Hot Rods What is going on with old car prices!!!!!

Fact of the matter is that the economy was worse 3-15 years ago...!

And yes the market will crash again but l'm looking at a boom economy in many areas but price of anything depends on the wants of the buyers. Never seen so many people driving Supercars in my life yet classic cars and trucks are taking it on the chin.

I did buy a few cars to flip back in the day but I pretty much had friends looking for them and I always left a lot of meat on the bone so everyone was happy.

We're the last of the dinasaur collectors and when gasoline becomes illegal all of our stuff will be sitting in barns, garages and museums everywhere...!

I guess I don't mind the swings in value because I buy and build what I like and makes me happy.

For the most part I've always enjoyed the challenge of finding the best parts for the best prices... And If I ever needed to sell... at least I would break even or take only a small financial hit.

Leno has stated that he invests in cars because he enjoys it and if the prices tank... He at least can go out to the garage and enjoy looking at them.

If you really want something today it's easy to determine the value you're willing to pay.... People mostly have to sell... But you don't have to buy.

 

I sort of have a problem seeing a nice restored early v8 turned into a hotrod. I know I'm probably in the minority on that subject.

 

Perhaps all those buyers with bottomless pockets are beginning to realize what they thought was an investment isn't. To bad so many cars have suffered the abuse of the modifiers fueled by fools and their money.

 

Just sold my wife's OT 75' Mercedes SL to a young engineer who works for Tesla. When he picked up the
car with a couple of his friends they started speculating on how cool it would be to convert the Benz to
a Tesla drivetrain. Insane acceleration, great handling etc. The urge is still there and so is the future, just not
as we knew it.

 

I don't buy high dollar cars, never will but it seems to me parts are going up in price. We just went to Hershey and I would not want to start a new project now, Model A windshield frames for $250, cowl and windshield posts for $850 .... I know this thread is more about finished cars but as far as I can tell the parts are holding their own. Projects cars were not cheap either.

 

I could never get into calling my hobby an investment. I have never bought a car thinking it would be an investment......money pit, yes, investment, no.

My daughter bought one of those Teslas. I have never ridden in a car with such brute acceleration as that thing. It was scary, but maybe because she was driving and not me..

 

Maybe in a few select places around the country, or if if you never had a bad experience and you still are doing ok in retirement, but here in eastern CT, there are no decent paying jobs for the masses these days.

We used to have many big places always hiring, like Pratt/Whitney, Hamilton, Kaman, all in the aircraft line,>>> that also fed hundreds of other subcontracting shops, but the outsourcing moved those jobs away from here. We were totally dependent on Military stuff, including NASA stuff, Lycoming, Electric Boat (subs & Navy ships), you name it. During most of my life, there were countless new housing developments going up (because of those big employers), which fed many subcontracting companies, now there are none going up, the ones that do try, go belly up. I might have seen ONE new house being built in town this year. There is a glut of empty good houses. Drive around 3 days after a big snow and see how many homes never had driveways plowed...because the bank owns them....they are empty.

My point is, take away decent paying blue collar jobs like happened in Toledo and Detroit, then places fail.

The Pratt type guys were the ones who could buy what they wanted, and being blue collar, they were the ones more into collector cars that a white collar would around here. Pratt's long time airfield is now a college football stadium! What does a blue collar job at that stadium pay? Minimum wage?

During the many upswings, the town taxes went way up to pay for new expensive schools and infrastructure to handle the incoming families, and now there are not many blue collar people who can afford those numbers with the best paying jobs gone, .... and the taxes are still going up. We are losing population here, where we used to be growing.

Hershey has always been a swap where the prices are insane from "some sellers", you only need one rich person to buy it, and rich from around the world go there. There are still good deals on setup day, you just can't be at every space to see them bought at a good price. It's also been the place where dealers do a lot of buying on setup day, to reprice it at their own spot.

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You watch craigslist. A lot of sellers want high prices and in time they drop prices to a more realistic value. Some place ads at realistic prices and some sell, some sit and then you see botched projects that sit on there because like was stated above (no younger people know how to work on them or want the bells and whistles and not the basics. Maybe as some of get older and the body doesn't work as it used to, reworking someone else's less than ideal work /vision on top of making it road ready is a getting too much to deal with.

 

I agree. As I said "those" "fools with money" on a majority to me are not real car people. They've only bought their way in and screwed things up at 1 level that affects us. But the flip side is it opened doors on another level which many of us I believe are not a part of. In the end it's all a cycle that non of us singularly can control.

 

Hmmmmm, this doesn't jive with what I'm seeing. I've been watching car prices for years, and they are definitely up right now. A couple of anecdotes about particular cars that didn't generate the expected sales price doesn't convince me the bottom has fallen out of the market. I'd say the market overall is up about 25% vs 3 years ago.

 

This is definitely true, but it's not new. I've commented on this before, I've seen cars that were overpriced sit on Craigslist for a couple of years, they just keep relisting it, not changing anything about the ad, not including new pictures, not rewording it, just keep reposting the same shit, as if something is going to change. I've seen it in the HAMB want ads too, there is a particular car, I won't mention, that the dude is asking about $3 -4k too much. He wants $21k for it, a good market price would be $17k - 18k. I messaged him when I was shopping for a car to see if he'd drop the price, nope. He feels it's worth it and wouldn't negotiate with me. So there it sits, still there today I'm sure. This is not indicative of a down market, it's indicative of people not knowing how to market their cars.

 

lot of truth in that

 

some stuff is for sale and some stuff ain't. You know what I mean, if the price is right, I'll sell it to you, if not, that's OK I'll just drive it around until it does sell.

 

The end is near.
Model As and Ts are the new erosion control.
Gas will be illegal by Christmas.
You'll have to get a horse harness for your Plymouth.....
Ohhh the hobby. The poor hobby.
When it's gone what will we worry about then?
Something else that really does not effect us directly and we have no control of, I guess....

Cars that we had no interest in... no intention of buying....., are going for 20 grand less....... OMG.....
It's over!
Farewell friends.....
I'm going to go fall on my hood ornament.

 

I have had a lot of hot rods over the years (actually the decades), built a lot of them in my garage. Sold them, the build was sometimes better than driving, made a little, lost more probably. Was never in it for the money, just loved the hobby. My present ride is my '40, my wife suggested I buy it four years into my caregiver role. It was not an investment, but rather a substitute for Prozac, always made me happy driving her to the doctors or shopping at the market. Now when I visit her at the nursing home, the car jogs her memories some, of better and happier times. And the good Lord has blessed me with a grandson that loves "pop's hotrod" so it will go to a good home at some point (not too soon I hope). So guess my point is valuation and appreciation mean nothing to a hard core enthusiast, its not a business proposition but rather enjoyment. Lots of better places to put your money if the former are your goals. Just MHO.

 

LOL....."fall on my hood ornament" that's classic!

 

I remember my dad saying the same thing to me in the 1970's

The markets tastes are changing..... that's all.
Traditional hotrods are merely a "photograph in time" , You build a car to how you think it was done back then..... but when you sell it the next owner has different tastes and different ideas and memories.
Your project merely becomes "raw material" for the next owner.

For example: the traditional T roadsters I see now look nothing like the Fad T's I remember 45 years ago.


Now if we jump over to the resto scene, there seems too be a large influx into the vintage car scene.
Most vintage car clubs have record memberships... and they have also relaxed the eligibility of cars.

A 1968 mustang or chevelle is now 50 years old and is a vintage car.
Restored Tri-5 Chevys are still getting top dollar [worldwide].And the irony is a restoration project is usually cheaper to finish than a full custom project.

Old cars are like ART........the representation of HISTORY is everything. Genuine history will always fetch a premium over replicas .
Cars with a motorsport pedigree are the same. Genuine historic race cars fetch the top $$$, followed by homologation specials like COPO Camaros and GTHO Falcons.
But even to the man in the street, a Camaro etc is perceived as more desirable than a Toyota Corona SW because of the perceived history/pedigree in the background [however distant]

Unfortunately we cannot re-write history which is why the RatRod Fad is a passing phase at the present. It is purely a concocted up look at the past that never was.
But in the future they may look back at them [and laugh I hope]

 

I hope there are at least two crazies out there who are willing to bid massively on old (cloned) show cars!!

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/...0007-1962-ed-roth-mysterion-recreation/721354

 

Mark: Kathy and I are fine but this was another close call with winds and heavy rain.
I had the generator already to go just in case we lost power again.
Last year Hurricane Hermia left me without power for 6 days.
Kathy did not want to stay for the hurricane so she drove straight through to my daughter home in Preston Hollow, Texas a 20 hour drive.

What did you think of the tornado that hit West Norwalk and New Canaan?
Jim

 

I live an hour away from that one but it did hit our town, but not where we are. Crazy weather everywhere. Glad you were ok. MB

 

Not gonna happen in our lifetime. Everything is about the money. And the tax on gas and diesel pays for the roads. The states collect severance tax on the removal. The government and private land owners receive royalitys. And the USA Petro Dollar being the major currency used to buy and sell petroleum keep the US Dollar the top currency used by the IMF. Alternate fuels are difficult to tax and at present are not a viable alternative.

 

Already thinking about an electric build. Sounds fun

 

They are already testing road use monitors. A pay by the mile system

 

Depends on your definition of “hotrod” I can certainly do without another “ rolling bones build” where they whack 10” out of the roof of a pristine 34 3w ... but I see no harm in stuff that bolts in a nice car .... take a nice 32 throw juice brakes a drop axle in it and a rumpety rump Flathead or (gasp) a sbc with adapter doesn’t hurt anything but make it more fun

 

Nothing is forever.........

 

IMO, when a person tries to use his car as an investment, he's wishfully thinking. If you love old cars as a TRUE hobby, then these falling prices at auctions are great. I like old cars and love T Buckets. The one I'm building now, will be my last, so I'm building it that way. I don't want a huge HP engine I'll constantly have to tune. I want reliability. When I get too old to drive it, I'll sell it for whatever it brings.

As for the hobby dying out? I think as long as there are people, who enjoy old cars, the hobby will be alive. You can't judge a hobby by the number of people involved. You judge it by the enthusiasm of the present members. I've seen a few younger guys involved in Hot Rods and that's good. But honestly, if a younger guy is interested in going fast, it's hard to beat the stuff the factories are putting out now. I posted last year about a co-worker who bought a new Challenger T/A. He saved and got what he wanted. He took it to Baytown, TX and just for fun, raced it. He ran a mid 11 ET. No modifications. With the a/c on and blaring his radio. He had NEVER drag raced before! That 11 second run was with some tire spin too. There's a LOT of Hot Rods out there that can't make the same claim.

So, I kind of take a selfish approach to this old car stuff. I build what I like and really don't give a shit about what the other guy says or what he's doing. If a person drops $50K into his hobby fine and dandy, but if he expects it to be a 401K, he got into it for the wrong reason and honestly, I'm glad to see him fail.

 

I certainly understand what everyone is saying, but when I look around for a new project, everyone who has ANY KIND of old car thinks it’s worth gold. Half ton Chevy pickups are the worst in that regard. It used to be that an old truck could be had running and driving for a couple of hundred bucks. Now these people want 3500 for a beat up, rusted out hulk that is missing an engine.


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errr....taxes??

 

Stamp collecting sure has taken a hit too.
It's a good thing I got that Civil War Chess Set.
My future is secure.

 

Nothing stays the same. But my hot rod will remain. To me she is gold and worth a fortune. Why? because I love her. She makes me happy. She is an investment in pride and joy.