Warbird Information Exchange

So I was reading on the Flypast Forum about how one of the folks who own Just Jane (The Lancaster) had an opportunity shortly after WWII to buy a Halifax for £100... I also know a fellow who was the Surgeon General of the Air Force several years back, who is a friend of my family, who told us that he could have have 2 P-51s at one time for either $1000 or $2000 a piece. That was a lot of money back then, but a very good deal long-term.
Now obviously warbirds have increased in value to the point where buying one as an investment, while still probably a good deal, is not necessarily as likely to have any dramatic escalations in value, especially if fuel prices or other things ground them (probably not too likely in the near future but maybe down the road).

My question is, then: What item, aircraft, or vehicles do you think DO have longer-term value? Is there a P-51 or Jeep of today that the average Joe could possibly buy, preserve, etc... ?

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

.... on the mustang ... cars...slim chance that limited producyion cars may retain value but im talking under 1000 numbers. I have one of only 562 MBZ limited 'amg built SL's for example.

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EVERYTHING that CAN fly should be ALLOWED to FLY!
IWO JIMA'S best narative..."GOD ISN'T HERE"
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P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from midget.

I sometimes wonder if the growing energy crunch coupled with the growing resurgence in "muscle cars" might not bring about a situation similar to the early 1970's. These wicked new Camaro, Challenger, etc designs are about to hit the market just as gas prices are shooting out of sight. I can't imagine they'll be selling like hotcakes. For the few that do, maybe in 15 years when gas drops back to an affordable level, those who bought the big horsepower, all options models might have something collectable & desirable on their hands. As it is, I think we have at least a decade of underpowered "roller skate" type designs to look forward too.

Machineguns (in the US) have been a pretty good investment since the early 1990's, if you're into that kind of stuff. Unlike the warbird market though, it's an artificial prohibition on "new-production for the civilian market" (enacted in 1986) that's created the lopsided supply & demand dynamic for machineguns. It would only take the stroke of a pen by Congress to turn a $13,000 German MP-40 into a $1500 collectible. That said, I doubt such a thing will ever happen anytime soon.

I think when the war calms down and the market is flooded with suplus troops carriers and other vehicles, putting a couple back as a 30-year investment might not be unwise. Society will be bored to death with the image of such hardware and the hard memories they represent, and there will be surplus yards filled with the big monstrosities - many of which will be large, hard to transport, and have little commercial value. Most will be scrapped or recycled, but if you did your homework and singled out specific vehicles that were assigned to particular units that saw combat, it might be worth the trouble in the long run. Once society's shock and anxiety toward the conflict fades in a couple of decades, owning a true touchstone of a particular battle would be a valuable proposition IMO.

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

A local just sold 468 acres of his multi thousand acre pasture land for $109,000.00 per acre. His mid forties investment was .40 per acre! It also did not need to acrue storage fees and need to undergo a complete restoration to bring that amount.

Some seem to completely miss that point when they hear of a Mustang bringing $1,800,000.00. They always bring up the fact that they could have bought one after the war for $2500.00 or so neglecting to realize what kind of condition that surplus airplane would now be in and what it actually cost to restore one to bring one up to the 1.8m or more sales amount.

Glenn

Of course, Warbirds ARE still your best investment.

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Rob C

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. “

– Michael Crichton