MARKET TRENDS
One trend Carey has witnessed on auc- tion blocks around the U.S. is renewed interest among brass era cars. “Te availability of events has really encour- aged people to buy those cars,” he says. Te result is that many younger buyers are spending money on such antiques, so their collections are no longer just the cars they longed for as kids. Meanwhile, Kidston believes the
“modern classics”—supercars of the 1980s and ’90s—are on the verge of real collectability. “Maybe one day,” Kidston says, “somebody will actu- ally wake up to the fact that the Jaguar XJ220 isn’t such a bad car.”
At around $50,000, cars like the Ford Thunder- bird (top) represent the median of the classic car market, which was strengthened by thousands of transactions in 2011. On the collectibility horizon, modern supercars like the Jaguar XJ220 (bottom) appear to have a bright future.
Still, middle-income collectors still make up the largest segment of the classic car hobby, and they’re buying, too. “Particularly in the $50,000 median price range,” says Carey. But even at lower price points, plenty of cars are trading hands; dozens of auction companies around the U.S. sold thousands of classic cars priced well below $20,000 last year. “Tese people aren’t investment oriented,” says Carey. “Tough they can justify their expenditure by saying, ‘I could put $50,000 in the stock market, but I don’t know where it’s going tomorrow.
While attendance at Hershey was strong, vendor support was even better, with all vendor stalls sold out.
I could put $50,000 in bonds or treasury notes or a money market fund and make two-tenths of one percent on it. So why not put it in a ’57 T-Bird?’”
Tere’s really no downside. If the econ- omy continues to slide and you need the money, you simply sell your car. If you’re able to hang onto it, you put some gas in it and take it out on a sunny afternoon.
EVENTS HERE AND THERE Tose who populate the hobby do so with gusto, and new events are popping up all over. Kuwait hosted its first concours in 2011, and the Cartier Concours in India shows no signs of slowing. Japan has begun adding events after a long period
of dormancy following the last big crash in the early 1990s. “Glo- balization of the hobby is a positive trend,” says Kidston. “It brings new people into the hobby. Fresh eyes are always a good thing.” Closer to home, the former Meadow Brook Concours changed its name and venue to the Concours d’Elegance of America at the Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Michi- gan. Executive Director Jim McCarter says attendance was up 20 percent, with no additional marketing. “We had the whole golf course, the whole convention center and the whole hotel
PHOTO: © JAY TEXTER
PHOTOS: © MOTORING PICTURE LIBRARY / ALAMY
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