I thought of this when I was in the market thread. I've always had a big interest in the collector car market I started reading 'The Bible' Hemmings Motor News when I was about 10 and have never stopped. I started dabbling in higher end dream cars of mine just before prices went crazy, I had planned on going through my dream cars one at a time but that went out the window when everything I like started to reach six figures. I know we have a lot of other folks here who like the older stuff like me and was wondering what some of your opinions are of where values are going to go moving forward. Particularily in our corona virus economic environment or just in general.

 

I've had the same thought. Based on 08-09 it could depend on the stock market which would be good news for buyers. Except the stock market currently seems to be responding only a little to the impact of the pandemic on the economy. Another factor is the suspension of live auctions. As auction houses switch to on-line-only formats, sell through rates and prices have declined somewhat.

Seems like collector car market trends are as hard to forecast as the stock market. Hagerty does a lot of analysis in this area and they have tons of high quality data to work with. Every year they publish a list of cars they expect to go up in value in the coming year and those to avoid. They also review their predictions from the previous year and it seems like they only get it right a little more often than what random guessing could.

 

I have never been able to consider automobiles as potential investments. Probably because I have never had the money to purchase cars in those categories or the patience to hold on to the cars long enough to see them become collectables. The closest I ever came to having a car that would become a classic is a pristine 1952 Hudson Hornet with Twin H-Power, that I bought partly out of nostalgia, since my dad had loved those cars. Still I enjoy owning great cars that I can - almost - afford. LOL I have owned some cars that I privately considered to be outstanding, mostly smaller cars like Triumphs, BMWs, also a 1965 409, etc., but never got close to owning a truly collectable classic. One of the cars that I enjoyed a great deal, if not the most was a 1954 VW beetle that I bought in Germany. It did fairly well on the Autobahn -- when going downhill!! LOL

 

While most of us aren't in a position to collect "investment grade" cars, its always good to see prices go down on older cars we are interested in when its time to buy. There are certainly cars I would be interested in that I could afford now, if prices hadn't gone up so fast over the last couple of decades. A lot of British stuff is still very affordable, but the prices of older Jaguars, Aston Martins, and big Healeys have gone up dramatically in recent years. At least that's the way it feels. Remember when 911 t's were just old used sports cars that went for four-digit prices?

 

Mine.

 

^^^Bueller, Bueller, Bueller...

 

I never consider cars investments my motto is buy what you like, and if I come close to breaking even when I sell to move on to something else great if not it's still great because more than likely I enjoyed my time with the car it's a hobby. Ten or so years ago most of the cars on my mental list I could get for around 30k give or take a bit plus or minus but now nowhere near that. I have quite a few air cooled 911 picks none of which are in my price range. I'm hoping the air-cooled bubble will pop.
Mike I came thiiiiiiis close to buying a 73.5 911T in around 2005 or 2006 can't remember exactly which year it was. 2 owner car all records back to day 1 all original. It needed some tlc but was a very straight car. They wanted 8500 for it I offered 7k and they had someone who had looked at it already before me and he was trying to get a loan and they said if he didn't get the loan it was mine. The guy ended up getting the loan.

 

....Or this one...???

 

Haha
The Dino, and the NSX, and the Cayman, etc., were all individual copies of the Miura architecture! LOL

 

Or maybe this one...