So What Will Happen to Collector Cars?????

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

Watching an antique and collector car auction the other night, and could not help but think about what is coming down the Pike.

 

In large measure, the value of old cars is driven by nostalgia.  People want the cars that their Dads drove, or that were popular when they were in High School, or that they could never afford.  They have an attachment to a model or a decade, or want to re-create a time when they were happy.  Sure, there are true collectors who build personal museums, but they are relatively few and far between.

 

So watching what's happening with cars, we see:

• Millennials and later kids just are not interested in cars;
• You can't easily work on most newer cars, so kids don't get connected to them like we did;
• Self-driving cars are in the works, turning cars into automated taxis, and separating them even further from a personal connection with the driver;
• Uber and similar services are helping to create a whole generation of passengers, not drivers;
• "Green" philosophies are making individually owned cars "undesirable", and individual owners less acceptable;
• Urban congestion is making car ownership and use less desireable;
• Fossil fuel use is frowned upon;
• Some manufacturers are already abandoning internal combustion engines, pointing their design philosophies toward electric roller skates.

 

So after the Boomers pass from the scene, who will want to spend $50K for a '55 Chevy?  Are we facing the end of restoration of older cars?  Will a 4 year old electric self-driving Toyota simply return to the plant to be recycled?  Will GM and Ford become producers of cars that are not sold or leased, but simply become available under a user contract to anyone who signs up, makes a call, and then finds a self-driving car at their front door on a per trip basis?  No more used cars?  No more junk yards?  No more oldies to find and rebuild?  Will this destroy the market for the older cars that still exist?  Will anyone be so attached to their favorite Uber car that they will want to find an old one to restore?

 

Doom and gloom for wrench heads.

 

LL

 

[Pat Riot]

Between technology and government regulation I fear that you are correct to some extent, but I also think things are cyclical and that nostalgia will always be a driver for a small group of people. Take shooting, for instance. There are still folks buying or building and shooting muzzle-loaders. Everyone hasn't gone completely "polymer". I think it will be the same with cars.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

I think there will always be a market for older "collectible" cars, just like aircraft, firearms, telephones, adding machines, radios et al. The appeal to these things is they're a connection to a perceived, simpler, "analog" time -- even if the collector didn't live in that era. After our generation passes, there may be a dip in the collectors' market for some items, but it always seem to come bounding back in unexpected ways.

[Dantankerous]

After you said Millennials, Uber, green, Urban, and self-driving cars I got a headache and could not do anything else with this discussion.

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

None of them are worth 50k in reality.

So hopefully the price starts coming back down to a relish price again .

Just sayin 

Rooster 

[Utah Bob #35998]

There will Always be collectors. Always. The market may be smaller but it will never die out.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

the market will be smaller, but there will also be less product.

[Warden Callaway]

Looks to me like collecting in general is slowing down.  I suspect the tipping point was the housing crash.  More people moving into apartments instead of a home of their own.  They don't have room for this junk. And they want to be mobile so they can move from job to job. 

 

My mom collected cookie jars. At one time had over 400. Plus a house full of whatnots. Late in life she started giving them back to people who gave them to her and to other family members.  But apparently nobody is interested in cookie jars today.  We had talked to several folks that buy out households and none were interested in bidding on a household with over 300 cookie jars. We rented a booth in a HUGE antique mall. We ran it for 3 months and sold 3 cookie jars and some other little trinkets. The sales only paid the rent bill. 

 

 

[Rooster Cognizant]

There are still a lot of automobile enthusiasts out there. Shows like SEMA have been growing, not shrinking. People still modify cars, it's a multi-billion dollar industry.

There are still people buying and restoring Model-T's - and they were not around when that car was produced. Just depends whether an individual gets the itch or not. 

Values will fluctuate based on supply, demand, and what's popular, but that's normal consumerism. 

 

Uber is a disruptive force, that's for sure. Self driving cars will change how Americans do things. Increased traffic, and crumbling/old infrastructure make driving performance cars a little less enjoyable, depending on your locale. But there is enough variety of people in this country for all the various styles.

[Trailrider #896]

What is going to happen to real books?  With electronic readers, is anybody going to be interested in hard or softcover books?  Specialty books especially are going to be of little interest.  When my Dad and Mom passed away, I tried to give Dad's law books to several university libraries.  Sorry! We are disposing of our own. Can get all that stuff on-line or in electronic libraries!  Ultimately, had to send them to the dump!   My grandkids might be interested in some of the books I have collected over the years, but they take up the walls of several large rooms, and the subject matter ranges from the history of the Space Age to music, art and other historical subjects.  Some of them I haven't re-read in years!  (Sigh.)

[J-BAR #18287]

1 hour ago, Trailrider #896 said:

What is going to happen to real books?  With electronic readers, is anybody going to be interested in hard or softcover books? 

 

Time to read Heinlein's "Farnam's Freehold" again!  

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

4 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

What is going to happen to real books?  With electronic readers, is anybody going to be interested in hard or softcover books?  Specialty books especially are going to be of little interest.  When my Dad and Mom passed away, I tried to give Dad's law books to several university libraries.  Sorry! We are disposing of our own. Can get all that stuff on-line or in electronic libraries!  Ultimately, had to send them to the dump!   My grandkids might be interested in some of the books I have collected over the years, but they take up the walls of several large rooms, and the subject matter ranges from the history of the Space Age to music, art and other historical subjects.  Some of them I haven't re-read in years!  (Sigh.)

 

I understand the attraction of readers, but I tried one, and found it much less satisfying than a hardback book.  Other than throw-away light reading, everything I buy is hardback; I want books that will last.  There's a little voice inside that says that good books are worth preserving.

 

LL

[Trailrider #896]

In one of his Western novels, the late, great Louis L'mour wrote for one of his characters, "Books will be your friend when you have no other!"  The other great thing about a hardback (or paperback) book is you don't need batteries or a recharger!  All you need is enough light to see by, and a finger to turn pages.

[Chantry]

It's not just classic cars, the market for high end double and over and under shotguns is also seeing shrinkage to the point that a credible rumor has CT Shotgun will stop (or drastically slow down) their production of the aforementioned shotguns and will be switching to "tactical" firearms.  The same also applies to the used market for British made shotguns and other firearms types.  The owners are either getting old and selling off their collection or dying and the children, if any, don't want the guns and consigning them to auction houses for sale.  While there are always a few exceptions, most people who do buy firearms today want the polymer and other "tactical" type stuff.

 

As for books, I've switched to a Kindle for most of my purchases due to space issues and to save the remaining space for books that I can't find on Kindle or that are in a format (such as picture heavy) that won't work well on a Kindle.

[CurlyDrew42]

There was a lot of worry about this a few years ago in California when they passed legislation regarding salvage cars.  I grew up in the Inland Empire (San Bernardino, Riverside area) a place riddled with muscle cars, mini trucks and rebuilt VWs.  People freaked out because anything that had been totaled basically wasn't able to be licensed any more, no matter how much restorative work had been done.  The market for collectable car parts boomed for a year or two then relaxed when everyone realized that no cop wanted to spend time pulling someone over to try and determine if the frame of the vehicle had ever been "totaled".  So the DMV made a bunch of money for a couple of years selling collectors licenses then things seemed to even out a bit.

Personally, as a fan of classic cars in general and several makes and models specifically, I like the trend transit is taking.  Less people buying cars means more parts for me and I despise automotive proprietary tech that requires a certified mechanic to plug a car into a computer.  Yet at the same time I like to get to and from work in a timely manner without choking on petrochemical exhaust.  it's a weird dichotomy.

 

[CurlyDrew42]

20 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

What is going to happen to real books? 

 

The last couple of years my wife and I started figuring out what we needed to keep on the shelf and what could be got rid of and bought as an eBook.  We went from many book shelves down to about 10 good sized book shelves ( roughly 38in wide and 72in tall).  A lot of casual fiction went to the local book exchange, charity or given away to friends.  Some was replaced by large leather bound hard back books, the sort you see at Barnes and Nobel these days.  Like Complete works of Lovecraft or all of the Tarzan series in one volume and lots of reprinted classics.  Otherwise we held onto a lot of reference books.  Foxfire series, small home gardening, home repair, camping and survival stuff, craft related and music and more art reference than I care to think about (i swear that stuff breeds and multiplies faster than rabbits).  Brain candy was consolidated and thinned out.  If it shows us how to do something, it stayed on the shelf.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

What I see, and there are 2 Dealers in Classic cars, also newspaper ads and Local Craiglist, there is what is looking like either people don't have the cash or a slight downward spiral on classic cars. See some driving the streets with For Sale signs in windows also. As to the dealers, I see the show cars inside for past month and not sold.

A lot of collecting is down, Baseball cards, comic books, old radios, toys, matchbox cars,  etc. What I see interest in is Military items, and some firearms. I'm constantly pestered to sell some flight items. So there is interest in that field. MT

 

[Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life]

I have several Kindles yet I still buy some paperback and hardback books.  There is something so satisfying about holding a book and turning the pages.  Also, Kindle keeps me from buying two or three copies of the same book.  When I moved to a smaller house last year I took hundred of books, records, laser discs, and DVDs to Half-Priced Books.  This is after donating hundreds of children's books and teacher books to the elementary school from which I retired, and giving select collections to friends that I knew wanted them.  I still had probably 20 boxes of books I left in the attic from the move from the first house over thirty years ago that never got moved from the attic and unpacked.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Collecting in general may be down, but I think cars, planes, and motorcycles will be going long after we're gone!

My 2 cents,

JHC

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

When my father in law passed some years ago, he had a magnificent collection of books and records (many new in the box). All the way back to a pile of 78's. I thought they would be worth a pile of $$$. As it turned out, we had enough trouble selling them cheap or even giving them away. No market today.

JHC

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Not so long ago my friend Patrick in Massachusetts had a car, a 52 Plymouth, IIRC, that his aunt had had in Nebraska. When aunt died, father had it moved to his back 40 and it sat for 50+ Years.  Now brother thinks about restoring it, there being reputable companies in New Hampsire that do such things.  Because it sat in a field in The Commonwealth of Taxachusetts, somebody had to pay 50 years of taxes on it before it could get a title.

 

i bought the car, virtually parked it in my back 40 and sold it to brother for "consideration",  (maybe a fifth round draft pick) problem solved.