I made the mistake of posting a thread on FerrariChat...

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John Vardanian
Posts: 1906
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2002 12:13 am
Location: San Francisco Area

Post by John Vardanian »

[quote="tyang"]Hi John,

I Saw Art with his 275 that day at Concorso, and we laughed about how much he struggled with his decision. Even in August, 275GTB prices were significantly higher than what he paid.

Have you guys done anything new to the car?

Tom[/quote]

Just tuned it up, valve adjustment, carburettor rebuild, and rectifying electrical problems.

It is a pretty car. The dark red interior compliments it wel.

john
eve23
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 1:15 pm

Post by eve23 »

john the car looks great......great color as well as investment....
back to original topic.....

i agree that ferrarichat is good....but it does get 308 heavy sometimes.....this is THE site for vintage if thats what your into....
tom has set up a great thing here......thank you tom...don't know where you get the time???
he could possibly be the keith martin of the east coast...
don't know if thats a good thing though....; )
tom, you could parlay this into a whole new genre of ferarri vintage info... maybe even a ferrari vintage collector magagzine.....with prices, recent sales, pictures and even collector interviews, a marcel monthly fix it column ... use the KMmag as a starting point....i'd buy it....especially if it had an east coast bent to it.....everything ferrari has so much of a CA angle (weather of course) but a lot of your readers and owners are here on this side of the country.....access would be easy....i'm digressing ....

the reason for the prices so high is easy....there's more money around...people are not afraid to spend it....in the past we were taught to save as much as possible and don't live above your means....depression era thinking....because of tighter mergins in the corporate world in the last few years we have been taught to be leaner, work harder with less people and support, work later, longer hours, push ourselves to boundaries that have been unimaginable a decade ago....we are quicker to rebound from market dips and losses....we tend to take more chances with money....probably because after the 9/11 effect....we have nothing to lose...you could be gone tomorrow, so why not spend the hard earned money and enjoy whatever little free time we try to squeeze out of our hectic lives....and why not buy a car ....it will go up anyway...right???
but a lot of the new money doesn't realize it will also go down at some point.....but what the heck......enjoy it while it lasts.....2+2 , 2 seater,
whatever....275's are hot because that is the car that every ferrari collector, car mag, auction, price guides etc are focused on.....
the thinking is something like this.....
"if he wants one then maybe i should have one too,what does he know that i don't, is this the next big thing.....i don't want to miss the boat...i lost it in 2000.....got it back ....almost........i work hard??
wheres all this money coming from??? why can't i have one too..??
....so they jump in and buy whatever they can afford in the ferrari food chain....thats what makes the world goes round......"

oh well... its sat am, snowing, andnow i'm going to the gym to push my body to have a heart attack....life is good.... ; )
fuiszt
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2003 4:32 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Post by fuiszt »

I think some of the volatility of the prices of the older cars is mostly likely the result of a slight decrease in the cars available or a slight increase in interest. When I had my car listed (not the tip top of the condition level, but certainly far from the bottom), my phone was not ringing continuously, and not a single person actually came to look at the car. It may be there is a huge demand for perfection (or what you think is perfection as in Wayne's case), I think at any one time, there just aren't a lot of prospective buyers of cars like the +2s.
I missed all the econ courses in college, but I would think there will always be volatility in prices of rare things that appeal to only a few people.
64 330gt 2+2 #6413
jsa330
Posts: 512
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:41 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Post by jsa330 »

xs10shl wrote:Lots of 2+2 chatter so far on this thread - as much as I love the 2+2's, I also want to sing the praises of the 2-seater models out there - they are also a blast to drive! ;^)

I'm with Tom on this one. We're entering the golden age right now, where people who grew up admiring these old Ferraris can finally afford to own and maintain them. I guess that means that prices will stay hot for a few more decades before the magic dies, as well as the core customer base. After that point only the rarest and best of the old cars will survive.

So let's enjoy it while we can!
I hope that one day I will have the opp to drive both vintage and late model 2 seaters.

When I was in my teens/20's--1963 to 1979--collector car guys of my father's generation were into Deusenbergs, Packards, and the like. I think prices on that era of collectible peaked around 20 years ago, in favor of vintage Corvettes, Ferraris, and other sports and exotics. Now '60's musclecars are the hot item, with Ferraris heating up again.

Question is, what cars from say 1995-2005 could be red-hot collectibles 25 years from now, when folks born post-1980 are in or entering the age phase where they are most likely to have the big bucks needed? I just wonder if that age group will see a vintage Ferrari the same way I do a Deusenberg: a Deusie is very cool and significant, but for equal money I would choose a 275GTB/4 in an instant.

I don't know...will the magic die? The cars owned by people on this board are a good sampling of the peak of automotive design and legend before the era of Federalization, computerization, skyrocketing gas prices, and true styling mediocrity even for very expensive automobiles. And, there aren't very many left--for example, out of 1100 330 2+2's produced, could maybe 60%--650 or so cars worldwide--still be in the broad range of roadworthy condition? Same goes for 250 GTE's and 365 2+2's - even less of those were produced.
Current: 1983 308 GTS
R.I.P: 330 2+2 s/n 5409
Matt F
Posts: 232
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2003 4:22 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Post by Matt F »

eve23 wrote:the reason for the prices so high is easy....there's more money around...people are not afraid to spend it....in the past we were taught to save as much as possible and don't live above your means....depression era thinking....
Aside from your good points about a 9/11 effect, the exact same thing could be said for the tech stock / NASDAQ boom five years ago. If anything, there was much more money around, along with the accompanying willingness to spend it. Yet five years ago, vintage Ferraris were at an all-time low. If you keep dollars constant, 275GTBs and Daytonas values were really quite low.

Now they're rising quite rapidly. Again: what's the catalyst? (The exchange rate makes some sense, but I don't think it explains it all.) There has to be something significant affecting the demand of vintage Ferraris over the past year or so…
xs10shl
Posts: 209
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 6:27 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Post by xs10shl »

bluecat49 wrote:

Question is, what cars from say 1995-2005 could be red-hot collectibles 25 years from now, when folks born post-1980 are in or entering the age phase where they are most likely to have the big bucks needed? I just wonder if that age group will see a vintage Ferrari the same way I do a Deusenberg: a Deusie is very cool and significant, but for equal money I would choose a 275GTB/4 in an instant.
Great question - what cars will be on the gotta-have checklist for gen-X when they turn 50? Probably Subaru WRX-STi. (Hee hee!)
judge4re
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2002 6:50 pm

Post by judge4re »

Seeing as I bought #3 this week, a 308 GTS QV, maybe I have been spending too much time on Fchat, and not enough time here... :D
365 GT4 2+2 (18759)
Mondial 8 (39343)
308 GTS QV (47071)
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