1966 Mercury Monterey S-55 Hardtop for sale on BaT Auctions - ending October 30 (Lot #89,091) | Bring a Trailer
That's because it isn't a small thing when you own outliers like these Mercs. Trust me, there's hardly anything available from catalogs. and if you have a small tear, and want it perfect, you'd have to recover the seat. And to an OCD guy like me - that'd mean getting the real stuff from SMS and then you'd be in 500-1000 bucks. Either way, it's a 428 and an S-55. rare enough.....that am/fm is a rare option.
I must be an OCD guy too because that torn seat on the Mercury bugged me, and when our 87 Safari had a torn driver seat a few years ago and we did the SMS route.
I think the problem is when it's a smaller little rip like that it becomes a "spend $750-1500 to not make any more money on the sale, maybe have less nitpicky discussions with potential buyers" situation. A torn up ratty seat? Obviously you should fix it because it's very obviously an eyesore. A 2-3" rip on the inside upper section? Yeah it needs to be fixed but it costs the same as the ratty seat except you can't see the results. And a buyer isn't necessarily going to pay any more in the end. The guys who prattle on and on about minor rips or tiny dings in survivor paint and bumpers aren't going to buy it anyways and the guys who want the car will either live with it or fix it on their dime, while probably bugging the seller to lower his price slightly.
