| Author | Message | ||
     David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3608 Registered: 04-2003 |
More musings from Vladimir on current conditions: "In 1980 I owned an almost perfect condition 1969 Gold Cadillac Sedan DeVille. It was the only year Cadillac used Ostrich Skin Leather and it was even RHD but fortunately the conversion was done by a top Sydney specialist. I was importing Ford Cleveland 351 second-hand V8 engines from New York at the time and they sold super-quick at a profit. I needed to sell the Cadillac to finance a bigger shipment and travel to NYC to pack it and I could not give away the Cadillac. The Cadillac sold at loss but it left a permanent mental scar. People like suicidal lemmings would rather buy Holden Commodores which even a blind man could see were ugly horrid pieces of trash being an off-cast of the German Opel. That Cadillac has almost tripled or quadrupled in value over 40 years. Sometimes I would press my watering eyeball up against the window of Winterbottom's Rolls Royce dealership for long periods staring at the brand new yellow Rolls Royce Shadow nicely priced at $80,000. Yellow or Brown are my most unfavourite colours but still I had this insane lust to own an Rolls Royce. The Aussie Dollar ( also known as the Pacific Peso or Sinker ) has almost halved in value in 40 years. Even in outlying areas of no consequence in cities like Perth a simple house on a quarter acre has increased 10 times in value. In Sydney a lot of people live like battery hens in one bedroom flats and pay crazy prices for the privilege of inhaling the pollution, driving in LA type traffic, tolerating a public train system that has had more breakdowns than a nut house and a water supply system that has now and again turned toxic. And in Sydney people pay super crazy prices to purchase a roof over their head. But what does all this mean? I cannot tell you because I am not an economist. What I can tell you is when it comes to classic cars I only buy, I never sell. Here at the moment American cars made between 1950s to mid 1970s are selling or at least being advertised for insane prices and often far in excess of most European makes (Ferrari, Lamborghini and some Maserati's aside). And this the exact opposite of what was happening forty years ago." . | ||
| Omar M. Shams Prolific User Username: omar Post Number: 1947 Registered: 04-2009 |
lets hope what you are saying holds true where i am.... I have a 1957 Cadillac Coupe that is complete and reasonably tidy but could do with restoration. If I could get US$15,000 I would be doing cart wheels....... | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3610 Registered: 04-2003 |
A response from Vladimir "Omar, I think the key to the caper is one needs to have a developed sense of foresight. We all dwell on hindsight too much. I am certain you have tales to tell about the one that got away etc. For example in Perth in 1977 there was a yellow Series one Jaguar E-Type Coupe which the garage proprietor would have parted with for $3,000 and I didn't buy it and later in Queensland in 1984 an almost perfect condition 1965 RHD Buick Riviera which I knew from new going for $4,000 which I didn't buy either. Both non-purchases were serious blunders on my part. In Kuibyshev, a near perfect Chaika was going for $5,000 USD in late 1999. Yet another mistake by me. In 1983 all life on this planet came incredibly close to being eradicated when a Soviet military computer indicated five US missiles were on the way. Watch "The man who saved the earth" documentary if you are in need of some very hilarious and simultaneously disturbing stuff. The Professor in Syria may be interested in your 57 Cadillac Coupe Omar. I would like to meet the Professor one day when all the craziness in Syria stops. He must be an interesting chap to have his entire collection parked in a street in the middle of a civil war. Some of his cars were damaged. But still he won't sell, he's going to restore the damaged ones. If you sell the 57 Cadillac Coupe Omar and you live to 90 you will not be chucking any cartwheels over $15,000 USD. I spoke to an old mate the other day who was once the largest pawpaw grower in Queensland and I told him I was getting concerned that one day I would have to convert all my cars to electric motors etc and he said " well it's coming to that Vlad.." Hmmmm I thought, there is always Venezuela. That aside I am watching Afghanistan very closely. They have a lot of Lapis Lazuli there which I want to snap up by to cubic metre to build a very snazzy coffee table for my man cave at my country lair...And old Soviet military submarine clocks are on the market at nifty prices....right now. We have a hideous addiction Omar and there is no cure...but we have one thing going for us and that is we can see the difference between quality and mass produced trash while the general public worldwide can't." . | ||
| Trevor Hodgekinson Experienced User Username: wm20 Post Number: 160 Registered: 11-2006 |
Forty year ago the cashed up retirees were busy working building up their retirement funding . Now they have retired with more money than they have ever seen in their lives in one hit. Now that they are not working they do not need a 100% reliable & cheap to run vehicle. Age is catching up on them so they " BUY THEIR YOUTH BACK " by getting another first car. I have been into BSA Motorcycles all my life and have seen this happening big time. Although as the last BSA was made in 1973 and motorcycling is a strenious pass time the number of fit enough retirees is diminishing so in general prices are falling. Cars are of course different any 50 lb weakling can drive a car and I see a lot of people buying the exotic motorcycle that they could not afford when they were 18, trading it for what they had when they were 18 because they can no longer handle a heavy powerful bike, then the back plays up so the bike gets sold and they buy a car from their youth. |
