Hagerty Market index August 2017, are prices declining?

It may not comeback strong again . Like the last four years. The END is near.

 

The hobby probably won't completely die out, but it won't rebound to the heights it was at. The only thing that will help values again will be if Wall Street lays another egg and the people who normally invest in things need a place to park their money again. So far these same "people", or entities, mutuals, I don't know have speculated and wrecked a lot of other hobbies, like fine art, sculptures and coins and even fine wine. (You could buy futures in fine vintages! Who the hell would do that and not be tempted to drink it?) They are currently into old watches, old print cameras, cars and furniture. The crap I see trading for stupid money indicates that whoever is buying is looking for a park place and not for the love of the material. What it does for the serious and true hobbyist is leave a bad taste and drive people away. Whenever you get third party outfits that do grading, appraising, inspecting and are basically paid for their knowledge by idiots who haven't got a clue and don't care to have one usually means that the market will end up getting wrecked. With fine art and sculptures it fell apart when the Chinese learned how to counterfeit it well enough to fool the auction houses. It's currently happening with rare coins. It is sort of happening with old cars, now you can get knock-off parts cheap that look real but the expectation of them performing as well as the original is a bit optimistic. That will only drive people away.
Look at what it takes to have a car restored to concours status. In order for a car to have a credible restoration it pretty much has to be a garage queen that is never driven. What fun is that? Most of those BJ cars are furniture, they are never driven and they never see daylight or a road. Where does the average guy get the money for that? And, if you ask me, the pleasure of the hobby is to be able to drive the car, not admire it as furniture. A driver is never worth anything, and will be worth less as electrics become more common or if gasoline is legislated out of existence.
There will always be gearheads. And, one day, it'll be like it was, a bunch of like minded guys fooling around with cars in their garages. Will the money be there? No, likely not. The financial speculators will have totally wrecked the public confidence by then.

 

I agree with the Wall St. component. Whenever the stock market has been running high, "liquid" assets like classic cars go south, and the reverse is true as well. I sure as h311 don't want another meltdown/bailout/cash for clunkers to happen; I'd settle for some stability and strength in the market though. I do believe the hobby has long term viability, but I'm not sure what it will be comprised of when the dust settles.