Proper Price for a Super-D vs. Blue Book

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philav8or

New member
Fellow owners,

I am currently trying to sell my '93 Super-D. It has been pointed out to me that a few of the websites out there are giving remarkably low "blue book" values--ie. ~$50K for a Super Decathlon. At my $66,900 asking price, I am not getting any serious offers except FAR below that--with multiple (apparently unsophisticated otherwise) prospective buyers citing AOPA's "VREF" and other such sites. Having followed advertised 8KCAB prices for a decade, it seems to me that they probably deriving that from too many assumptions on too few base transactions--and probably from data on sales of 150hp models at that.

My airplane is high time, yet the engine has good comps, and it is probably totally flyable for a few hundred more hours before an overhaul as a babied personal airplane. How would you value that? I'm curious what you would pay IF you were in the market.

Anybody buy a comparable bird recently? Am I crazy to think it's currently worth what I am asking? Thoughts?

http://www.trade-a-plane.com/detail/aircraft/Single+Engine+Piston/1993/American+Champion/8-KCAB+Super+Decathlon/2163744.html

-Phil
 
Unfortunately, you are in the worst position in the life cycle of an airplane when it comes to selling one. Being close to the "perceived" end of useful life out of a engine places you at a big disadvantage. You will not get your money back if you were to overhaul your engine now. And as you well know by now, every potential buyer is going to make an offer based on thinking they will have to spend $25K plus in the near future and they don't want to be upside down in their purchase.
 
Well, the flip side is there is almost nothing between my asking price and 25K more on the market. I could put another 100 hours on it, and everything being equal, the value doesn't change dramatically.

The question then is...what is this aircraft worth at 0 SMOH?

-Phil
 
True if you do not want to sell, you are in a good position. You can fly several more hundred hours and not change the value appreciably.

I don't think 0hr SMOH brings a premium in price hence the reason you don't get your money back if you overhaul within a few years prior to selling. To me 0 SMOH has the same value as 500 SMOH.

Bill
 
I bought a 79' 8kcab two months before you put your plane on the market, and I would have been very interested in it when I was looking for a super-d. I think your price is right; just have to wait for the right buyer. The aircraft I bought has a recently recovered wing (with original wood spar that can't get the 150lbs normal cat gross increase) with original fuselage fabric. It had 200 hours SMOH, but two weeks into owning it, a valve spring broke and I had to have it completely overhauled (21K plus having the engines pulled and put back on). The engine had been "overhauled" fours years ago and had many new parts (crankshaft, lycoming cylinders, etc) a large factor in the agreed purchase price because of perceived value in the airplane with a relatively new engine. However, it ended up having corrosion on many internal parts and was not properly assembled in many areas, something we could not see until after the engine had been disassembled. I had the engine overhauled by a reputable engine builder who is an FAA repair station; they have strict guideline to follow as opposed to someone who does a "field overhaul", even if they follow the Lycoming manual. Not all engine overhauls are equal by even the slightest degree; this I found out the expensive way. SMOH means almost nothing to me unless I can speak with the engine builder directly, and know how much it flew after. These engine parts can corrode very quickly even when new.
My point is, if I were to buy an airplane again, I would look for an airplane that had an engine like your that was runout and have it rebuilt under my terms.
There is value in your plane, you just need someone like me looking to buy. Don't drop your price, someone that knows what they are doing will see the value.
Our timing was off.
 
A lot of those 'blue books' don't have enough data to get a real feel.
For example, I have seen multiple 'values' for models that we did not build any (or just one) that year.
Take them with a grain of salt.
 
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