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So here is another Packard 12 on Ebay. This one is fully restored for $90k...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370387792703

Why would someone pay $50k for a basket case when you can buy mint for $90k? A restoration will cost more than $40k!

I would think the basket case would be more like $15 - $20k

The formal (and club) sedan is a much more desirable body style. I think just a good rebuildable Packard Twelve engine would probably bring at least $15,000 all by itself, if not more.

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A beautiful car but admit I never paid much attention to details not being really into the older ones. Have to agree, the blocked off window area makes a huge difference. A radio in the hole would be nice as well. A question I have on the restored one. Would the chromed wire wheels have been available then? Those seem out of place. The unrestored car wheels (painted??) seem more appropriate.

Yes, chrome wheels were available. I agree with you, though... a bit like gilding a Lilly. At least it doesn't have chrome wheels AND white sidewall tires.
What bothers me about the restored car are those pinstripes. I kind of wonder if a wider paint brush couldn't have been found. That would be a relatively easy fix, though. Very, very nice car, otherwise.

A second look at those stripes, and I guess they're about correct in the width. Perhaps it's the color that bothers me so much. A nice, very subtle color of pin stipe would be what I'd do.

As an authority on prewar Packard classics once said to me when discussing pinstriping, "THINK THIN". And to me its always a shame to see pinstriping done incorrectly, which is very often the case on 1934 cars though I didn't take note of this particular one. Most of the striping in 1934 is double striping so for example each of the stripes along the hood spear running back to the window is actually a double (4 very thin stripes). Pinstripe color of course was specified in the paint code chart for 1934; I suppose a Twelve could have been done in any color but rarely can you pick one that looks better than that originally specified.

Chromium-plated wire spoke wheels were $32 extra each for any model in 1932; chromium plated disk wheels were $10 extra each, not available on the Twelve.

Dave
The stripes on the restored car on the eBay listing look to be done correctly. I just think that on a black limousine, red pin striping looks awful. I've seen red stripes on a black coupe roadster, but because they didn't do the four-stripe method, it looked okay. When you put four stripes right next to each other, it gets to be a bit much... especially in an eye-catching color.

West, the 4 stripes on the hood aren't exactly next to each other in the sense I thought you meant, they're paired with a bit of separation, and they must be THIN stripes. I'll attach a picture of original hood striping for 1934. Specified pinstripe color for a black vehicle (paint scheme "X") was straw, kind of an off-white, almost ivory. I agree that red striping on a black car reeks of poor taste. I've seen some cases of stunning pinstriping as I'm sure you have, that didn't conform to the factory scheme. I'm thinking of a 34 Twelve Dietrich convertible victoria that Dave Kane had (still has?) that was very dark blue and the pinstripe was such a light blue and so thin that you didn't even think the car was striped until you got very close to examine it, very subtle and stunning! Another of the schemes I always though elegant was Shirvan Green with bronze striping. Another that was very restrained and elegant was Sea Shell Gray stripe on a two-tone vehicle in Storm Cloud Gray and Silver Fox Gray. Three different grays on one car - just a WOW, makes a spectacular touring or phaeton.

I wish I had taken a closer look at the car in question.

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