Reply To: Pierce-Arrow Prices

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Hi Joe,

Welcome to the Pierce Arrow Society! I agree with Tony and Rick’s comments. I have also "shopped" for a car on Ebay. However, as for most anyone, buying one of this cars is a pretty big commitment of time, energy, and money. I learned that even though there may be 20-50 or more pictures of a Pierce on an Ebay listing, you are far better off to either go see the car for yourself, or hire someone reputable to see it and assess it for you. We looked for several years for the "right" car, and thought we had found it several times based on the listings. However, after visiting these candidate "right" cars (before the auction concluded), they turned out to be the wrong cars for us. Not that the cars were necessarily mis-represented, but pictures on the computer can hide a lot of issues! A lot can happen to a car in 69 to 106 years! And there is nothing like driving a car in person! To me, the key was to identify what your goals are for the car. What year(s) are you interested in? What models are you wanting? Open car? Closed car? Are you interested in a car to restore, a complete car in driving condition, or a show car? This will help you focus your search a little. Rick has a good point with respect to prices. There is "asking" and there is "getting". As there are not exactly a lot of Pierces for sale at any one time, you will likely see some of the same ads over and over again. In your research, you can sometimes see price erosion on recurring ads. This is a small supply/small demand market. There are also some people spending more money on cars during restoration than they will be worth when it comes time to sell the car. The problem comes when they try to recover their whole investment and try to sell at a high price. You kind of have to look for value in the car and the work that has been done to the car.

Good luck in your search and happy motoring.

Chris Diekman