Re: IML: Imperial "Rarity" in collector terms?

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

1960 LeBaron is a small population and is thus easier
to gauge, I argue to myself.

Production:  
999 Ht and 600 Sedans.  

I have paid very close attention to them for the last
decade online and elsewhere as I've been helping on
the site and doing other related Imperial things.

Here is what I know in my gut:

1.  Cadillac was the top seller for volume in 1960.
2.  Imperial was about 10% of that (and was so for
many other years as well).
3.  Surviving cars seem to be 10% production.
4.  Running/registered cars seem to be 10% of that
5.  Number 1 or strong number 2 cars seem to be 10% of
that, with perhaps 4-6 really top notch cars around
followed by a few people (such as myself with more
aspiration than 

These rules also seem to apply to other, newer
Imperials, and the pre 1960 cars seem to be
significantly lower.

64-66 cars seem more common (they did sell a lot of
those, comparatively).  

69-73 cars seem less common - I stongly suspect that
they may wind up being incredibly scarce because
"nobody" seems to be paying attention to them.

74-79 cars seem to still be coming out of the woodwork
in super "old-person owner" condition as their current
owners pass away or lose their licences.


Since we have a hell of a time convincing folks that
the Imperial Registry is worth the energy and we're in
as good a place as anyone to count survuvors that way,
any claims of "1 of 100 left" or so forth are simply
bogus and should be suspect.

In fact, pretty much EVERYTHING that you read in
almost ANY ebay ad should be considered suspect, since
I've sold cars with photos that were taken to offer
meticulous honesty and I've looked at the ad and seen
a car that looked nicer than it did in person.

The only ebay ad that you should trust would be the
one from someone that you know, who genuinely knows
what they're talking about (Dick B would be on my
short-list).  

All of the baggage that goes with the words "USED CAR"
goes quadruple on an OLD used car, and relative
scarcity really doesn't mean all that much, since our
cars are relatively underpriced and are likely to stay
in that category.  They're in company with Marmons,
Whites, Hupmobiles, AMX Javelins, and Hudsons for all
the collector community cares.  Old car purchases are
based on taste and emotion, NOT relative scarcity (in
Imperial's case, anyway). 

-K




       
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