Passion to Profits: Buying Collector Cars the Right Way

There’s a difference in buying a car to drive and buying a car to add to your collection. Most of the time, our daily drivers are not cars of substance. Sure, there are some who have the means to buy a solid daily that has personality and grabs attention, but generally speaking most of us pick a car we like since we do drive it every day, but nothing we plan on keeping all that long.

Collectors, on the other hand, invest in cars that they plan on keeping for a while. They buy cars that really speak to them, and usually these are cars that have been around a while. Classic rides that are beloved by many actually tend to slowly climb in value over time instead of dropping like most cars, so if you find a car that has some potential, you may be able to get it for the right price, sound a little time and money bringing it back to life, and sell it for a profit.

Alternatively you can find a car that’s already in great shape, but the owner is just looking to get out of the market, or maybe has his eye on a particular car and selling part of his current inventory to fund the purchase. These situations will often allow you to get a car for a little below it’s maximum selling price, which then opens the door for you to make some profit when you sell it down the road, especially if the market for that particular car happens to pop and send the value skyward. If you watch Barrett-Jackson or Mecum Auto Auction on television, you can often see these trends, where cars that typically don’t bring a huge dollar amount are suddenly very much in demand. This is perfect for those guys who just happen to have that car in their collection, but they have to catch the trend on the upward swing or they might miss the bubble and be left sitting on a car that they have to wait years to come back up in value.

It’s risky, just like any investment, but if you use your head and get a couple of lucky breaks here and there you can make a handsome profit buying and selling these cars.