If I were ever to make cars an investment (and I won't), I've always felt you should aim for the "cool" cars that guys in their late 40's/50's/60's wanted when they were in highschool.

For a long time it was the muscle cars from the 60's and 70's, now it seems to be the BMW M cars and Porsches from the 80's/90's.

The big question is will it continue? Seems like kids in high school since the turn of the century don't seem to care much about cars other than getting them from A to B.

I have a few boxes of baseball cards from 1990-1992 that are worth about $3.50 in total.

My Magic: The Gathering cards from the 1994-1997 time frame actually did quite well.... I sold probably 50 of the rarer ones for about $1000 a couple of years ago. Who would have thought that being a dork in middle school would pay off?

Carnival Glass. Depression Glass, other types of collectable glass as well. The people that valued that stuff are on to the next world.

I just checked my pocket: a 1954 Denver penny, in really good circulated condition.
It's worth prolly about 30 cents, maybe more.
Pretty good investment for pocket change ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530553864.jpg

Well, in '54 the purchasing power of that penny was about the same as 30 cents today...;)

True. but I haven't had it that long. I've prolly only had it in my possession for a few days and I paid one penny for it in today's money ;)

Over the weekend I saw a 1990 Cadillac Allante convertible up for auction on the mecum's Denver auction.
It was in good condition, low miles, someone cared for this car.
It was likely bought and put away as an investment.
Sale price? $1500. And that's before the seller has to pay the consignment fees ;)
There's usually no money in rolling stock.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/DN0618-328573/1990-cadillac-allante-convertible/

Those were depreciating on the lot new when I worked there in the 90's.

Yep..cars are NOT investments. More like gambling to buy a car thinking there will be a future demand.

The Mecum announcer said the bodies were flown from Pininfaria in Italy to the US on 747's.
Even at $50k+ each I'm betting these cars were not a huge source of profit for GM.

The demographic at the dealership I worked at was probably 65 to 80 year olds wanting Deville's, Broughams and Fleetwoods in the 90's. The car was just out of place at the time. I think they have a much broader demographic now.

They had very limited appeal w the buying public, which is ok when you only plan on selling a few of something but I think that Cadillac had bigger plans for that car. I'm imagining that they saw it as a competitor to the MB SL or something.

The few people that bought them really liked them, I think. My uncle bought one new and his son may still be driving it, lots of sentimental value. :cool:

I have a bunch of unused '84 Olympics posters in Russian. They were never deployed as the Russians decided to boycott LA. I got them off a city/Olympics worker I met in Westwood during the games who was tired of carrying them. Think they're worth anything?

Well then sell it and take your profit.

There's nothing quite like them on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=soviet+un ion+1984+olympic+poster&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_o sacat=0&_odkw=soviet+union+1984+olympic+poster What is similar seems to run from about $30 to $300 or so. It's possible they're collectible.

He does have a plan B, he buys every new pair that comes out. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...eys/spankA.gif

What's even worse is he buys the 2 year old Jordan sneakers. Can't talk to that boy, he know it all. I've tried.

Amazing how that goes. I also graduated high school around the same time, and my "keeping forever" car is an '82.

It is interesting to follow how long it takes for generations of cars to fall out of favor, and lose value. As you point out, there probably isn't a huge market for Model Ts.

I'd imagine the same thing is true from the cars of the 30s and 40s. ??

So then the cars of the 50s and 60s will be next, or are those "different"? I wonder, for example, if there will be a significant decline in the price of 356s, or early 911s, and when will that be? (It seems like 356 has been softening already).

What is that thing? Some sort of medallion or something. Oh wait, weren't those things used in ancient times along with colored paper to buy and sell. I think I saw something about this stuff on the history channel.

The value of the coin is probably close to about the same as copper scrap prices. Throw it in a shoebox and your great grandkids will have something worth a few bucks some day.

My son has a soviet military cap loaded up with about 75 pins from the USSR (and before).
They were passed down from his great-great-grandfather who did not escape Stalin.
These pins are all pre-WWII, many are pre WWI and date back to the late 1800s.
I haven't done the research yet but I'm thinking they are worth some scratch.

1954 D Wheat Penny Value | CoinTrackers

Don't let him re-paint them!

uggh...$1500. The new tires and tune up were likely almost that much. :(

All I was saying Sammy is that scrap copper "cost a pretty penny" these days... I'm sure it is worth a little more than scrap.

Although this is off course, some other things that have tanked in value (although not really collectors items) are honesty, common decency, integrity, dependability... but I digress.

I would not be too worried about the early Porsche's...they have a global cache and demand... There were not a lot of them made where time and attrition has taken their toll.

As with every collectible in the collectible market it is like the tide it comes in and is high and other times it goes out and recedes a bit... Some times values get ahead o themselves and it take some time to consolidate...either by plateauing or receding a bit..then after a bit of time...it moves up again.

Some collectibles are FADS...hot for awhile and then drop off the face of the earth.

Early Porsche's do not fit that scenario. Low production muscle cars...I would think also have an iconic cache...and on going value.

As with anything one has to be knowledgeable and discerning as to where you put your money.

Lower end art (under 5K) has been relatively soft since the RE crash...it is mostly decorative in nature. but it ain't a Thomas Kincaide.

If you have to ask these questions you do not know what you are doing and might as well keep your cash under the mattress because you are a RUBE.

OK, I won't.
The cap and pins look kinda like these below but the cap is completely covered in pins so you can't see much of it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530572791.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530572798.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1530572804.jpg

Still sellable. People take them apart and rebuild them with other pieces

Cool collars!

The people that buy and take care of a car because they enjoy it, those are the ones that end up with the collector cars.

Now on the other hand, those that buy a car to store it for "future" value, aren't buying it for the right reasons, they tend to make a very tacky choice.

It is something that those that get in to win will more than likely lose; and those that get into to enjoy will more than likely win.

Yep. I bought my Speedster in 1973 because I had wanted one since the first time I saw one, and in 1973 I finally had the $3000 they were selling for. Beat the crap out of it for 15 years before noticing what was happening to their value.

Has anyone mentioned Hummel figurines? I have a friend who still has dozens of them.

What about antique tractors? An uncle was an IH dealer in a small town and had probably 15 or 20 restored antique Farmalls. Sold them all at an auction in Iowa one day about 20 years ago.

Madonna selling off anything ?

Any BMW automobile purchased new! Just bought an 18 month old 540i ($71k new) with 13k miles for $41k....full certified warranty until 2024. Can’t imagine why anyone would buy new!

I depends on their age. Like cars, tractor collectors tend to go for the models they grew up with. For me it was '50s and earlier. For today's enthusiast it's 70s models.

My dad collected John Deere two cylinders from the 1930s to the early 50s. They are a bit more collectible than the equivalent IH tractors. We sold most of them in the late 90s when he died (all too early). If we sold the same or the IH equivalent today, they would bring almost the same money as we got for them at auction in 1999.

You all are just suckers.

I am pretty sure I will be living very comfortably soon on the profits from my Commemorative Limited Edition NASCAR plates. Can you believe they limited the run to just 25,000 plates!

12 plate set, 1 plate sent to you each month for the incredibly low price of $39.99 plus shipping and handling each month.

My biggest fear is I will be so sentimentally attached to them that I just will not be able to part with them.

Rubber Diarrhea

I was into watches during the initial Panerai craze. And while I liked the brand, they always seemed to be destined for the bubble to pop. The craze seemed to be built upon celebrities wearing and promoting the brand, Arnold and Sly were the biggest if I recall.

Bzzzt.

Well, did it pop? What happened? When did it start and end? Can you give some examples of prices, before and after?