<VV> Rarity and Value

[RoboMan91324@aol.com]

Wayne,

I respectfully disagree.  You seem to be mixing up the motivation of the 
initial buyers with the motivation of collectors.  Most new cars both then and now 
are purchased for practical reasons.  People wanted a car to help them do the 
normal things in day to day life.  The sedans, etc. were much more practical 
and cheaper too.  This is why they were sold in much higher quantities.  A 
Hemi 'Cuda was not really practical for picking up the kids and going grocery 
shopping.  Collectors today are motivated by many things, few of which are 
practical.  People want to own the dream cars of their youth.  You know ... the ones 
that were too expensive, impractical or too fast and dangerous for your 
parents to want to buy it for you.  Collectors want bragging rights which includes 
"Mine is faster than yours." and yes, "Mine is more rare than yours."  In 
short, the collector car hobby is motivated by a sense of fun, nostalgia and 
investment.  The majority of new car buyer are motivated by cost considerations and 
practicality of use.

Granted, there are cars that were low production and rare but have little or 
no value today.  For the most part, these cars were low production because 
they were undesirable for any of a number of reasons including poor performance, 
severely ugly, poor quality, etc.  The cars we are talking about here like the 
Corsas, etc. were desirable as fun vehicles but were bought in lower quantity 
because of cost and practicality reasons.

I do admit that Corvair owners have more practicality mixed in with the 
collectors' motivations I mentioned.  I don't know for a fact but I suspect that a 
higher percentage of today's Corvair owners use their cars as daily drivers 
than owners of most other classics.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons they are 
undervalued in the collector car market.  ...  Corvairs, not the Corvair 
collectors.  :-)  However, the motivations I mentioned still dominate.  The prices 
for Corsas, Spyders, ragtops and such will always outstrip the 4 doors on 
average.

The law of supply and demand applies here.  We all agree that the supply of 
the lower production cars is lower by definition.  I contend that the demand 
for these vehicles is also higher for the reasons mentioned.  If you believe 
that quantities manufactured initially is directly related to the value (price?) 
of a car today, I would be more than happy to sell you a Chevette (or any 
other mundane, cheap, econobox) for $100,000.  I would ask for more but I don't 
want to rip you off.

Happy motoring,
Doc
~~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 12/10/2004 2:46:50 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
virtualvairs-request@corvair.org writes:

> Message: 10
> From: "Wayne Graefen" <wgraefen@ktc.com>
> To: <virtualvairs@corvair.org>
> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 16:15:16 -0600
> Subject: <VV> Rarity and Value.
> 
> If there is only one thing I am completely confident of about the 
> relationship of rarity to value in the car collecting hobby it is this:   Rarity has 
> very little to do with value.
> 
> "Rarity' in and of itself is largely a function of the fact that consumers 
> did not order more of them (whatever they are) when they were new.  GM would 
> have done its best to build a MILLION Corsa turbo 4spd converts in special 
> order Fuschia if buyers would have wanted them!
> 
> On RARE occasions, a factory offers a special 'limited production' model and 
> does hold the number built to a few dozen or a couple of hundred but for the 
> most part that is because they are marketing something they don't think they 
> could sell much more of anyway!
> 
> Wayne