Sometimes we get the rare treat of an ad with a smidgen of social commentary snuck in.  We all know that some buyers are just flat unrealistic or have stars in their eyes to the point that the obvious is obscured.  The seller of this 1956 Chevrolet Corvette for sale on eBay in Fenton, Michigan has sent a not-so-subtle message to the dreamers who might bid on this classic Corvette.  In the written portion of the ad, the seller lets prospective buyers know that they will not be able to drive this car home.  This statement may be absurd to the educated among us, but there must be a reason it had to be said.  This car, however, might be a bargain for those who desire an early Corvette and have mastered the intricacies of a trailer.  This mostly disassembled sports car has two days to go with a high bid of $23,200.  There is also the option of a Buy it Now price of $36,000.  Do you think an enterprising buyer can come out ahead after a restoration?  Do you feel the seller’s pain when it comes to dealing with the public?

Selling classic cars in the old days was a lot easier.  One simply made a call to the Auto Trader Magazine franchise in your area.  They would send out a photographer, or you could send in pictures and a check.  You had to choose if you wanted your car in the standard Auto Trader or, if they offered it in your area, you could advertise in the Antique, Custom, and Sportscar Trader Magazine by the same company.  Once it hit the newsstands, you started to get calls from all over and had to weed through the people who just wanted to talk to find the folks with folding money.  The biggest problem was dealing with a week’s worth of calls if it were in the regular magazine.  That could be two weeks if it was in the more specialized publication.  The other option was to submit an ad to Hemmings Motor News and wait a month or so for the phone to ring.  There were no pictures in these ads unless you paid a king’s ransom.  The other issue was that the ad was limited to a very small number of characters.  You had to be very good at abbreviations.  Then you had to field calls for a month from all over the country.

While I don’t think you can get a physical copy of any of the Auto Trader publications anymore, they have an online presence.  Hemmings still offers physical publications, but their online presence grows by the day.  We also have Craigslist, eBay, and a host of other online locations to advertise a car.  That plethora of options and the anonymity of the online world have made selling a vehicle far more complicated and annoying.  When you offer your car for sale, people from all over the world can see the ad and make contact with you.  You still have those starry-eyed dreamers, but now they are mixed with scammers from countries that don’t like us much with an African prince thrown in here and there.  Finding a legitimate buyer is difficult.  From their end, you might be a scammer!  Or you might make it through a whole online auction to have the high bidder flake out on you for one reason or another.  We laugh at the idea of someone bidding on this Corvette in the belief that they can drive it home like some Honda Accord off a used car lot.  The problem is that buyers can be unrealistic, and some are just plain nuts.

The seller of this 1956 Corvette starts the ad with the following line: “56 Corvette project needing total restoration, it is completely apart but does roll and steer, another words you’re not driving it home.”  While that line will drive the online editing software at the Barn Finds home office batty, notice that there is no exclamation point at the end.  Most likely someone has called and asked if they could drive it home.  While the car is far from the drivable condition, the seller does lay out a good case for why this car might be a good investment.  We are told that it has a straight frame and a straight body in primer, most of the chrome has been redone, and it comes with a NOS stainless sill plate in the wrapper.

Adding to the basket of goodies, a new, uninstalled red interior goes with the car.  The black power convertible top is also included.  Sadly, there is no hard top to go with it.  The car sits on four new B.F. Goodrich wide whitewall tires wrapped around four original rims.  Those rims are capped with a set of full wheel covers that are brand new.  The additional parts that are claimed to be new are a complete exhaust system, brake lines, fuel lines and hoses, and an undisclosed amount of suspension parts.  Also coming with the car is a lower fender panel that could be used to patch in the rough section of fiberglass in the right front of the car behind the tire.

Unfortunately, we are told that there are some missing parts.  Among them are the front fender lower splash shields, the door lock cylinders, a shroud for the engine fan, the jack and its handle, and various nuts, bolts, and fasteners.  The seller also lists that the windshield is missing despite the three pictures above that clearly show a windshield on the car.  There is no information about the status of the numbers on the smaller parts.  Restoring Corvettes is a numbers game in many ways.  Parts have to have the correct part numbers on them and a proper date code if applicable.  Corvette values can fluctuate wildly depending on the correctness of the parts installed on the car.

The 265 cubic small block Chevrolet engine seen above is unfortunatel not the original engine that came with the car.  It is, however, said to be a 1956 vintage engine.  Backing it up is a four-speed of unknown vintage that currently does not have a shifter.  The engine is topped with a dual quad intake that has only one carburetor included.  The engine does have a correct dual point distributor according to the seller.