In it for the Money?

I would say most people have them for the love of the cars. Unfortunately because of all the hype and value it is tough to ignore. Every year I have to increase the insurance, can't leave it anywhere unattended and rarely a day goes by when someone doesn't ask me "whats it worth?". The reality is the value and hype have an effect on the enjoyment but not enough to ever make me get rid of it.
Tim

 

Personally I could care less what it is worth. If someone said the market just fell and my car is now worth $1000 thats fine with me. Never bought it because of the value. Then again I am not a dealer and I don't make a living flipping cars.

 

these cars are not like 10 year old 4.6 GT Mustangs are today. well in 1975, they were! available for $500-5000 everywhere. today they are 40 year old cars and worth six digits. that changes everything. I have bought, enjoyed and sold several of these cars. some I regret. But I always had another Shelby lined up before I sold the Last one!! I leap frogged my way up to the car I have now. which is worth way more than I paid for it, but after much soul searching, I pulled the original engine, slid it on a nice stand out of the way and have today broght home a redone 428 from my COBRA with Aluminum Heads and the Factory Dual Quad set up on top. a set of Ceramic coated Hooker Headers lay in waiting to Bolt up. I will be driving this Mobile 401K plan, and truly enjoying myself!

 

There is an definately an element out there buying them purely as an investment. How many, I don't know. I bought my first Shelby back in the late 80's and watched as prices climbed and "corrected" after a couple of years when the stock market came back. I feel like I am living that time all over again. Except the numbers are so much bigger this time. I've made a couple of marketing attempts with my current car at a huge enough number so I could buy another project and build another one. It's not for the money though. I like building them and this is the only way I can afford to do that now. Sometimes I feel I am living a Jeff Foxworthy joke about "...when your car is worth more than your house."

I am sure many of the new buyers love the cars for what they are, but they've really missed the fun days of owning them when you would mess with the local kids in their fox bodies and camaro's on the way to your car club meetings or meet a half dozen or so buds and head to IHOP or Hardees for breakfast just to run the cars. The guy that really got me into the cars used to drive his Hertz car to work every day. You don't see that now. We drug cars out of sheds and fields, cut trees down to get to them, driven all night to swap meets (boy ebay has really changed that one) hunting for parts and stayed up all night working on somebody's car trying to get it finished or at least running because you were leaving for the convention at sun up. There's been a lot of passion poured into these cars over the years. One thing that has always set the Shelby apart over the years is the desire and willingness of the owners to drive the cars no matter what the value. I think that is going to be the ultimate test of whether somebody bought it as an investment or because they love the car. After all, you don't drive stocks and bond either.

 

Im in the same boat as Tlea & DJR did not buy it to sell.---S.

 

I got my first Shelby in 79, and still have in. I was in the Air Force and moved around some. I could of sold it many times, but instead, I stored the car while I was overseas. I got my second Shelby in 91 and I still have it. I am looking for my third, (a 66 GT350). Collecting Shelbys is like watching football, if you have to explan it you just don't get it. Money is a factor but not the main factor.

 

I guess that there are two types of Shelby owners:

1. Ones who sit on their cars

2. Ones who sit in their cars

If I am ever lucky enough to get my hands on my dream Shelby, I would fall into category two. In my view it is both a travesty and crime that these performance cars are not asked to perform.

Steve GT350

 

i can only speak for myself. I bought my 1989 Shelby Csx new in 1990. I drove it daily up until about 4 years ago when it seems that the monthly repairs were exceeding what a new car payment would be. I do not drive it currently. I plan to do some work to it, but unfortunately other financial obligations always seem to get in the way. I picked up an 88 trans am 2 years ago because the car was way too clean to pass up. that car currently resides in the garage except for pleasure drives while the Shelby is in the driveway. Unfortunately, i am not a mechanical person, so i have to pay to get any repairs done if i want them done right. So, I just hold on to the shelby until i have the money to restore it right. So, am i in it for the money, well, I don't know. If the right offer came along, i would sell it, so does that make me in it for the money? I mean, i think part of me keeps it because i enjoy the car alot, and part of me keeps it on the hope that it will be worth something in the future. but honestly, i would sell it if someone had the desire to restore it and offered the right $. but realistically, i think your post was reffering to the big money shelby mustangs and not the dodges. but i figured i'd add my 2 cents.

 

I was getting "late" into Shelbys because of money.
In fact money stopped me from getting one until
1977 when I bought my 67 in L.A. for $3800 and shipped
it to Sweden. After seeing "Red Line 7000" on a theatre
in Stockholm, Sweden in 1965, I decided as a 17 year old
that one day I would own a 65 Shelby. It took 23 years
until I found 5S275 in Tyler, Texas. That was my dream and still
is. Will sell my home before I sell the car. The last few years I got
so crazy about the car so I check every date code on parts
and won't give up until they are all correctly dated.
This summer I will swap my L5 damper for a C5 with a friend
in Sweden who owns a 66 Shelby. It's very strange that I don't
care if others see or know if the parts are correct or not, as long
as I know myself. Any other of you gearheads feel the same?
/Texas Swede

 

Every body has their "sell" point. Poor fellows who chose to sell twenty years ago when these car broke into the 20 K range. Now these are 6 figure cars.
Notice that survey box that is at the upper right when you open the page? Occationally it has the "how long have you owned your Shelby?
There seems to be two types of majority owners: the long term ones like myself who has owned their car(s) longer than 20 years. We're the ones that rarely sell. We've always wanted one, now have one, and plan on keeping it. If they have more than one, they might sell one.
The next group are the 5 year group. Well, for the most part, they just bought it, can't believe it has already increased in value at least 25%, if not way more. These are the folks who might sell. Some might keep it. Most others are investors. They'll move back to some other make after all the killing has been completed with Shelbys. These folks can only tell you that "they used to own one". And they can tell you how much they sold it for, because the Shelby part was small, but the Money part was great.

I'll still have mine.

 

Thats somewhat of a skewed result of the survey. Less than 5 years seems to imply you are a new owner. Answering it pertaining to my present Shelby I would be less than 5 years. Asking it from how long have I owned Shelbys (different cars) I would answer 20+. Plus many people are buying something now that they could not afford 20+ years ago.
Tim

 

I am pretty new to the "Sport" or "Hobby", less than a year. I grew up in the 70's when Shelby's were already 10 years old. I remember seeing them as a kid from time to time. My older brother had a Chevelle and 307 Malibu and he use to poor bleach on the smooth concrete in the garage and do burnouts when my parents weren't home. The Neighbors loved us!!!!

If someone wants to get into this hobby today it is not cheap. I wish I could turn back the clock and buy a couple cars 5 or 10 years ago. Given what it takes to get an original Shelby today the only way I could get involved was to justify the cost as an investment should I ever need to sell the cars for money in the future. I showed my wife an article written that compared the top 30 classic cars over the past 15 years to the stock market. It showed an average 18% return over the last 15 years compared to 6-8% for the market. Once she saw that I had the GREEN light.

I love this as a hobby, going to the car shows, crusie nights etc.. Just an absolute blast, I can do this till I die and have a ton of fun. Given the cost barrier these days it's a pretty large financial comittment to get involved. I envy you guys that have held these forever or bought years ago when the cars were much cheaper.

Understand for us newbies we can never turn back the clock and if we want to get involved at these prices like I did (bought 3 cars in 4 months), part of you has have some certaintly that if you get in a pinch for money, you can sell the car and at least get your money back if not make a little money. It doesn't mean we love the hobby any less, it's just A LOT of money to lay down for a hobby. It's not model airplanes!!!!

In the spirit of the sport

Mike

 

I'd love to see that article. I totally believe it but I sometimes need 'ammunition' for justification.

 

Here is the article from "The Barrett Jackson Experience Issue Two":

 

While everything in the article is accurate, it is somewhat misleading. The huge boom in muscle cars has only been in the last two or three years. And the 10 year graph would have started in 1995 during a time where muscle cars had crashed in value compared to the prior peak of 1990. (yes they lost value) A 10 year graph from 1990 to 2000 would have shown muscle cars to be a terrible investment. Of couse, your wife would have reminded you how much it cost so you wouldn't need a graph.

All this to say, try to find some sanity in this red hot market when buying your dream car. Don't risk something you can't afford to lose. It is great to see new entries into the hobby and hear their excitement when they finally find one. I would hate to see the true fans of the cars get stung when the speculators decide to dump their cars and go back to oil futures or tech stocks. Ending this on positive note, the last paragraph of the article is good advice. Collectables tend to run counter to the stock market and can actually help add balance to one's overall financial plan and if they do happen to go down, at least you still have a Shelby.

 

I couldn't agree more. The last 2-3 years skew the numbers and bring up the overall average. I guess what they are saying is that if you owned the cars they mention and both a S&P and DJIA index fund over that period of time, those would be your results.

Keep in mind a dealer sent me that when I was shopping around, great sales tool for him. I have to hand it to him, not a bad piece to have in your war chest but at the same time it was written by a knowledgable person who did their homework.

What is also fueling this hobby is that the baby boomer generation is starting to retire. This is the first generation of people to have 401k's and planned retirement plans. They are an active group with exposable income and many of them want to buy a car from their youth, brings back the old days and memories of their younger years. If this is any of you, my hats off to you. I am middle aged and just love cars and love the uniqueness of the Shelby's.

I am a partner in a company that builds sporting properties and ranches in the western U.S.. The baby boomers are also very heavy into the outdoors, very active retirees. They are the majority of our buyers of land.

What a great hobby this is, just fun as hell.