The Beginning of the End of the Collector Car Bubble?

Collector cars are a hobby that's dangerous to your wallet.  The market is notoriously fickle.  The target consumer audience members are the wealthy, retirees and baby boomers with disposable income.  Some are re-living their youth, some are buying exotics and the fools among them (us - I readily include myself) are buying in the vain hope that their asset will appreciate.

As signs of a sinking economy continue, has the collector car bubble just "popped?"  I ask because of two Unicorn Cars of very distinct taste recently sold or are selling for what was 1/2 of their asking price on E-bay just a year ago.

The First Car was sold on Bring A Trailer.  It was a 1992 Consulier GTP C4, a special Carbon Fiber chassis  ("tub"), with an American Built Drive Train (Chrysler Turbo III/A-568 Transaxle - that's a dual overhead cam, pent roof, 4 valve per cylinder combustion chamber, Chrysler 2.2L Turbo Charged Sequential Multi-Port Fuel Injected 4 cylinder with the best shifting 5-speed Transaxle Chrysler designed for their late 1980s-Early 1990s Turbo Cars - the Dodge Spirit R/T or Daytona R/T drivetrain, and a Quaife anti-spin Differential), American designed and built Super Car, with Aluminum Suspension and cross members.  These drive trains in either the Spirit R/T sedan or Daytona R/T coupe WERE QUICK ENOUGH TO BEAT UP ON MUSTANGS AND CAMAROS!  By the way, this was a 1 of 2 car that had the Spirit R/T Drive Train. The rest had the 8-Valve Single Overhead Cam Turbo 2 Engines with the A-555 Transaxle.  While quick, they can't keep up with this car.

The Car, while not considered aesthetically pretty by many, weighed about 2/3rds what the Spirit R/T or Daytona R/T weighed, so acceleration was unbelievably quick.  Quick enough where Warren Mosler's first creation was banned from SCCA Class Racing!  I consider this car to be the ultimate track weapon!  When I last saw it for sale on E-bay last year, the asking price was $100,000.00, but this week it sold for $53,500 plus fees, only 53.5% of its last E-bay listing.


The Second Car is currently being sold on E-bay (classified sale ad) is a 1937 Chrysler Airflow Coupe C-17.  There were only about 200 of these luxury coupes ever built in 1937, the last year of Airflow Production.  And while I like the Earlier 1934 and 35 Chrysler Airflow Coupes better (with the waterfall grill) and the 1934 and 35 DeSoto Airflow Coupes my favorite of the Airflows (with the shorter hood and the waterfall grille enclosing the inline 6 instead of the inline 8 used by the Chrysler), it's still a significant car for a collector.  As there were only 200 coupes made in the 1937 model year, this too is a unicorn, with few peers.  The last time I looked at this one on E-bay, the minimum bid was at $100,000.00.  It was appraised at $115,000, yet recently listed at $59,500 or best offer, at just 51.7% of its appraised value, despite being listed in #2 condition:  Excellent, Well Maintained Condition, Showing Minimal wear.

So what we have are two disparate collector cars, unicorns because of the rarity of each of these cars on the market. They are both in very nice condition, yet they only sold for 53.5 and 51,.7% of their previous "market values."  So the question is Is this the Beginning of the End of the Collector Car Bubble or were they just dramatically overpriced (the definition of a "bubble" before?