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Most of the Serendipity 43's were built as grand prix level IOR boats. They were pretty fragile and seen as nearly disposable since annual changes in the IOR rule made them obsolete nearly a year later. This was reflected in the build quality; these were comparatively fragile boats built for one single purpose winning races. (There was a rarer racer-cruiser version but they weren't any more robust than the full race version) The Serendipities were build during the worst era of the IOR rule and there is nothing so obsolete as an obsolete race boat.
If I remember the Contessa 43 (I have never actually seen one in person so I am recalling literature and judging by my personal experience with the Contessa 33's, which I raced for 8 years, and Contessa 35's that I know much better), these were substantially heavier boats and fitted out as very nicely finished racer-cruisers with reasonable accomodations and more robust construction.
If you tried to take a Serendity and turn it into a Contessa, you could easy spend far more than double what the you could buy the Serendity for. Other than that, price differences may reflect condition, upgrades and equipage. After all these are nearly 30 year old boats.
Jeff
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