Collector Car Values Stumble

The muscle car that is escalating in value faster than any other is the 1973 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty 455. This one can be found for sale on the Cars On Line website.

 
Collector Car Values Stumble on Their Way to a Recovery

According to the most recent research done by Cars On Line.com, the collector car market has hit a snag on its way back toward a recovery. Our numbers show that current collector car market values dropped 6.99 percent from June to September of 2013. (See our 2013 Mid-Year Market Trends Analysis). Although market values are still up 4.64 percent over 2012, they have not kept up with the prices we were seeing this past spring. After finally seeing some substantive growth earlier this year, has the market lost its momentum?

After viewing the Monterey Auctions last month we thought for sure that we were going to see greater strength in collector car prices. Turns out that only the very high end collector cars, i.e., classic Ferraris, Shelby 427 Cobras, McLarens, vintage Packards and Duesenbergs are rapidly escalating in value. But the average collector cars like Camaro Z/28s, Hemi Cudas and GTOs have not gone up at all.

We saw prices increase at the 2013 Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, which seemed to foretell an uptrend in the collector car market. A comeback of the market seemed even likelier after our Mid-Year Market Trends Analysis reported collector car values were up 11.6 percent over 2012 prices. So it was with cautious optimism that we did our market trends analysis this month to see if prices continued to go up in 2013. While we were relieved to see collector car values still up over 2012 prices, it was clear the market had lost some of its momentum from just a few months earlier.

Ford, Chevrolet and Pontiac all showed overall increases in values. According to our data, Pontiac prices saw the largest increase, as they were up 29.96 percent over last year. Meanwhile, prices for Fords and Chevrolets also went up 7.19 and .51 percent, respectively. In a surprise turnaround, Mopar prices dropped 3.41 percent from 2012 values. From our value chart below you will notice that the 1973 Pontiac Trans Am SD-455 has once again moved up the fastest of any individual collector car. Average prices have spiked to $130,000 on No. 2 condition Super Duties, up 77.27 percent over last year and up 14.99 percent over our Mid-Year Market Trends Analysis.

Below you’ll find the Cars On Line “Hot List” of the most popular collector cars. Newsletter readers know that we watch the top collector cars to determine how market values are trending. This “Hot List” is a quick measure of how collector car prices fare in the current market. We try to make sure we are looking at only No. 2 condition cars for our report. There is a better discipline on pricing when you get into the higher quality cars. By averaging the prices that top quality cars are drawing we can see which way the market is trending.

In the chart below we have recorded actual prices paid for some of the most popular collector cars in this current market. The first column shows the average values paid in 2012. The next column shows the 2013 Barrett-Jackson Auction averages. In the third column you will see this year’s current market averages. Remember, these prices were recorded for No. 2 condition, show quality cars only. An (*) indicates no No. 2 condition vehicle was sold for that column.

* Some of the vehicles that we follow were not sold during the time frame represented by this column. We have simply put an asterisk in those boxes where a similar No. 2 condition car was not known to have been sold.

Cars On Line Daily Update newsletter readers know that we watch a “hot list” of top collector cars to determine how market values are trending. We frequently publish the chart below. We update it with the most current average pricing for the cars that are on our “hot list.” This is a quick measure of how collector car prices are doing. We base our numbers from auction prices on No. 2 condition cars. We look at No. 2 condition cars only because they are a smaller group to analyze and reflect a more stringent price discipline. Click here to view the definitions of classes for appraising collector cars as used by our Cars On Line Appraisal Service.