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The 3 brand-new Tesla Roadsters found in a container might sell for $1M

There’s an auction for the three brand-new Tesla Roadsters found sitting in a container for more than 10 years, and they might go for as much as $1 million.

Earlier this week, Electrek reported a story about three brand-new original Tesla Roadsters having been found sitting in a shipping container in China for over a decade.

The story went viral with over 300,000 hits on our story alone, which was also shared by many other publications.

As we reported, the Roadsters are still in China, and we don’t know the conditions of the battery packs, but they are most likely dead, and the vehicles are “bricked,” which means they can’t be powered on.

Despite those factors, Gruber Motors, which specializes in fixing Roadsters and is helping the owner sell the electric cars, believes that they will sell for around $1 million.

Gruber reports having received seven bids over the last few days, including one for half a million dollars for all three Roadsters:

  • Bid 05/02/2023 – $50,000 each, for a total of $150K
  • Bid 05/02/2023 – $70,000 for Red VIN 1107
  • Bid 05/02/2023 – $76,000 for Red VIN 1107
  • Bid 05/03/2023 – $60,000 for Orange Sport VIN 1120
  • Bid 05/03/2023 – $200,000 for all three
  • Bid 05/04/2023 – $225,000 for all three
  • Bid 05/05/2023 – $500,000 for all three

Top comment by VoltMan

Liked by 11 people

If you pay $300,000 for the car, what's another $30,000 for a battery swap? I think the language used in the article is ridiculously alarmist.

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I was surprised at the demand for those Roadsters, considering they are basically ornaments at this point – pristine ornaments, but ornaments nonetheless.

So I asked Pete Gruber, the owner of Gruber Motors, if these bids were serious; not only does he think they are serious, but he said that he expects they will go for $1 million and be part of someone’s collection:

These should and will be a Picasso on the wall in some rich person’s collection, stationary, and no need to be operational. In my opinion, I project $1 million for all three.

Last year, an original Tesla Roadster sold for $250,000, but that was a working Roadster with low mileage and low VIN.

Do you think it makes sense for these Roadsters to go for more than $500,000? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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