Are these seats from the first Corvette prototype—and are they worth $90,000?

[Bryan]

How much would you pay to own the original bucket seats from the very first Corvette prototype? A seller on eBay is hoping the answer is $90,000.

Offered by user “ncrstopflight” in Portage, Indiana, the fiberglass seats and red cushions purportedly come from one of five cars that General Motors built in 1952–53 under the name Project Opel. In fact, the seller claims they come from the very first prototype, EX-52 [#852 in internal Chevrolet documents], which was built in December 1952 and shown in the GM Autorama at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York on January 17, 1953.

The seller claims to have proof of the seats’ authenticity, which he/she will share only with the buyer ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/are-these-seats-from-the-first-corvette-prototype-a...

[FUNZR1]

There is no need to "beat up" the person that has these.  Obviously they are "fishing" to see if someone with deep pockets is interested.  Can't really blame them.  This would be an item that hopefully someone will someday donate to the National Corvette Museum.  They are worth saving because of the story.  

[toy83h2ssj53]

Good luck with the sale, if there is one.  Darwin award for the buyer.

[Markymark]

Talk about an optimist.....

On the other hand, and to be fair, the seats do appear to be in no. 3 condition.

Which means they will likely require very little work to restore to factory specs.   

Unfortunately they are out of my league. My Platinum AmEx card purchase limit is $10.

Will be interesting to see how the bidding goes.... I'll check back in April

[carguyjim]

Kudos to P.T. Barnum.....

[farna]

People form the general public (not car people!) see my Rambler in great condition and often comment something like "it must be worth a lot, I can't remember the last time I saw one". We all know POPULARITY drives price more than RARITY. If you have the only one left and no one really wants it, what's it worth? NOTHING!!!   Rare, prototype seats. Might be worth something to a Corvette collector. Maybe $90 for a curiosity, $900 if you just have to have everything historic Corvette... possibly $9K. But $90K is a fools errand!! Put them up with a $10K reserve and $1000 starting bid, drop starting and reserve if no takers. Maybe contact the Corvette Museum, but I doubt GM would kick too much in for them....

[elheadflat]

These seats deserve to be in a museum. Can only imagine how they were worn so badly...but there's always a story........ and in words of my infamous college philosophy professor "its not what is said but who said it". 90K....priceless

[StevieJanowski]

“Wish in one hand, s___ in the other, see which one fills up first.”

[Scanman]

I have a used Kleenex from Elvis. I’m asking $90,000. I won’t trade for these seats. 

[Tinkerah]

Eh - sure, they're important, deserve to be preserved but not by me. I predict the seller will accept the first offer over $10K, possibly much less. As of this morning there are 167 watchers, I suspect all of whom are simply curious.

[menelson1961]

As a recoverd Corvette addict, I can relate to the absurdity of some people's unrealistic expectations of the worth of their self-proclaimed "priceless" original parts.  But as someone once said, "One man's junk is another man's treasure".

[WOJ]

Since the cars were not built by GM but rather a company named Molded Fiberglass of Ashtabula Ohio....I think they should be able to verify the claim. They also built the Avanti bodies too

[WOJ]

looks like my comment was deleted

[Sajeev]

Your comment was not deleted, it's here: https://community.hagerty.com/t5/hagerty-articles/are-these-seats-from-the-first-corvette-prototype-... 

[WOJ]

I have since done some investigation into these seats and I came across a restorer of fiberglass boats. He states these seats are from a 1957 and latter boat. I also ran it by my upholsterer and she says that the orange yellow foam visible  on the seats was not available in 1952, it would be waste cotton bat and or horse hair filling in 1952-53. The sponge rubber was not invented till 1952 and did not become commercially available till 1956.

[Sajeev]

This is fantastic insight, thank you for sharing! 

[D74]

Yup seats to a car that no longer exist same with the proof I bet ah what the heck throw in the steering wheel from the same car and then maybe

[Blackpanthers81]

Who owned them last, oscar the grouch?