Bob
AI is not the way to appraise a classic…
AI is not the way to appraise a classic vehicle. Need to use experience and common sense instead of depending on AI to do the work. Need to check everything over before sending appraisals to the client. Make sure the appraisal is correct and makes sense and is factual before sending. Need to use proper comparables that are in alignment with the vehicle being appraised. Take questions and criticism constructively and not personally.
Response from Classic Auto AppraiserNov 26, 2025
Hey Bob, Thanks for the review. Just to contextualize your above statements AI (artificial intelligence) is not used to value any vehicle. Rather we use AI in very rare circumstances to pull obscure vehicles, with few comps, off of the lesser known sites on the internet. For your collection we used this process only for your 1954 REO grain truck to find real world comparables in similar (poor) condition. We still hand pick from what is pulled by the search the best comparable for your vehicle and manually adjust values accordingly. AI is a tool in our toolbelt yet it is not used in any part of the valuation, nor are comparables automatically selected by it, rather it does the deep internet digging for us (exp. a forum post on page 20 of Google that has the right comparable we need, that is our only purpose for AI in our company). Saying AI did the work is a dishonest claim knowing how long you and I talked about my appraisal process and my specific reference to using the technology for sourcing one very obscure vehicle in your collection. Not to mention how much we talked at length about my appraisal process prior to you ever hiring me, so you knew exactly how my work was done. I'll admit I'm sorry we did make two mistakes on two different appraisals both of which were remedied immediately. One for your 1968 Camaro which we had comped with hardtops instead of convertibles (the broad market data was still convertibles, and all fell into the appropriate restomod category) and we accidently inserted Pontiac Firebird comps into the GTO appraisal as we were simultaneously working on a GTO and Firebird. Again the latter one being the greater offender, both were remedied and sent back post haste. I really don't see how this is a big issue. I'd say the greater issue would be me having to debate with you on every value almost everyday we interacted, despite me being the unbiased third party appraiser you needed for this court dispute and you being a party with vested interest in how the values of these vehicles were returned to you. All of the appraisals (including the ones I fixed) reflect their markets accurately and have comps that match them very well. You don't have to agree with me, in fact when you disagreed I went the extra mile to hear you out and adjusted values that merited change based on your verbal testimony entirely, although you have something to gain in this transaction as this is a court dispute in which values can serve your purposes better if they align with what you think they are worth. You also sent in very poor quality photos to work with making any fine tuning of my initial assessments difficult although they were still done to the best of my ability considering the limitations and you still considered them worthy of use for your purposes. If you had procured better photos this may have possibly changed the outcome, however you should have still supplied the context for this review that there is a financial stake for you since you are splitting up assets between you and another party in a court setting. I am happy to take questions and answer them, as you know since you benefitted from hours of my time on and off the clock (and after hours) at no added expense to you, but you should receive the answers I give you as me giving them to you in good faith. I also quite literally walked you through each appraisal (and its methodology) which I am not required to do, rather it was a courtesy (really no other appraiser I've worked with or met does this, so I'm not sure where else you were going to get this service). Which really brings me to your motivations for disagreeing with every value I established especially after receiving such a massive discount (almost 50% off of what should have been a $6,000 job) for a collection I did all the work on yet you decide to only use and pay for half of it. Ultimately Bob, I stand by the appraisals I wrote, regardless of whether or not you like the final values. Best, D.C.