Depreciation
 

Who else has noticed that 911's have been aging on various & popular websites and not selling?

I have seen cars moved from dealer to dealer. I have seen cars meet 2/3's of asking price on auction sites. I see a glut of turbos. I see Haggarty low #3 or #4 cars with obscene prices and not selling. I see many good quality cars with documentation when 1-2 years ago I'd see maybe 1.

Is it a glut of product, increasing interest rates, less foreign buyers, or something else?

Everyone is waiting to see what happens politically before spending money.

Yea - politics is a factor.

However, I can track cars back before the election. Some cars back a year or more and bids haven't improved or they are on/off sites repeatedly. So what else is at play?

Good! Maybe the speculators and flippers will move on to some other rapidly gaining asset. I don't need this hobby to get any more expensive than it is.

The run up in value could only spill over into the cost of parts, skilled labor etc.

Cheers Richard

An SC is a great car. I enjoyed owning one. But are they $50,000's worth of fun? Ummmm...NO. I think the prices of the air cooled cars is absurd. Sorry, but if you would pass by a 996 Turbo to pick up a an SC.....yer nuts.

This...

My 78 SC is a lot of fun but let's be honest. They're old cars with old car issues.

I think flippers and others ran up the prices and then owners decided they could sell and make a mint. And it ain't panning out. When the sellers stop thinking that an average SC is worth $40k to $50k, and bring the prices to a reasonable level, then the buyers will be there with cash in hand.

My 78 SC was a great hobby car, and I hated it as a DD.
My 996 is a great DD, but it's about as exciting to me as a Yaris.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1488151742.jpg

Same thing is happening in the muscle car market. The high prices are often due to resellers buying and selling the cars to each other in speculative purchases.

Prices are probably never going to be what they were, but we'll see a plateau soon I think.

I think you are right about the prices hitting a plateau or even slipping back a bit, but in the time I have owned my SC, I have heard that the prices have topped out and won't ever be worth what they were during the bubble about 3 times.

I didn't buy the SC as an investment, but admittedly I have thought about selling it and getting a C4S and daily driving it. Even in the winter....

My SC is worth about $60,000 AUD right now. That figure is based on what similar cars are selling for right now in Australia.

The asking prices are ridiculous. I recently saw a Aus delivered RHD 1979 SC advertised for $130,000! :eek:

The problem is that you Boyz analysis is biased by emotion. You are not thinking clearly. There might very well be a plateau and a pull back to a lower level after the irrational exuberance wears off. That is not to say that prices will not eventually return to those higher levels in the future. It could after you are dead though. What drives prices is desirability and rarity. The air cooled cars are no more with prime examples drying up along with natural attrition. The ones least likely to decline by much and for a shorter duration are the low production specials u know the long hood 911S' s. You will see quite a bit of fluctuation in the higher production models.

Everything has a commodity value, or why does somebody want that item?

The air cooled cars have past the point of being merely a used car. They are an icon of a past era. Every body in the world likes the 911, it does have that appeal going for it.

Tabby, not "everybody".........

Ohhh pleze...what is the value of a MB 500K from the 30's?. What kind of appeal does that car have? The low production P cars fall into that class. Porsches by definition have not been grocery getter pile the family in and go to church on Sunday autos. They have always been a special interest auto.

Now some people want to be snarky and be picky about not "everybody" liken em. Let us amend and say they have a universal appeal among auto affectionados. I suppose if you live in the Amazon Basin or in the remote darkness of the Congo you might not be enthralled with em...but barring that...

The problem with the Ford T and A models is that it is not a modern auto that is suited to driving on the streets anymore. It is horse and buggy by comparison. Most cars from the 50's on still can at least hold their own in the slow lane.

What, good 911s can be had for 10k again? With all new suspension bushings, wheel bearings, caliper seals, engine leaking nothing, without a melted chocolate bar appearing interior with working AC? Do tell...

What percentage of collector car and/or Porsche market is because of low interest rates? 1-2% at credit unions and 5-7% at collector car lenders. When rates go to 5-6% at credit unions and 10-12% at collector car lenders, will the tipping be a cliff?

First gen 911's are going to continue to climb...along with later low production variations...but barring market corrections the trend is price appreciation.

A corresponding market is the S&W N frame pinned and recessed models (the dash 2's) that were discontinued in 1982...for years they kind of languished as there was no shortage of them floating around...now even though they are still fairly easy to come by the prices have appreciated and are continuing to increase. They have been gone long enough with the earlier 4 and 5 screws getting increasingly pricey that they followed suit. Another one is the Winchester 94/22 now discontinued they have gone from under 500 to over a 1000 for a NIB. It is now being appreciated as something special that it is no longer being made.

Prices will fluctuate up and down a bit but the trend is higher and not lower. Look what happened to vintage Ferraris in the 90-'s, prices came crashing down....and now they are way beyond the peak set in 90.

There are what I call mini collectors out there. They have 5 or six collector cars including air cooled 911s. The go to car meets and hear of one or two selling for bigger numbers. They decide they are tired of spending money on cars they don't drive to keep the mileage down, but still have to keep maintained. So they put their cars up for sale. However, the aren't interested in selling unless they get the big numbers. The market gets glutted with low mileage cars and nothing sells unless it is a really special owner or color.

The political economy still has a lot to do with spending money on collector cars though. And that is not just a recent thing. Some have been tightening their belts for several years. I know in the oil and gas industry both my income and buying power has dropped over the past 8 years. Only the last four months has business only started to recover.

I would gladly sell my Targa for a 996 TT any day any way...

So you still haven't sold your white Targa?