The chinese have a system for transactions with people they don't know.... the participants have to be introduced by somebody they both know and trust, in other words, somebody that can act as the trusted agent for both parties. If the agent or person supplying the trust turns out to have goofed, then by an ancient honor bound system, that agent then literally owes the party (or parties) an equivalent in some other form.... accounts are kept on trust and who owes whom how much in favors.... for life. If you can't find somebody that you know and trust to inspect the car for you remotely, and insure any transfer's of funds or title or vehicle will be made without some fraud involved (and there's a ton of fraudulent methods), then there's no point in pursuing a transaction... unless you're a gambler or the money's involved are not significant in your own scheme of things.
Then, assuming you can find somebody trustworthy, i.e. somebody that is vouched for by somebody you actually know and trust, there's always the possibility that if the deal's a good one, the person doing the trusted inspection is likely somebody that may also want to purchase on such a deal.... and the honor bound inspector that wants the deal will pay you a finder's fee for having brought the deal to his attention... but he'll get the deal and the car.
It's buyer beware for sure... there are more shyster's out there than you can shake a stick at... and remember, if you get the potential purchase inspected by a trusted source, and offer a rational price considering the results of the inspection, but under the ask... the shyster will simply wait for the inevitable sucker to come along and get his unwarranted price anyway.
I use the following rule of thumb.... if the body parts numbers match, if the car's never been in a serious accident... frame's straight and no new body panels have been supplied after market, if it's got the right engine in it and all parts are still on the car or in it, then add $10k for an engine long block overhaul (including labor for removal and re-installation & tuning), up to $3k for injector rebuild, $10k for paint (interior/exterior), $10k interior redo & misc. and see if the cost plus above still make economic sense. In general, this means adding up to $25k - $30k in complete restoration costs (over time or all at once) to the price of the car as purchased. Considering a well restored version (but not a show car) might fetch $40k that doesn't leave much room for the purchase before restoration, so on net, you're going to put more into the car at any given time than it's worth on the open market at that time... in effect, you're economic's only work out over time and further appreciation, harder to find parts inflation, and you're own pleasure of use in the mean-time.
Longtooth
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