Incredible....A 1970 Buick GS Stage 1 appraised at $1,850,000

I dont care what it appraised for but i saw this car at bpg a few years ago and loved it, I think the owner got squat for the car it is and I have also learned that if you own a nice car on this board and post pictures of it all the experts with skylarks and clones will tear your car apart and tell you it aint worth nothing just like when I posted pics of my 72 X , the pm's I got telling me there was no such animal, red with black and orange stripes, etc, I even had old pics and GM of Canada docs but what the heck did those mean, nothing according to the experts. I say it is a piece of Buick history never again to be made and only one of several extremely rare and irreplaceable cars out there. B

 

LMAO :laugh:

 

Zach
I experienced the same thing at the 1996 GS Nationals.

I took my Real ,Genuine 1972 Sunburst Yellow GSX 350 totally original untouched car with GM of Canada Documentation on full display ,to prove it was the real deal and all I received all day were scoffs and negative attitude!

I was very surprised, because at the time it was the first I believe real 72 GSX ever to attend the GS Nationals.

The whole experience was very deflating and negative.

I chalked it up to good old human nature, people love to criticize what they don't understand.

 

While I won't disagree about the process used to inflate the price, in the end, everything is "worth" what someone will pay.

If he finds someone to give him $1.8 mil for it, more power to him.

Like George Carlin(?) said. "A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place."

 

The whole hobby is out of control with crap like this,be in it for the love of the car not the value !!!!! Once the high dollar values of collecting shifted from foreign exotics to our american musclecars,I knew it was all down hill from there.
A car is worth what someone is willing to pay,so in this case regardless of what people thought about Johns 70 show car "should be worth",it was decided.
As far as comparing them to Mopars,don't !!! Mopars will always outvalue these Buicks,bar none !!! When you have 10 + performance models in the lineup with multiple eng/carb combinations,be the first one to break 200 MPH on the oval,compete in the Transam series,and have an engine that for many years was all you saw in a top fuel dragster,there is the reason for the bigger following.
NTM,bring back performance cars that you can buy today,Challenger/Charger R/T and SRT.
Buick had the 70 GS with performance being a 455,stage1,and then the GSX.All the same car,no other models.Compare all the events and shows for Mopar to Buick and you tell me.
As far as commenting on Mopars worth millions,I agree,none of them are,but far more sales of Hemi's,wing cars,six pack cars,T/A cars far exceeded the prices of GSX's,Stage1's,etc.
Brad said how many Hemi cuda convertables ,2 ? I think I'm pretty accurate at these numbers 1970-14 made and for 1971-11 made.The couple high sales I know of were 2 million and 3 million.

 

Brad,

Seems like this car would have made a nice addition to your collection. Did you have any interest in it?

 

Richard,

I know what you mean. My GSX listed black painted rocker mouldings on the window sticker but my car had and/has red ones. I think GM put out what everwhere they had on these cars. By the way, John C. is a great buick guy who has more knowledge about buicks then most people.

Zach

 

Rich,
My friends & I loved seeing your 72 350 GSX at the 96 GSCA Nats. It was the first one we had ever seen in person. I guess we were some of the few people that appreciated your bringing it all the way from Canada.


Zach,
I still have people calling my 71 Stratomist Blue GSX a fake because it is not Yellow or White.

A few years ago I was invited to the East Coast Concours de Elegence show and when the Judges went by they called my car a fake and walked right past it. (I was eating breakfast at the time.) The 70 442 owner next to me stopped them, explained the rarity of the car, and they came back and judged it.

.............and this was at a meet I was personally invited to attend.
Duane

 

Well put Brad, I was quietly reading along, wondering how long it would take for somebody that knew what the hell they were talking about to say something. It takes much longer these days as the "internet experts" seem to be much quicker to voice their opinion then those that have "been there done that" because it's not worth the argument.

You'd have to be living under a rock to not know/understand that "the market is soft" due to the economy. John had showed the car at previous auctions, and decided it was time to sell, not because he thought it was at its peak, but because he decided it was time for him to sell. Its my understanding the appraisal was "a couple years old". The nah-sayers don't seem to understand the one of one made, is secondary to the fact that this was a FACTORY SHOW CAR THAT ESCAPED THE CRUSHER!

It's these same people that don't seem to understand if a completed finished car is only worth 10-15 grand, restoration companys wouldn't bother repoing parts for them. I don't like "flippers" as much as anybody, but by the prices of "our Buicks" becoming inline with other muscle cars, "we" have enjoyed the ability to purchase reproduction parts. I'm sure if I didnt have a couple stage1's myself and I wanted to buy one I'd wish for lower prices, too.......

Its funny that after every auction, guys complain about "Buicks not getting the air time or respect they deserve" or complaining about Magazines not having enuf Buick coverage, but then argue about the rarity or value of a particular car when something like this comes up. And the ones that were questioning the authenticity of this particular car? Why don't you actually show up at a Buick event or study the history BEFORE your keyboard goes into action???

I met John in 1985, (thats right 1985) I'd be willing to bet some of those posting here about this car wasn't even born yet!! John was racing his Brown Stg-1 in the pure stock muscle car showdown that was held with the GS Nats that year. Anybody here remember John racing his car in Popular Mechanics magazine? The point is, be cautious/knowledgable if buying a particular car to avoid being burned. But also open to the history of others, and maybe you'll learn something!!!

 

It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. ~Maurice Switzer, 1906

Ask questions and many people here will step up and willingly help you many times over but insult one of the people that has helped out this hobby as many times as John C. has and you will find that your not welcome fast and with class.

To John I would like to say. Thank you for all you have done for this hobby and I wish you all the best with whatever car you find next. I had the pleasure of seeing his fine prototype Stage 1 years ago and I enjoyed seeing it very much. Thank you John for bringing it out to the Nationals for many of us that love theses cars no matter what they are worth.

Sincerely,
Ryan Craig

 

Ad now says sold for $125k

 

Im not totally sure what the big uproar is all about with this car. I oogle over $10k Buicks as much as $100k Buicks because I love these cars for what they are, NOT what they are worth!! Agree or disagree with the appraisal, I think its safe to say that this is a beautiful car with a very interesting history, price be d*mned. So enjoy it for what it is instead of getting your blood pressure up, afterall we all got involved in this hobby because we enjoy it.

As far as flippers and shill bidders, yeah, thats shady and does often times cast a dark and misleading cloud over the hobby we love. But as with anything, there are those in the business for good intentions and those in it for bad. If you got burned by buying this car and it being inaccurately represented then yeah, get fired up! But the fact of the matter is it appears there are enough people on here with specific knowledge about this car to prove its legitemacy so lets hope it goes to a true Buick enthusiast instead of busting out the pitch forks and torches to scewer anybody.

 

I think most of you might be missing one thing from this conversation, John has been kind enough to maintain and show this car for years, whoever has purchased this car now may never show it, thus we will never see the #2 show car again.

 

All right, Brad. Take it easy there. I apologize if I offended anyone with my comments. However, I'm sure many others will side with me on the concept of validation being necessary when claims about "one of 2" status start cropping up.
As I mentioned in my comment, in this day and age ANYTHING can be faked. I'm sure many investors and mortgage holders were told prior to 2007 or so that their investments and mortgages were "sound and solid" by "experts" in the field. You'll forgive me if I'm a little skeptical regarding the provenance of cars and people unknown to me-- especially when such large sums are being sought.
By the way, how is a V.I.N. sequence of --21924 "early in production"? Doesn't that number mean 21,923 of them were made before this one was built? Unless I'm wrong, the series started at --100001, no? Nearly 24,000 units is quite a bit to produce while still in the "early production" phase of the model year.
Again, I'm not saying such a car doesn't still exist, I'm just allowing for the possibility that the car shown in the eBay auction is not THAT same car. And once more, sorry to any persons offended by my previous comments.

 

:TU: Thank you for commenting.

 

I miss the old days when all the Buick guy's were like Family. I got my first Buick, 1971GS455 at the ripe age of 16 and have loved them my whole life. It is pretty sad when you have people trash talking on the number one buick forum in the world. I never thought I would see the day when actual buick owners would talk down the value of our cars. Mopar or Chevy guys sure but a true Buick man would never trash talk their own cars.

John Chamberlain has been a true Ambassador for Buick Gran Sports for the most part of his life and deserves way more respect than has been shown in this thread.The Red Stage One Show car is one of the rarest GS cars left in existence !!! John restored and kept it in pristine condition all of these years for all of us to enjoy.
Everyone has their own opinions but some of us will always remember the first time we fired up a Buick GS and drove it for the first time, that is a memory that will never fade and brings a smile to my face every time.:3gears:
I will always have the ultimate respect for John and Brad Conley for preserving the best cars Buick ever had to offer !!!!:TU:

 

Dude, relax, this is about a car. I seriously doubt any person has been undermined in this thread.

However, for the life of me I can't understand why people can't comment about the outrageous value assigned to this car by an appraiser. Is that talking down? Again, this is a car. Let's keep it real because, after all, there's plenty of cars out there that have less integrity than others, and it seems the cars currently in question have more than most.

 

We know the car is real but i thought id mention my 70 gs455 built in fremount 3 week of aug has a body tag of 00000023:3gears:

Hector

 

I talked to the seller about a question i had he said he would gladly sell it back to john at a small profit