Should I? How much? '75 VW

Just casually watching an auction today, I'm high bidder on a 1975 VW Beetle with a dual carb. No keys, so no idea if it runs or drives. Nobody pushed my lowball bid beyond $475. Seller's reserve is over $1,000. Not that I need any more cars/VWs, but you know just one more...  maybe get rid of the Mk2 Golf GTI VR6 mess.

Anyway, after fees and pick up, I'd probably be into this for about $2,000 if I accepted the reserve. My gut says, no more than $750 + fees for a mess that I might not want to get into this fall. Still, kinda cool and I see potential.

Here it is: https://www.copart.com/lot/43357369

What do the Beetle guys say? I haven't had one since the early 1980s.

That door sill/rocker panel looks fashionably crusty.

It's hard to gauge, but I wouldn't go for more than partout money for this one. And that's assuming that some of the expensive bits on the motor are actually usable. I agree with you that a grand for that seems excessive if you don't even know if it turns over. With all the fees and stuff I think you're safer off closer to your current bid than $750.

I don't know anything about bugs, but my thought would be that it's more sensible to start trolling forums/facebook/craigslist and offering $1000 to non-running clean bodies & interiors. Seems like the bodies, paint, & interiors would be much more irritating to troubleshoot, source & install- whereas you can slam a new drivetrain in easily enough. And then you don't wind up throwing limited energy (and more importantly time) into a rust bucket that's hard to sell. Or, half-seriously, you could probably trade one of the fleet Porsche's for a really clean example. I don't know if you want a throw away bug, or a money pit bug. The auction one kind of looks like a money pit from here

My top bid was $525. Thinking that it could be amusing to check it out, then resell or fix depending on condition - totally expecting to be outbid. Thanks for the replies. I'm going to hold at $475 and only take it if they let it go at that. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something when they came back with the high reserve.

My gut says 525 with no fees is about max it should be

Does the motor turn over by hand ?

any water in the oil ?

it has the earlier engine lid without cooling louvers , one piece door windows 

no picture of the nose , assuming its OK

If VW bugs are rare around you this does not look terrible , at $1000-$1200 all in ,