It's all mine, er, ours now

I haven't posted about this before because I didn't want to risk having the whole thing blow up in my face ... but the 1976 Sportwagon from Portland is now sitting in my driveway.

Bryan Thompson won the eBay auction, and I emailed congratulations to him within minutes, offering to buy the car if he didn't want it at some point. As it turned out, he only wanted it to take a vacation trip down the coast from Portland to San Diego and was planning to sell it when he got home. So we agreed that I would buy the car from him, with Bryan cutting his trip just a bit short to drop the Sportwagon off here in Silicon Valley.

Unfortunately, Bryan had some work commitments come up, and I stepped in and arranged to have the car shipped directly to me. At about noon today, Rick Watkins (a uShip.com transporter) pulled up and rolled Laverne's car off the trailer.

I noticed a couple of things not readily apparent in the eBay photos; a little door ding on the passenger side and the rather nastily chewed up panel under the front bumper. Other than that, though, this is an incredibly clean car. Like in the hatchback, the radio is hopelessly broken, but everything else seems to be as advertised. It runs beautifully and looks very cool as a little red wagon.

Pictures will be coming later, and I've got some hard decisions to make about other cars, but this is a great day!

Bryan Thompson for the win!

Well, that beautfiully maintained one-owner 1976 Sportwagon that sold on eBay several weeks ago for $3,250 got turned around quickly by its new owner, another used car place in Portland. After offering it up in late July and not having the reserve met (highest bid of $4,250), the seller relisted it with a lower reserve price:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Vintage-Nissan-F-10-Wagon-Rare-Datsun-F10-1-owner-GAS-CRISIS-TIME-WARP-survivor_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6188QQihZ006QQitemZ160268019404QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

It had been sitting at around $3,050 for several days until the final minute on Sunday when the snipers went to work. First, someone knocked in a bid for $5,000.01, then Nissan Design's Bryan Thompson bid $5,100.01 with just 30 seconds left, winning the auction at the wire. It figures it would be him ... how many sane people want Datsun F10s, anyway?

He told me via email that he's planning to take a leisurely drive down the coast from Portland with his new beauty. Congratulations, you lucky dog.