How many - and what are - collectors?
 

People with 50 shiny cars?

40 cars?

30?

People with 5 cars in restoration right now?

People here (and elsewhere) keep talking about 'collectors' snapping these cars up. Not every old guy with 50 rusty cars out back is a collector who will make you whole with your low driver quality SC. Are there really thousands of 'collectors' wanting to bid up the (hundreds of) thousands of '74-'86 P-cars produced in that period?

I think that term tends to get misused. I think it is often applied to a person who has the means, and have decided that s/he wants to own a car that has long been something to be owned long term. They might only have 3-5 cars total in their garage. But they are reacting to the run up in pricing, have the money to spend, and are buying now before they consider themselves priced out of the market.

These are condition 2&3 buyers. I think it is pretty rare someone is buying a condition 1 car and not having a couple of dozen of cars in their heated climate controlled barn/garage.

I'd humbly consider myself a collector as I continue to buy cars that interest me with the intent to keep them forever-ish. I don't have massive amounts of money, in fact most in my financial situation wouldn't buy these cars to keep. But I value them more than most anything else I can buy. So I'm definitely and enthusiast and I have a collection of cars, jeep, Porsche(maybe 2 by weeks end!) an SUV for hauling and family trips and a fuel efficient sedan for safety and not to far trips.

That's a collection of cars for my wide and I. And she is eyeing a British car at the moment. So I think that classifies us as collectors of mostly level 3 cars.

I once read that if you have three or more of something (cars, spoons, etc) you're considered a collector.

I would think that would mean three Ferraris, not necessarily a pick up, minivan and corvette.

To me a collector is someone who's parks cars somewhere and does not use them as intended. An enthusiast is someone who drives them in anger with no regard to value. Some of us do a little of both ;).

Phil

Ahem........I prefer to think of myself as a "Hoarder"; not a collector.

I think the 'collector' is the description of the car, not the buyer. Every well heeled car guy I know has 'user' cars and a bunch of 'collectors.' The latter mostly collect dust.

I like the collecting dust image to define a collector/hoarder.

I once knew this collector up in Wyoming...

Ahh, Matt; now you are collecting the low lying fruit. Or is that fruit lying on the ground?

My question is more aimed at the people who think that all those 'collectors' will keep driving up the prices of medium or lower-driver level cars.

Well, the conversation had shifted to hoarders.

I gave my legitimate answer in my first post.

Driving up prices ......is anyone who buys these cars, weather one or many. Remember, we are talking about old cars to most people, so most are not driven daily. To me a collector of something is one who collects things and it collects more dust then usuage. If I buy a 1978 SC for daily use that's one of my cars I use, it not collected...