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Helping Someone Selling RV-6 Kit

Jim Bremer

I'm New Here
I hope this isn't out of line, as I fly a "store-bought" plane and am not buiding anything. I've been contacted by a woman who's late father bought an RV-6 kit some years ago. Unfortunately, he died before he'd started building. The family would like to sell what they have and I've offered to help. I understand they have the wing, fuselage, empennage and finishing kits. From the pictures I've seen, it looks like nothing was ever unpacked.
I have no idea of the value and what the asking price should be. The daughter says the mother thought he'd spent about $7,000, which seems low to me. Would that be correct?
What do you think an appropriate price might be?
Thanks for any help.
 
$10-12k is a reasonable estimate for what he could have spent, depending on when he purchased the kit(s).

I would advertise it for that amount here and on Barnstormers.com and see what offers you get.

The RV-6 was obsoleted (from Van's perspective) about 12 years ago, and has been replaced by easier to build models, so used kits do not command top dollar.
 
Condolences and help

Jim, you're a swell fella for helping your friends in such a daunting matter. Please inform them that if they wish to liquidate the assets it may be best to separate the kits and sell them individually. From my research regarding the RV6 (which is extensive) I can offer the following: most completed wing kits and empennage kits together are selling between $2500-4000 depending on quality of work. Wings, tail, and fuselage completed or near completion sell from $6000-$18500 roughly. The asking prices for kits that have not been worked on is lower for the RV6 because it is less builder friendly than the more current models and sellers cannot factor in the cost of their labor to that point. Since the RV6 was discontinued in 2001, the RV7 has been the replacement (read: revision) from Vans. Some prospective builders still seek the RV6 for a variety of reasons. Please keep me posted regarding the family's decision. I would be very interested in purchasing the empennage kit. As a relatively broke college grad with a great network of EAA chapter members at my local hangar, I would love to have a project to begin and work on through the winter. I would be prepared to make a reasonable offer and talk about arranging shipping to my cold little chalet in northern Michigan. Thanks for reaching out to us, good luck!
 
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Welcome, Jim. You'll find this is an excellent community to help you get the best price for the family.

What Kyle and Reuben said is correct. The price you mention sounds low. For unopened kits, with a good inventory and without any hangar rash or corrosion, you might want to start at least at 80% of what the current kit prices are. If there's no hurry to sell, I would sit at that level until I'm certain I don't have any takers, and only then would I start to gradually lower the price. Even if you are able to find the original purchase prices, I would price the kit as a function of today's prices, not the original prices.

Also let me reemphasize something to which Reuben alluded (also, welcome Reuben! nice first post!).

An un-started and good-condition RV-6 tail-kit has a unique value that no other RV sub-kit has; namely, it's not made anymore. If someone wants to start a -6 (and Reuben is right, there are a few unique benefits to that airframe that appeal to certain builders), then the only way is to find an existing tail-kit and acquire its "builder number". This is the only way Vans will sell the other kits.

Therefore, I would consider carefully that the value of your friends' tail-kit may be quite a bit more than you might expect, for the right buyer.

Hope that helps. Many others will chime in here, and I bet lots of good advice will be forthcoming.

--
Stephen

p.s. An additional thought about the tail sub-kit: even if you may eventually decide to break up the kits and sell them to separate buyers, I would initially offer them only together, again because of the unique value of an unstarted RV-6 tail-kit. That alone may push the total value of the other kits upward.
 
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First confirm if it is a "raw" kit or a quick build.

The wife may not know the difference, but a quick visual description would confirm.
 
RV6 kit that you are selling

Truly a kind thing that you are in process of doing for the family. As the owner of an RV6 kit, (minus the finishing kit) that has been trying to sell it for 3-4 months, my advice would be to NOT separate the kits. What you have is a complete kit that is very sellable to an individual builder. Once you separate and sell any part of the complete kit, the rest of the kits will be very hard to sell. Trust me, I have much experience with this! I agree with earlier advice, that you should start at 80% of what the kit cost, (plus freight) and START there. By the way, there was an RV6 kit, complete for sale last week on E-Bay, (located in Ontario, Canada) for a Buy-it-Now price of $25,000. I don't believe it sold at that price, but the point is this: I have an RV6 kit, empennage basically finished, wings are ready for fuel tanks, complete fuselage kit, and quite a few extra parts, PLUS some avionics out of a Cessna 172, started my price at $14,500 and now my price is reduced to $10,000. Why is it so cheap? Because it does not have the finishing kit included. I truly wish you the best of luck. Last thing, if you get help and advice from this website, be sure to send Doug (the Moderator and Creator of this website) a donation for $25. Best Bargain in ALL of Aviation Related Things. Fletchvan
 
Thanks!

Wow. What a great group! I appreciate all the advice. I'll print them all and get with the family to see what they want to do.
 
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