Remember that many of these buyers, especially for the highest price examples, have more money than you and I could ever hope to have. If you are worth a few hundred million bucks, what’s a few million spent on a car? If you were worth $3 million, would you have a problem dropping $30,000 on a car? 1% of a lot of people’s net worth isn’t an impediment to a hobby, even if it is an expensive one.
“I personally cannot comprehend what makes any car worth the hundreds of thousands … and millions…of dollars that they often get at auctions.”
It’s supply and demand. There were only 25 or so 1971 Hemi-Cuda convertibles ever made, some were wrecked so the remaining few went up in value. Small supply. There are any number of people who have their own reasons for wanting that particular car. That’s the demand. The auction houses list the for sale items in advance of the auction so everyone who wants one, and more importantly, has the money to indulge their fantasy, will be involved when one is available. Add in ego, and the price goes up, and up, and up … the highest seller for Mecum Auctions was one of these cars - it went for $3.2M. The same was for a 1966 Corvette. There were 11 specially made with an experimental engine (the famous L88). One was auctioned last year and it went for $3M.
@bing - I had 2 chances in my life to get that kind of deal but was too young, broke and/or stupid to take advantage. When I was a junior in high school my English teacher wanted to sell his car for $900.00. It was a 1954 Corvette. When I was 18, I had just traded in an old station wagon for a Volkswagen Beetle. My uncle came into town with a car he wanted to sell me for $200 - a 1960 Ford Falcon Sprint convertible, 260 V8 and 4 speed. Ahhh, if only there was a time machine…
Low build numbers certainly boosts the price on any classic car. Simple supply and demand. If enough millionaires want one, the price goes up, up, up.
What the car did matters quite a bit, too. A 1965 Ferrari 250LM will sell for over $15 Million. If it was the car that won Lemans in '65 - the last year Ferrari won the great race - it is essentially priceless.
Who owned the car affects the value. If Carroll Shelby owned anything it doubles the value, at least. A 1966 Supercharged 427 Cobra that Shelby owned sold for $5.1 Million. The very first small block Cobra built that Shelby himself owned went for $17.7 Million. One of a kind AND celebrity provenance. Triple the price.
Yeah, I know all the details. I’ve been reading about and enjoying cars since the '60s. But I still don’t get it. I simply don’t understand why people, even wealthy people, would pay the prices these high-end cars go for at auction. I guess I’ve just been too economically conservative for too long.
For the record, I don’t understand the estimates on Antiques Roadshow either, but they did a show on how accurate their high estimates were, and many of these items actually sell for more than they were valued at on the Roadshow.
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I was at my BIL’s in Kansas some years ago and he had a 60 Thunderbird in the garage that needed some work. While the 60 was not my favorite year, it would do. I let him know that I would really like something like that but next time I was down there it was gone. He’d sold it for something like $800. Sheesh. Still a little peeved but then I’m not sure what he paid for it in the first place or how exactly he acquired it so maybe it worked out.
@the_same_mountainbike. If a person has a lot of money, how do you let people know you have a lot of money without buying something expensive?
The wealthy have different values than people like me. My parents went through the depression and that shaped my attitude towards spending money. I remember going on a family vacation sometime in the mid 1950s and visiting a car museum somewhere in Iowa. There were Duesenbergs, Pierce Arrows, a Marmon, custom bodied Packards, etc. I remember my dad telling me that the people owned these cars had money during the depression while many other people had to struggle just to have enough to eat. Even as a kid, I didn’t think I would want to drive down the street in a Duesenberg showing off my wealth with people starving. I’m not even sure how practical a Duesenberg was even back then. I believe Clyde Beatty, of Bonnie and Clyde, must have thought the Ford V-8 was more practical for his line of work, bank heists, than Duesenbergs or Pierce Arrows, because Clyde would steal a Ford V-8 for his work car.
I recently heard a violinist interviewed on Public Service Radio who had sold his Stradavarius violin because he didn’t think the tone was as good as a modern $20,000 violin he had recently acquired. He thought the Stradavarius was overrated and become a prestige item in the musical world.
I wish I had held onto my money when I was working and not spent it on frivolous things. Mrs. Triedaq would give me $2.50 each week so I could have coffee with my friends. Coffee at the snack bar on campus was 50¢ a cup. One of my friends discovered that we could go off campus and buy coffee for 25¢ a cup at McDonalds, with our senior citizen’s discount. That put me ahead $1.25 at the end of the week. However, every Friday I would blow the $1.25 on a cinnamon roll, a prestige item for me. Now, in retirement, I no longer receive the $2.50 a week from Mrs. Triedaq. Since I blew the $1.25 I could have saved each week on my Friday cinnamon roll, I now have to go to the mission for a cup of coffee.
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Yeah, my brother exercises “conspicuous consumption”.
Understand that I’m not criticizing someone’s decision to pay huge sums for something they want if they can well afford it, I just don’t understand the rationale for doing so. I support a billionaire’s right to pay $3 million for a car, but don’t understand why they’re willing to.
Anybody know how to start a “go fund me page” for @Triedaq or whatever it is called? I’ve got an extra 50 cents I’ll throw in for a cinnamon roll fund. Elsie was the head cook and baker at school and she made these gigantic cinnamon rolls about 6" x 6" x 3" high. I think they were about 50 cents back in 1968 but well worth it. I’ve never found another one quite as good as Elsie’s. So I do have a soft spot in my heart for those deprived of their cinnamon bun.
A criminal is going to seal what is available, the Duesenberg was a rare car and would be parked in the garage of a mansion. A common Ford could be found in front of the general store sometimes with the keys in them.
- “Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde”
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If you want something and don’t have to sacrifice anything at all to get it, why wouldn’t you?
Same here. I LOVE older classic cars, but I’ll probably never own one (unless I win powerball) because of the cost. I just don’t understand why anyone would pay that.
I’ve never understood antiques either. My Grand Mother had a room full of antiques - which no one could enter. Just for show. Made no sense to me.
The expression “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” comes to mind. And another reality tv program has made hoarding into an entertainment spectacle.