It's been a long long time since I sold a cari I built for more money than I had in it. For most of us in the old car world it's a hobby. I don't remember making money on any of my other hobbies either. I build what want and sell it when I don't want it anymore most likely at a loss and I am in the restoration business. Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.
You see the same "high roller" guys at every BJ auction buying and selling cars they bought a year or so earlier. I would never buy anything I couldn't drive first or put on a lift. There are way too many hobbled bondo resale red junkers out there.
I know someone who purchased a 62 vette from B/J that was a complete restoration and they paid a lot of money for it only to have it shipped back to their home. They decided to take their New car for a ride and when they tried to back up the front p***enger tire fell off the car! Turns out the restoration was done years ago and the car had sat in the hot CA.warehouse for years without being used and all the grease in the wheel bearings was completely gone. A friend on mine was called to repair the damage and he explained to the doctor and his wife why the front wheel had come off. The lesson in this story is when someone say's it was a complete restoration your next question should be how along ago was it done. Not every car that goes through B/J is a high end car! Jimbo
I thought losing money on an older car was the norm. You mean some folks actually sell stuff for more than they paid?
Richard Rawlings is a Douche Bag on a TV show. I can't believe anyone watches that BS. The sight of him makes me ill.
You can sign up as a Me*** Info-Net member, all you need to do is enter an email address to set it up. Then if you're logged in to Me***'s website, the hammer prices of cars that sold are viewable. The down side is that once you're signed up you'll get lots of promotional emails from Me***, but there is a "delete" ****on for that...
You have to understand that some people work crazy hours and make really good money. With limited time off, their vacations are taken up by what their wife wants to do. So they spend one weekend to go to an auction with 1500+ cars. And they have the cash to buy one. So they do. The one they like. The value of the car doesn`t matter. They like it. They don`t have time to look at 10 different cars they saw on the internet. Maybe they did buy one off the internet and it wasn`t what is was represented as. This is a win win situation for them.
I think that the tide is going out on anything earlier than 55, hate to say it but that what the numbers are saying. When the music stops make sure you have a chair for your ***.
Dan31: I agree with your comment even though it pains me to say it. The times are simply changing and I don't like it but that's just the way it is right now. Jimbo
If anyone is into this for profit they should have sold their hot rod and bought an early Porsche 911 5 years ago.
I don't believe that the average guys building an old car ever expects to make a profit. I also don't believe that when you build your car you expect to get back 20 cents to 30 cents for every dollar you have spend and that's not counting all the hours of labor you have put into it. We all love old cars and that is not the problem but unless you like flushing your money down the toilet on each project you build maybe your just loaded with money. Jimbo
I love old cars. It is my hobby. I still have my first one. I don`t care how much money I put into it. It`s not much, I`m not loaded. I drive it often to shows, cruise nights and such. I plan on building another. And another. And the more money I make, the more I will build. I`ve been gathering parts, tools and knowledge. Now I need a building. I`m out of space. Do I expect to get my money back. NO. But it is what I want to do with my spare time. It`s enjoyable to me. Who cares what the market does. I make my money by my business I`m in. I do car interiors. If I want more money, I work longer hours. There`s more than enough work for me to do. Read my tag line below.
That's the wonderful thing about opinions!!! The old saying "Opinions are like toilet seats and everyone has one" is very true. Everyone has the right to spend their money on whatever they want to and maybe just driving the car and having all the fun with it is enough for many of us. I have a friend who spend well into the $80,000 dollar range building a beautiful 40 Willy's and when he went to Turkey Run Car Show one year is saw another 40 Willy's that looked like it drove right off the front page on Hot Rod Magazine for sale for $37,500 and I to help pick him up off the ground and he just looked at me and said you have got to be kidding me! The good news is he had fun building the car over 3 or 4 years in his garage. Jimbo
I thought everyone "bought high, and sold low" seems that is what happens to me. I never expect to make money on a car I build or buy. I build or buy what I like, and sell when I want something else. fortunately, I like the cars I have now and don't ever plan on selling them. I may buy a few more though, I seem to like them all.
I don't even know how much money I have sunk into my current 34 pickup project. I am sure I could never sell it for close to what I have in it. At first, for a while, I was keeping a list of what I was buying, but after a while, I just quit because that made it no longer fun anymore.
The key to not losing money is if you build a car to sell make sure it a current desirable make and model. Thats why all my recent builds have been Tri 5 - 64 Chevies.
EXACTLY Never ever keep track of how much any thing costs while doing your own build. It doesn't matter and makes the eventual sale at whatever the current market is, palatable.
I own 2 muscle cars. I'm reasonably safe with those. I bought them before the market really exploded. My 3 hot rods will cause me to have my *** handed to me. Im in it for the long term fun, not for the money.
You are being kind calling him a douche bag, but you have to remember he is playing a role as an outrageous idiot on a "reality show"!
I didn't keep track of how much I had invested in my truck but unfortunately the wife did...... Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I also have noticed what "Apears" to be a somewhat down turn in prices for early Hot Rods and most of the cars that hold the members here on the HAMB's interest. I do not judge anything in the car related field by those TV auctions, I live in the real world and I am not to sure about some of those folks. I love messing around and building these old cars. When I retired from the Marine Corps I knew I was going to need something to do, as I have seen way to many men take up the rocking chair and that was that. not for this old Cat. since I had a love for these old cars I took that path. I and my wife set a budget and from that budget I had to build a shop, equip it, and start my newest build. Since that day I have built 9 cars and have had a ball doing it. Some of those cars I sold, one I have my, Model A chopped sedan, and it will never be sold for any price. The others are my hobby. I am completely aware that hobby's cost money and I have been damn correct on that deal. I do keep a record of what I spend only because I furnish a folder with all of the receipts for the stuff I have bought to the new owner. I do not care if I make a dollar or not, I do care that I have enough money to start the next build. If I was to try and figure a profit as a must do in this "Hobby" then it would be a business. If it had been a business I would have gone broke and have enough sense to have just up and stopped at and around car # 2. It is not a business and I don't look at it that way. It is just to much fun for that.
Even the price of project cars or restorable hulks seems to be coming down. I was at a small auction in Northwest Minnesota a couple of weekends ago were they had a just over 150 restorable cars, parts and parts cars, and crusher material. Mostly early 50's to mid 60's Buick, Olds, and Pontiac's with a couple of dozen or so Packards, Cadillacs, and Fords thrown in for good measure. Not a single car sold for over $800, even watched a very restorable 2 dr '56 Coupe Deville go for $400. I p***ed on a complete 352 Packard 4 bbl motor and ultramatic for $25. (I have engines stacked like cord wood in the garage and don't need any more.) It took a while for project prices to come down, but it had to happen sooner or later as it was way to easy in the last couple of years to walk into any decent sized car show with $20K in your pocket and drive out in a very nice "driver" that would have cost you twice as much to build.
I don't doubt that for one minute! In other words he isn't a good actor, just plays the role as himself!
This hobby has been good to me over the past 45 years, mostly self supporting thanks to the stuff in the trunks of the projects I bought that I was able to sell at swap meets. Tried it all - paint & body, upholstery, fabricating, welding - not good at most so stuck to mechanical & talented friends helped with the rest. I did break down & had the roadster built by a reputable shop. It was much too nice a start for me to tackle, beside they finished it a lot faster than I ever could (9 months). I have a couple of "muscle" cars, one of which I am taking to Auction next month, a '55 pick-up, a long time (1993) unfinished '51 Ford flathead mild custom & a couple more projects that I hope will get finished. I expect I'll have more in them than I'll recoup but that's OK as I have had a lot of fun (still do) along the way. Thanks to my late wife who managed the house, money & taught the kids to be self supporting while I played soldier for 27 years, I am able to hire the guys that can do what I can't. I'm with stanlow69 - "it's not about the money"!! No regrets.
IMO, we are in a buyer's market and its going to stay that way. It's supply and demand, look around anywhere you go, I do not see many if any younger men getting involved, it's a vast majority of us baby boomers that built and drove our hobby and as we age out for whatever reason equals lots of cars available. I've been very fortunate with hobby cars and never took a big hit, then again never a big score, just cruisin along enjoying the Hobby, hoping to unload my 2 current old cars for a fair price, (Will stay in hobby with my OT late model hot rods) fortunately don't have to sell cars at Broker Price's and I keep in mind this is hobby not my business, was in my business (Tool & Die/Pattern Shop) for 36 years. If I or we loose few $$$ selling out when it's time, what's the big deal, all Hobbies cost $$$, (definition of FUN is Money) think about we have lost in depreciation on our daily drivers through the years, that will put a teer in most eye's, I was involved in racing hobby/business 25 years, not complaining and no regrets, Ton of FUN, that was high speed spend and the memories are priceless. I guess my point is, Enjoy the hobby, you can't take it with you, your wife/widow will spend it on her next boyfriend/husband and or the kids will spend it on what they enjoy, So stop worrying over what you can't control, life goes on and things change. When it's all said and done, it doesn't matter if you have a dollar or owe a dollar, you had better have had some fun along the way. End of my BS for today, Everyone Have a Great Day !
I went to Barrett Jackson last year to buy a rare 1934 DeSoto Airflow coupe. It was in #3 condition and needed some help. It sold for $45K and afterwards I heard the new owner say "I'm going to fix it and flip it at Barrett Jackson next year for $80K. He freshened it up and the next year took it to BJ, ... and it sold for $41K.
Absolutely. As some of you know I've been building and selling cars at auctions for the past 5/6 years as a supplement to the shop. As much as I love my early Ford hot rods I learned early on there isn't any money in them, cost too much to build for what they sell for. I've been doing "restomods" (better money then original muscle cars), trucks and early Broncos, best bang for my investment, always buyers for them. I see that happen a lot at these auctions. One guy brought a POS 57 Chevy wagon poorly converted to a 2dr Delivery, boosted to me he "stole" it on Ebay for 25K, brought it to B-J and figured he'd get at least upper 40's for it, really thought it could go into the 50's. Said he figured he'd clear at least 10K on it after expenses. I knew he was in trouble, sure enough it hammered at 18K so he got a little over 16 + he paid close to another 3 to enter/ shipping /lodging ect. He ended up losing 12K on his 25K "bargin", he was not a happy camper. The only time I've lost money at auction I did just that, bought an ot Mustang at Barrett, got ****y and figure I could detail it and flip at the next one and make a couple $$. Did sell for more then I paid for it but not when I paid the commissions and cost of the trip. Barrett Jackson however did real well on it getting 20% on both sells (40% total) + entry fees, they made close to half of what the car was worth in just two auctions.
The Jalopy Journal
