Airplane Value

MuseChaser

MuseChaser

Member
NEVER sell an airplane without researching market value first. Wooof. I was happy that I got my money out of the plane. I had NO idea what a humble PA28-140 was going for these days, and just priced my plane according to my costs to buy it plus the upgrades.

Of course... if someone else would like to, say, ignore current market value of a Grumman Tiger or Cheetah, or maybe a Maule, and contact me with one for sale with decent IFR avionics, you have my undivided attention.

Figured SOMEONE needed to start this part of the forum. As I'm usually ideally equipped to share embarrassing anecdotes.......
 
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It has been crazy recently. My little old 1969 Cardinal with 1900 SMOH has been said to be worth around $75k. Hopefully prices will be headed back to a more reasonable range soon. Not that I am looking to sell the Cardinal though.
 
I'd bet your Cardinal would go higher than that. Here's a Cessna 150 w/ 1600 smoh... for $100K!!!!

Really?

edit: ... the "Really?" above is a link. Referencing an earlier post about making links stand out more... now I see what they were talking about. Is there any way links COULD be a much different shade/color/font/bold? Perhaps it's browser/OS dependent, but on my computer and with my eyes, it looks almost identical to regular text.

extra edit: .. I changed the font to yellow by highlighting it and using the editing menu. does it still work?
 
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It can all be changed fairly easy. It is a question of graphics design and pleasing appearance. Perhaps we should have another poll.
 
Costs nothing to create an account on vref.com and browse their database of price trends on various makes and the ability to see how adding various avionics of various ages modifies the valuation.

As to links - if the text appears to be brown then it is a link somewhere. Brown and black text are pretty close in color, so I do sympathize. What if the links were this shade of blue?
 
I sold my Cherokee 140 last year, 150% more than I paid 5 years prior, and 1 day after I listed it a full-price-no-haggling-offer was wired to my bank account. I probably could have gotten more for it, but at more work on my part to get it, and how much more? Who knows...I was tickled to get it without the buyer even requesting a pre-buy. Crazy market.
 
tawood said:
I sold my Cherokee 140 last year, 150% more than I paid 5 years prior, and 1 day after I listed it a full-price-no-haggling-offer was wired to my bank account. I probably could have gotten more for it, but at more work on my part to get it, and how much more? Who knows...I was tickled to get it without the buyer even requesting a pre-buy. Crazy market.
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I didn't even list mine. I had mentioned to my A&P friend that I was considering selling it. Two days later the phone rang with an offer and I took it, knowing that it represented about my total purchase price plus the money I spent on redoing the interior, adding a Stratus ESG, and a four place intercom. Looking at the market now, I think I could easily have cleared another 10K-15K, but as you may have implied, sometimes the extra hassle isn't worth it. I kind of regret selling it, but not because of the selling price. I've already started window-shopping...there's a PA28-235 I have my eye on, constant speed prop and IFR, that would be a nice step up.....:)
 
tawood said:
I sold my Cherokee 140 last year, 150% more than I paid 5 years prior, and 1 day after I listed it a full-price-no-haggling-offer was wired to my bank account. I probably could have gotten more for it, but at more work on my part to get it, and how much more? Who knows...I was tickled to get it without the buyer even requesting a pre-buy. Crazy market.
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We just did this with a car! Collectible BMW, the guy made an offer and wired the money to our bank without even seeing the car much less doing any test drive or inspection. He lives on the east coast. We had the money a week before he flew down to get the car. I was so flabbergasted I called the bank to confirm it was really our money and not some kind of temporary deposit that was gonna be reversed if something didn’t clear after he’d absconded with our car. They said nope it’s not reversible, it’s yours. I just couldn’t believe it, how did the guy know we weren’t gonna abscond with his money?

He turned out to be really nice, drove the car home, said it did great and he was real happy. Apparently he has done this before and knows what he’s doing. He must have grokked that my husband was legit.
 
MuseChaser said:
I didn't even list mine. I had mentioned to my A&P friend that I was considering selling it. Two days later the phone rang with an offer and I took it, knowing that it represented about my total purchase price plus the money I spent on redoing the interior, adding a Stratus ESG, and a four place intercom. Looking at the market now, I think I could easily have cleared another 10K-15K, but as you may have implied, sometimes the extra hassle isn't worth it. I kind of regret selling it, but not because of the selling price. I've already started window-shopping...there's a PA28-235 I have my eye on, constant speed prop and IFR, that would be a nice step up.....:)
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Even though the market is crazy, I learned that it wasn't a bad time to upgrade...I noticed where the market is REALLY bad is with the "entry level" purchases: 2 place, or small beginner-type 4 place airplanes like 172s, 152s, or Cherokee 140s. Their prices have really been pushed up to ridiculous levels, with some of them passing retract prices! All plane prices are up, but it seems those "entry level" planes are up the most. Another thing that has been weird in this market is aircraft upgrades/accessories. In a normal market (if there is such a thing) an owner should never expect to get their money out of upgrades. In other words, in a normal market, if you spent $15k on an autopilot, you might see a return on a sale of a $7500 increase in the sale price. But, in this market, people are getting their full upgrade amounts in the sale: ie add an autopilot, your plane value just went up for the price of the autopilot! I think your plane sale kind of shows that...
 
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Rush said:
We just did this with a car! Collectible BMW, the guy made an offer and wired the money to our bank without even seeing the car much less doing any test drive or inspection. He lives on the east coast. We had the money a week before he flew down to get the car. I was so flabbergasted I called the bank to confirm it was really our money and not some kind of temporary deposit that was gonna be reversed if something didn’t clear after he’d absconded with our car. They said nope it’s not reversible, it’s yours. I just couldn’t believe it, how did the guy know we weren’t gonna abscond with his money?

He turned out to be really nice, drove the car home, said it did great and he was real happy. Apparently he has done this before and knows what he’s doing. He must have grokked that my husband was legit.
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That's funny that you called the bank, as I did too! Some history on me: I'm a retired police detective/fraud investigator. Even though I knew full well that having the guy wire me the money was a one-way transaction, I called the bank anyway just to be sure I wasn't missing something. The bank confirmed, saying, "He can't rip you off, but you certainly could rip him off!"
The guy that bought my plane was a really nice guy, but I can't imagine ever buying something like a plane sight-unseen. Even when he arrived to take possession, he looked at the plane from one spot for like 10 seconds, said, "Yep, looks great, just like you described." Then he took the keys!
 
tawood said:
That's funny that you called the bank, as I did too! Some history on me: I'm a retired police detective/fraud investigator. Even though I knew full well that having the guy wire me the money was a one-way transaction, I called the bank anyway just to be sure I wasn't missing something. The bank confirmed, saying, "He can't rip you off, but you certainly could rip him off!"
The guy that bought my plane was a really nice guy, but I can't imagine ever buying something like a plane sight-unseen. Even when he arrived to take possession, he looked at the plane from one spot for like 10 seconds, said, "Yep, looks great, just like you described." Then he took the keys!
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That’s hilarious! Our guy also looked at the car for just a few minutes, said it was actually better than expected, took the keys and took off. We met him at the airport and did the transaction in the parking lot. On top of paying us, he had to buy a commercial plane ticket and trust that the car would safely take him for a 20 hour drive. To my mind he was taking a risk that we were defrauding him, but my husband said something about the collectible car community having a certain level of trust. They had communicated by phone and e-mail quite a bit and signed a bill of sale so I suppose if he’d gotten down here and the car didn’t exist or was not as represented he could sue us for his money back, that is, if we actually existed and weren’t some scammer’s creation. I don’t know if scammers are sophisticated enough to pull off something that detailed, my husband had all kinds of pictures of the car, and could talk in detail about it and describe all the work he’d done on it. A scammer would have to have been a vintage BMW aficionado himself to pull it off.
 
I can’t believe the prices. Many clapped out versions of my 140 are listed in the mid sixties. It ran through my mind to sell but I would have to bank that money until the prices come down to pay for a nicer, faster, bigger (insert other desires here) airplane.

Nope, I’ll just keep my slow “beginner” little Cherokee 140. I’ve almost got it where I want it. Only thing left is an auto pilot which will be installed next year about this time.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I can’t believe the prices. Many clapped out versions of my 140 are listed in the mid sixties. It ran through my mind to sell but I would have to bank that money until the prices come down to pay for a nicer, faster, bigger (insert other desires here) airplane.

Nope, I’ll just keep my slow “beginner” little Cherokee 140. I’ve almost got it where I want it. Only thing left is an auto pilot which will be installed next year about this time.
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I only meant "beginner" as a plane that often has a new-to-planes type of first owner. I loved my little Cherokee, and it flew us all over the country, in all sorts of weather. It was so confidence building, that I probably pushed my minimums a bit in it, because it really seemed to be able to handle almost anything, other than high density altitude, LOL.
I think I can, in part, blame ADS-B for the demise of my Cherokee ownership, as I got really tired of noticing all the planes around us flying faster than us! The worst was when we flew from Michigan to South Carolina to see the 2017 eclipse. The iPad/ADS-B screen looked almost like opening day of Oshkosh, and it also showed EVERYONE passing us! Factor in that my girlfriend is a late sleeper, and we were trying to get to the South Carolina airport to get a good parking spot...
Not that my current plane (an Arrow I) is that much better, but at least I'm passing the 172s and fixed gear PA28s now, LOL.
 
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