Last December I passed on what seemed like a good deal here in southern Maine. A low mile (24K) 78 SA L48 Auto with decent paint for a driver. Had a little paint work done on the lower dark gray. Oster interior needed a good cleaning and maybe new carpets. Guy had title and paper work from new purchased right in the area. $9,800.00, said he didn’t want to have to store it for the winter. The car was non factory air, which I understand to be rare. Is that good because it’s rare, or not because it don’t have air? If it had air it would be in my garage today, but I passed for that reason only. Here in Northern New England you can live without AC, but it is nice to have. I’m just trying to see what the feeling is out there on non factory air C3's that could have been ordered with air, as it became more common.
Seems like most of the cars on ebay or where ever, the air don’t work anyway.
A little late for this car, but thanks for the insight.

"Rare" doesn't alway equate to "Desirable". For instance, in '73(I think) there was one Corvette painted "Chartreuse"...rare? Yup. Desirable? I doubt it!

A lot of 'Vettes were built without A/C. I can't recall off-hand what year they made them standard equipment, tho.
The car is worth what someone is willing to pay for it without A/C. It's not worth any more just because it doesn't have it. In fact, it's probably worth less.

I wouldn't think one common option delete would make or break any car's collectibilty.  Too many people are getting infected with Barrett-Jackson syndrome.  Sounds like you passed on a good deal though!

Sounds like it was a fair price even without factory air.
Scott

Kinda sounds like I shoulda bought it when I saw it.   
Thanks for the input.

A co-worker once told me his attutude towards buying cars (particularly old cars) with air conditioning...

"If I buy a car without a/c, that reduces my potential problems with it by 50%!"

In other words...you only have to worry about the rest of the car!