[Tigers] Barrett-Jackson Arizona 2009

[Stephen Waybright]

I agree with Michael. 

As has been demostrated with the crazy oil and real estate price rises and subsequent crash, once there are enough speculators in the market, there can be a wildly distorted (high) demand signal from what exists in the actual free market. 

The collector cars that have been attracting speculative buyers, are the cars that will take the biggest hit now that conservatism is squeezing speculation out of most investing behavior.

Tiger values should be pretty stable by comparison, save for the over-paid (>$70k) white Tiger that sold at a recent auction and quickly showed up on eBay.

My economics learning: speculative investing (not to be confused with hedging) can destroy the free market system and should be tightly regulated (if not flat out prohibited on commodities).

Stephen Waybright

--- On Thu, 1/15/09, michael king <michael.s.king at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: michael king <michael.s.king at gmail.com>

> regarding classic values, i think that we saw a lot of
> speculators get
> involved in the market and force the prices of muscle cars
> in both USA and
> Australia way out of control. the issue being people
> started buying them and
> turnign them over quickly. The problem with this is that
> the people doing it
> are not really enthusiasts.. they are buying them to make
> money.
> 
> I think the Tigers, while moving strongly up in the market
> are largely
> bought by people who really want them, not speculators.
> Hence our prices are
> a little more stable as the cars are more a niche market of
> enthusiasts..
> its not like many people know what they even are.
> 
> During the downturn its the normal cars that generally get
> hit.. a guy with
> a shelby cobra is not concerned about where the next
> mortgage payment is
> coming from.. a guy with a healey sprtie is.. they will
> turn the sprite over
> for a quick $.. but the people in that market are probably
> a bit n the lean
> side too.. you have a cobra or a ferrari 250GTO.. there are
> always more
> people than cars and som,ene willing to pay a premium to
> get it if someone
> HAD to sell it.
> 
> -- 
> Regards
> 
> Michael King