Re: [VAC] '68 Int'l. L/Y "Sov." - 30 ft. - S/N 1308J517

["terry tyler" <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

1968 was the year before major improvements were
introduced in the manufacture of Airstreams. From
what you've described, the 1968 you asked about
sounds like a standard Airstream without benefit
of a restorer owner. To me, an ordinary 1968
Airstream would not get a 1970s amount of money
out of my wallet. 

There are thousands of used Airstreams around the
continent. If you hang around a month or more on
this list, you'll be read about a few of them. If
it was me - and it's only me I'm referring to -
I'd make a point of finding an owner who was an
enthusiastic, compulsive perfectionist about this
Airstream and who had an obvious amount of
mechanical aptitude. It is quite common to find
such people among Airstream owners. Then, I'd
consider paying $6,000 and even a lot more. That
could be profoundly cheaper than buying a less
expensive Airstream and you doing the restoration
(that word means fixing what the previous owner
didn't fix or didn't know how to fix - similar to
what Mr. Webster wrote in his dictionary). 

As a recent example, one of our members just
offered his 1968 Globetrotter for sale. That's not
the size you are looking for, but it has more
upgrades and is in far better condition than any
ordinary used Airstream of the 1968 vintage. Why
don't you click on his website and get another
perspective? Go to:
http://www.oldengine.org/members/jdunmyer

When you get to the website, click on 'Airstream'.
There's a link to that page to a list of repairs
and
upgrades he did as well as a list of features. I'm
not suggesting you buy this Airstream, but I am
suggesting you delete emotion from your equation
until you've seen a wider range of options. As an
aside,
the website owner might (perhaps) answer questions
you have about strategies for negotiating and
buying - if you are tactful about it. <grin>

My suggestion to you is to see 12 Airstreams (for
sale) before you decide on one. Give yourself the
benefit of a statistician's minimun number of
samples for predicting "general tendency of
differences." Even that is a far cry from his
minimum number of 30 samples for "marginally
statistically significant differences." Money is
too precious for decisions based on insufficient
data, or heaven forbid, based on on "I'm 'taken'
with this thing." Save decisions based on "I'm
taken with" - for people not things. 
 
Terry