Recession And Vintage Cars/parts

[Dephcon5]

Has this current economic problem affected the price of vintage parts and vintage cars?

It seems the prices have dropped some. Or am I way out in left field?

[Wile E.Coyote]

exchange rate has been affected, so do some price, 6 months ago 1 GBP was 1,4 euro, today it is only 1,08. Then, for every people living in the euro zone, it is much more interesting.

Nevertheless, before the crisis, 1 euro=1,58 USD, now it is only 1,32 USD

[Origineelreclamebord]

As Coyote mentioned, the exhange rates have been affected, but there's more that will affect the price.

In an economical downdraft (I hope I said that right) or crisis, people tend to change their balance on what they spend their money on. They will spend less money on amusement and spare time, so the RC hobby gets a massive blow with less sales of cars and parts. At first, new, expensive or collector's cars will be sold less, later on a reduction of sales on cheaper cars and inexpensive second hand cars will be seen, but not as much as for the more expensive cars. At the same time some people will want to sell their cars and parts to make money for the upcoming years, so their will be an increase in sales as well. Combine the decrease in demand and the increase in sales and you get a price drop.

So what's the wisest thing to do? People tend to save money because they think the worst is yet to come. But actually we create our own economical downdraft by saving money. If we'd still spend it like the way we used to then the economy would restore itself quicker. However it's not easy, let's say close to impossible to get all people to get their trust back in the economy so they'll spend more money once again. So the fact that everyone is trying to save money as a community is unwise, but as individuals it's understandable. I would however spend the money in these times. Prices are dropping (and may drop even further) and often you can even choose where you want to buy your car or part, even if it's pretty rare

[smokescreen]

Hello,

Well to answer that question based on personal observation, id like to say this economy rescission has had little if any bearing on vintage tamiya parts and kits that i've been following on ebay. Porsche 959/celica bits/kits to anything supershot related still pulls in premium prices. I'm sure some people may think twice about spending money on things for entertainment but then there's always the next person whom this rescission has really no effect on that is willing to spend top dollar. I really haven't seen a decline in prices and don't think that they'll fall.

[Mouton]

I do not believe the recession will hit the collectors market that hard. Here is why.

While the modern stuff do loose out the old does not get hit as badly. A NIB SRB or 3speeder will always find a new home. People who are in the market for their fourth NIB RR rarely use the bread money for these investments. While the number of buyers and sellers are smaller than during an economic boom, there are still people out there consuming.

Most people would try to sit out the recession at not sell anything unless they need (bread) money. Some dare not sell because it is a recession, fearing premium prices will not be paid. Of course there will be "casualties", people who's lives tragically changes that need to sell their valuables. However, as our market is now global you only need two people to get a bidding war on that gem. It is therefore not necessarily that much of a fall in the money paid for the vintage cars.

Naturally the prices may be affected by a boom/recession, but as already noted by our Looney Tune-friend exchange rates are a better explanatory factor to price fluctuations in our global Tamiya world.

[retroman]

I watch the SRB stuff on ebay quite closely, and to be honest, since Christmas, I think a lot of the stuff has gone up!!

[mechinyun]

Agreed, it seems prices have been raising ALOT just in the past few months. WTFF

[WW-nut]

Aren't prices of vintage cars/parts always high at this time of year, though maybe more so in the UK because of the dire worth of the pound.

When the weather begins to get warmer and evenings lighter prices will dip, especially when people are surrounded by many unopened boxes of Ebay buys (projects that will never get started) and will finally wake up when they see their credit card bill. These items will then be relisted for sale - well I hope they do.

Don't be one of those people that see prices rising and panic buy, be patient and wait a few months.

Aside point is that people mention that there is a finite stock of vintage rc cars, well yes thats true. But there are many hundreds/thousands of cars still in peoples attics still waiting to be found. How many 'loft find' or 'house clearance' cars are listed on Ebay each week.

[bruiserbuilder]

It appears to me that folks who have 1:1 projects are coming back to their original passion of r/c. My sales one ebay have slowed about 5% but sales through my e commerce store have jumped 49% since december.

[HereBeMonsters]

It appears to me that folks who have 1:1 projects are coming back to their original passion of r/c.

Yep. Much cheaper!

I'm also having a lot more fun using my little GTI as a daily driver instead of keeping it for trackdays and such. It's great!

[Corona Powered]

Strangely, I think prices of SRB, 959, 3-spd cars/ parts is as strong as ever. Somebody paid $50 USD for a SRB rear body mount clip the other day on the 'bay. I couldn't believe it (normal price is about $30 USD, which is still crazy). I am waiting for prices to drop. I am not observing it. It does seem like more whole Sand Scorchers, Rough Riders and 3-speeds are up for sale though - but supply, obviously, still WAY outstrips demand.

[loaded]

Much of the money that was around is still around. Those that didn't adapt a couple of years ago have left it too late probably, but that said, whilst many are losing money, others are making a killing. Personally there is nothing more exciting to me than a recession. Thousands of opportunities for those with the knowledge/guts/money to cash in on one of the most derisable human traits : Panic. Greed is pretty useful too, just get your timing right. Of course, this has little to do with Tamiya vintage models, but the wider market of things, houses, cars, carrots. I personally don't foresee a significant non seasonal drop in values of vintage models and parts items any time soon and in fact have seen increases (not just down to exchange rates) of late. No one actually has a crystal ball, despite what they might have you believe, however. Warren Buffett.

One observation I have is that those who 'wait and see' rarely do anything monumental or make any real successes. They might make a comfortable easy life for themselves, but nothing really exciting or groundbreaking. I would personally rather reach for the stars and go down in a blaze of glory than sit around 'seeing' what people do all around me and miss all those opportunities.

Paul.

[terry.sc]

Thousands of opportunities for those with the knowledge/guts/money to cash in on one of the most derisable human traits : Panic.

Panic is the right word here. If it wasn't for the media would the majority of people know there's a problem. with all the news coverage it's a self fulfilling prophesy. The news tells you all the doom and gloom, so you worry about it, stop buying what you used to, and the demand has been killed off.

The banks have basically run out of money to give away so the sectors that are hit are the banks (obviously) and anything that usually involves borrowing lots of money from them - houses and new cars. The 'building industry' is hard hit, but only if you are building new houses for which there are no longer any buyers. Certainly in the UK the banks were lending up to 5-6 times income which was the only way people could afford houses, which helped drive up prices further. Still plenty of work for the maintenance and renovation sectors though, where big loans aren't needed or still easier to get.

The car industry has thrived purely on cheap credit with their various schemes to lease cars to private buyers who seem to be happy to pay 150+ a month with nothing to show for it after 3 years.

Some big businesses have gone to the wall the past few months because they can no longer get the credit they need to keep going, highly likely they would disappear in a year or two anyway. In the UK we lost Woolworths, not because of the recession but because no one had shopped there for years and the credit crunch meant they couldn't get the credit needed to keep on going until they would eventually disappear anyway. It got plenty of 'credit crunch' news coverage though. Then there was those music shops that followed because they only had one supplier -Woolworths.

All this gets reported all over the news, but they'll add on quietly that the supermarkets are expanding everywhere, or that some banks are still making huge profits.

The majority of people will hardly be affected, if you don't need to borrow large sums of money while having a dodgy credit rating. Thanks to reduced inflation and dropping petrol and food prices we have more money now than we did 6 months ago. So if you have now got spare cash at the end of the month (I know my petrol bill has gone down by 40 a month!) then this ends up being spent on our toys.

The only way it's affected me is buying from abroad. It's been good when the dollar was weak, but now the pound has fallen everything is costing so much more and I can't wait to see what the new kit prices will be once the exchange rate affects new imports.

[WW-nut]

I can't wait to see what the new kit prices will be once the exchange rate affects new imports.

Terry.sc, I've already seen a couple of model shop websites quoting new prices - might be worth reading this http://goldstarstockists.net/live/catalog/pricechanges.php

[loaded]

All last year, whilst some others were whining about the price of everything, I was buying. I bought loads, I felt that although the 'market' (for what its worth) might have been a little high, the Sterling was doing very well and that there was a window of opportunity. So I bought and bought and bought and apparently - bought!

I live in a part of the world most people can't spell (or due to educational inadequacies due to an underfunded state school system, don't know changed its name nearly 20 years ago), or occasionally people ask me how the war is here (?) in a town right near the very edge of Poland called Ostrava. In the last month I have seen a Marks and Spencer and a Halfords open. Credit crunch? Yeah, right. Media crunch more like. Terrified that the medium of satellite television is technically imperfect, largely outdated and being overtaken by the internet, Rupert Murdoch is waging a one man crusade to terrify us all back into 1946. Or perhaps this is just me being paranoid.

Either way, stop listening to Sky News and stop reading the Mail.

'Paedophile Asylum Seeker with AIDS makes House Prices Fall whilst Woolworths sacks 47,000,000 people and the credit crunch tightens its grip.'

This is the kind of headline they love to write. It doesn't matter that what they talk about comes in pairs.

Paul.

[Tamiya1/10]

The effects of recession or economic turn around is not immediate as families still have some savings or social benefits are still in place. And hopefully things have turned around before the savings or benefits run out. How one's feel about the current situation we are all in, really depends on ones age, educational background, line of work or business one is in and one's own out look in life e.g. the cup is half full or half empty. We should get back to this topic 3 months or 6 months from now and see if its really that bad or it ain't the bad after all.

Someone say before, tough time never last but tough guy always lasts.