State of the Hobby
January 2008
Welcome to 2008!!!
The centennial anniversary of General Motors and a great year for buying
collector cars.
With all the talk about the real estate market going sour
and sub-prime mortgage lenders going belly up, now is a great time to consider
purchasing another car. The economy
could be better and with the price of mortgages and fuel affecting the middle
class’s wallets, there is bound to be more good cars for sale in the coming
months. Perhaps 2008 will turn out to be
a buyer’s market????
I’ll concede that perhaps the ceiling has been hit on the 1
of 1, top dollar, high value muscle cars, but I foretell that there is still
plenty of potential growth in the market of your average antique and classic
collector cars. As you are well aware,
quality examples always bring more than something that has been cobbled
together. The closer to “perfect” that
the vehicle is in fit, finish and workmanship, the more money it will demand no
matter what the collecting market as a whole is doing. I predict that again this year, the overall value
of our Camaros, Impalas, Chevelles, etc. will rise. Those collectors out there that paid
$400,000.00 plus for muscle cars might be seeing a dip but for the rest of the
collectors, their regular Z/28 Camaros and SS’s will continue to rise.
For fun, watch Barrett-Jackson, I’m sure you’ll see what I
mean. The better the quality of the car,
the more it will bring. This is not to
say there won’t be certain cars that bring very high dollars. Provenance also always brings money, but most
of us don’t have a car with a long prestigious history because after all most
muscle cars were ran hard and owned by young people for only a few years at a
time. The top dollar cars at
Barrett-Jackson will continue to be the cars with provenance and concept cars
that two collectors are fighting over.
For the rest of the cars, look for quality and you’ll see some good cars
go for some good prices which should make you smile when you go out to the
garage to stare at your collection while sipping on a nice celebratory glass of
wine … or on second thought how about a nice cold beer.
This article was written by Bryan Shook (elcamino72). Bryan
is an attorney whose practice specializes in the issues that automobile collectors,
restorers and enthusiasts face every day.
He can be reached for comments and questions at bshook@dcdlaw.net or by telephone at
1-800-287-1202.
