What's a fair price for a 31 Royale?

[Guest Gump159]

How do I arrive at a fair price for a 1931 REO Royale Victoria???? This car has been driven but now in pieces with a long restoration in progress. Many extra parts (2 engine & trans, running boards, lights, etc) but missing some small pieces (door handle, hubcaps, one fender light). I'm not looking to get greedy but the price guide seams a little low for a car I've only seen one for sale in over 25 years.

All help and comments appreciated.....Thanks

Gump

[F&J]

This pic was on WIKI as a 31 Royale.... Man, what a car!

What does the price guides say??? I'd like to know.

Just a poor comparison: I saw a 32 Stude St Regis 2dr victoria run twice on ebay 6 months ago. A real genuine complete Cal car in VG unrestored, but somewhat apart. I don't think the bids went to 6K either time. Made no sense to me at all. I would think the Stude should have been bid a least 10K or higher......That REO is much more desirable from what I have seen in the last 40 years.. No offense to the Stude guys because I would have grabbed the ebay Stude if I was younger

[JustDave]

hello

if your looking to sell the car for top money your going to have to wait a couple of years or more,unfortunately the only cars that are actually selling are either being given away,are full blown classics at reasonable prices,or special cars that will be turned into street rods,i sold a 1934 lincoln in very good condition but was partially apart,some restoration was done but not much about 4 1/2 years ago for 17500,today that same car wont bring 10000 except to a high end street rodder, i know of 2 reos for sale in calif, the owner cant get his asking price so hes decided to leave them to a close friend,shell have to make the decision on what to accept when hes gone,i hope a street rodder doesnt end up with the cars it would be a shame to see another fine vehicle street rodded,in better economic times i would be very intrested in the car as many more would,good luck with the sale an hopefully the decision to sell is because of lost intrest and not economically,again good luck and save my email address and if you still have the vehicle later in the year maybe we can talk a deal

dave

[alsancle]

This one has been for sale for a number of years. It was an AACA first prize winner back in the 80s. I believe the asking price is around 70k. If the car needs a restoration I would discount heavily.

1931 Reo Royale White Glove Collection

[Rusty_OToole]

It's a question of supply and demand. No doubt your car is very rare, possibly unique. If you could get enough wealthy collectors bidding on it the sky is the limit.

Though the Reo Royale was a very fine car it was not very popular when new and is largely forgotten today. This means it is not supported like Packard or Cadillac.

It also means parts and information are much harder to locate. So a potential buyer must face a more difficult restoration, and will have a less valuable car in the end.

I know how you feel but to be fair, you should look at it from the potential buyer's viewpoint too.

[Steve Moskowitz]

Gump, this is a very desirable car when done. Royale's are gorgeous cars but I am not sure anyone of us can say what is fair. Hard to see what needs to be done, what part problems you will have (some may need to be made), etc.

From our perspective here the market is still relatively strong. Most likely though the buyer will have more money in the car than its ultimate "worth" upon selling. A whole lot of us have not been deterred but that scenario but it is an issue. Having the car apart is not an advantage to a lot of folks so you may have to settle for less than you had hoped for...good luck.

[alsancle]

I think that Royale's are very cool. Other posters have pointed out that they are fairly obscure and this does impact their market value. Mechanically they are very similar to the top of the line Chrysler's of the period but seem to bring less money (although they are almost never seen for sale). My advice would be to take tons of good pictures, write a very detailed description then put up a website with all the info and advertise in both the REO club newsletter as well as the CCCA newsletter with the address of the website and say best offer. Generally I think you need to price something before you try to sell it but short of an auction scenario I'm not sure how you would do that.

It is impossible to put a price on your project without seeing lots of pictures but If the car is complete, solid and only disassembled I can't see it bringing more then 30k dollars or so. Chances are it's less then that. I know the one I linked to has been for sale for a number of years at around 70k. Although the colors are not good, a buyer is much better off cleaning up an older but quality restoration then taking on a full restoration.

Btw, does your car have the aluminum top pictured at the bottom? If so then I imagine it's worth a premium over the cloth insert model.

[Jim Rohn]

from the above link:

[Dave Henderson]

For some indication of the quantity produced, the new car registration figure for Reos was 6,762 in 1931, as per The Production Figure Book For U. S. Cars, by Jerry Heasley. Actual production figures were not given. Accordingly, survivors are relatively few.

[alsancle]

For some indication of the quantity produced, the new car registration figure for Reos was 6,762 in 1931, as per The Production Figure Book For U. S. Cars, by Jerry Heasley. Actual production figures were not given. Accordingly, survivors are relatively few.

With the Royale being the top of the line & expensive I would imagine most of those numbers were made up of Flying Clouds and the like. There are 3 or 4 known coupes and probably a few more hiding. What is interesting is the number of Victorias (which this thread was originally about). Along with the 2 or 3 that you see pictures of, there is the one in this thread as well as 2 more in Conn that I heard about. For every known car there are usually 1 or 2 that are not known.