'97 on ebay

[jwm470]

A few years ago a friend of mine made a large out of the ordinary purchase, and another of our friends commented to him that it was too much money, and he was foolish for making the purchase. The purchaser replied, if you are not in this market, and cannot afford it, then your opinion does not matter. We all laughed, because it was funny, and also true. The only person whose opinion that matters regarding the price of a bus is the one without a bus that desires to own one, and has the means to close the transaction.
A 97 Wanderlodge was listed for 119K in MD, and just sold last week for 110K. Too much? I say NO! I drive by several RV dealers in three cities on a weekly basis, and see brand new coaches with mid-six-figure prices on the windshields with the first digit being the number two. I have been in these coaches, and would not personally pay more than 25K for one if I had to keep it and use it. Again, my opinion does not matter as I am not, nor ever will be in the market for a plastic coach.
If a person can find a Prevost, Bluebird or a Newell in unmolested condition with a good maintenance history, and passes a through inspection buy it. There is a good outline for inspecting a bus on prevoststuff website. I had been in the market for four years looking diligently for a nice unit that met the above criteria, and there are surprisingly very few available. The Newell factory is still in business, and 60 miles from my house, but I own a Bluebird that has no factory support. It is not an issue as all the different systems on the bus are individual business still in operation.
There is a range of prices of mid nineties buses that I have seen from a low of 35K to 150K (the nice one on ebay that started this discussion) Does that mean that the person with the bus with the 150K price should lower his to match the price of the worst example on the market? The one for 35K will never be in the condition of the one for 150K regardless of what one spends on it.