You would think that if he was so concerned about saving the car, and played out any hope of anyone giving him anything near his dream price, that he would sell it for $5k to someone that really wants to try to bring it back to life.
If he started at 75K and has come down to 15K how much more embarrassed could he be if he sold it for 5K? Now would be a good time for him to start practicing laughing with everyone who is might be laughing at him.
If the original drivetrain was with it he probably would have restored it himself which kind of tells me that even he didn't think it was worth restoring.