A recent article on Hagerty.com entitled "Car people are lying to you about their budgets, and I have the receipts" took a lighthearted look at how often fellow car enthusiasts beat each other up over the asking price when a car is listed for sale. Recently, it even happened to car media personality David Freiburger when he listed his infamous "Disgustang" for sale. The peanut gallery on Facebook and other platforms barked at him that he didn't have the money invested to justify his asking price; the only problem was, no one really knew for sure whether he did or didn't.
For instance, commenters said things like, "I could build the same thing in my garage for $15K." And while David Freiburger doesn't have to justify his $75,000 asking price with receipts, it reveals a behavior all of us have encountered wherein a potential buyer kicks rocks at the asking price because he or she has no idea what's been invested. And worst of all, sometimes the seller doesn't know, either.
If Freiburger had tallied up his invoices and kept a digital portfolio of the work, his followers would have likely had far more appreciation for what the total restoration and improvement budget ended up being. They still may not been potential buyers but it likely would have cut down on some of the naysaying (which can quickly taint the potential buyer pool, as serious buyers may question if they're pondering a bad investment based on the bickering in the comments).
When it comes to storing receipts, enthusiasts should do this not only to cut down on tire kickers but to also reinforce the fact that they've made a significant investment into the vehicle in question - and perhaps their asking price is spot-on, regardless of what some joker on Facebook Marketplace has to say.
David Freiburger still sold his car, and I recently sold my 2011 BMW 328xi in about 14 hours, thanks in part to the huge digital portfolio of records I had for it stored here on TheCommonGear.com. There was no haggling and my asking price was certainly fair in the current marketplace. The best part is, anyone with a strong records portfolio can experience the same result - even David Freiburger.