CSX4246 Convertible Roadster. This is the 24th of 40 made. I'm getting conflicting accounts of what the vehicle is worth. The family wants to liquidate. For instance, Sotheby's wants to auction and placed value at $1.3M. Other appraisers have stated between $140K and $400K. I'm told it was built by Carroll Shelby himself and signed the vehicle. It has a little over 2000 miles. The pictures I'm posting are not post-detailing of the car. It's in Mint collection.
First off it is a valuable car being a SA built continuation car. I will try and put the value range in perspective. The 1.3 Million are for the vintage Cobras built back in the 60's. This is not one of those . Carroll Shelby's company Shelby American built the car just like the other vintage and other continuation cars. The vintage high value Cobras stopped being produced in 1967.There are many different companies that build Cobra replicas. Since Shelby American made the vintage cars ,when they started to build them again in more contemporary times they were referred to as "continuation cars". Carroll Shelby's company built the cars but CS was not out in the plant wrenching on the cars to build them. It is a 40 anniversary edition which is more or less special badges on the car to commemorate the time. It is apparently one of the 40 built or badged to commemorate for the occasion . It is a sub group of the many hundreds of other 4000 series continuation Cobras built between the early 1990's and present day without the badges basically. It is important to mention that unlike the vintage cars where Shelby American sold a running driving car so as to get around emission and crash standards the continuation cars were not built complete and were sold in various states of completion . At the very most it was sold as a roller with out engine or drivetrain . Someone else had to add those components and get the car running. Because of being sold as a roller there are countless variations some worst then others. As has been mentioned it is important to determine if it has a fiberglass body and the more expensive aluminium alloy body option. That difference is maybe 80K more if aluminum. Best of luck with marketing the car.
Thanks for your time to help the OP. You stated it well.
I got a chuckle out of your line: "Carroll Shelby's company built the cars but CS was not out in the plant wrenching on the cars to build them. "
Nope, he certainly wasn't. Did he even do any wrenching on CSX2000? I'd assumed it was all Moon's guys.
CSX4343 is #29 of the 40th Anniversary cars and it hammered for $115,000 USD at Mecum Harrisburg in July 2019. This is the most recent 40AE continuation Cobra to sell at auction, that I'm aware of.
www.mecum.com/lots/PA0819-385838/1965-shelby-cobra-csx4000-series/
Quote from: SunDude on March 06, 2020, 06:25:09 PM
CSX4343 is #29 of the 40th Anniversary cars and it hammered for $115,000 USD at Mecum Harrisburg in July 2019. This is the most recent 40AE continuation Cobra to sell at auction, that I'm aware of.
www.mecum.com/lots/PA0819-385838/1965-shelby-cobra-csx4000-series/
I think that the polished aluminum cars can skew the results. Although cool looking, the polished cars are not very practical and problematic with surface maintenance and when driving what with reflections in drivers eyes and oncoming drivers eyes on a sunny day. Some will pay up for the polished cars but more often it is seen as a negative over a well done mainstream color painted car IMHO. If the car in the example was sorted and drove as good as it looked then that was a smoken deal even with the negative considered IMO.
The continuation Shelbys (fiberglass or alloy) just do not do well at auctions for some reason. Try to sell on some websites first.
These cars sell much better privately than at an auction. If you do sell at an auction, place a reserve on it. An alloy CSX 4000 only sold for $115,000 at Barrett Jackson last January and it was a nice car.
If Sothebys is "valuing" the car at $250K hammer then you should ask them to write you a check at 180k and let them make the other 70K plus buyers premium that they are saying the car will being at their venue.
I'm guessing they won't be interested in doing that for reasons which should be obvious.
Just saying,
Vern
PS- If you are in charge of liquidating an estate and don't know much about the assets involved..you might want to ally yourself with an unbiased third party who knows the market, is not looking to buy the car, and is not hoping to obtain a contract to sell it on your behalf.
Quote from: Shelbylover on March 08, 2020, 02:03:19 PM
The continuation Shelbys (fiberglass or alloy) just do not do well at auctions for some reason. .....
Bottom line they are pretenders to the throne. The market is oversaturated with kit/continuation/etc Cobras.
Quote from: Vernon Estes on March 08, 2020, 03:59:54 PM
PS- If you are in charge of liquidating an estate and don't know much about the assets involved..you might want to ally yourself with an unbiased third party who knows the market, is not looking to buy the car, and is not hoping to obtain a contract to sell it on your behalf.
Well said, very well said indeed.
Bill S.