Is nostalgia worth the extra cost? | Column

In reply to ddavidv :

What I like to find are the forgotten pieces.  Cars, engines, instruments, bitsa this and bitsa that. Nothing particularly valuable. But maybe with a bit of work, cleaning polishing, painting, make into  something nostalgic.  

I just bought an 80 Rabbit that I will probably put too much money into to relive the "good old days." Back then mine didn't have any bumpers or interior to speak of, but my wife probably doesn't want to go through that era again. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Mine refused to ride in the corrado at all!  Even tho it had full interior, hvac, etc, etc, etc.

docwyte said:

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Mine refused to ride in the corrado at all!  Even tho it had full interior, hvac, etc, etc, etc.

Mine has been riding shotgun in her best friend's 70 bug a lot. I am thinking she will be mostly fine. As long as it has nice seats and a solid grab handle. 

My wife loved our 70s pick up.....she actually misses it. I sold it when we bought the Van.

I think that markets are actually pretty clear about the value of nostalgia. It is worth money... but not as much as what it costs to restore and rebuild in most cases. I do see some restos being done on spec for customers and the numbers work there because they will pay a super premium, but a standard restoration is not going to recoupe its investment. The price I would pay for a fully restored "Insert my first car ever here" would be much higher than anyone else would pay for that car for sure.

I don't know about CRX prices, but I just dropped a small fortune (to me) on an E30 M3. Prices have been going crazy. Even through I spent what seems like an obscene amount (to me), I figure this is the last chance I'll ever have to own one. If I ever decide to sell it on, I'd surely make a profit. So, I guess it's not completely irrational.

Is it nostalgia? I don't know. But I do know I could have gotten a Aston V8 Vantage, any number of modern 911's, or cool oddballs like the Alpina B7 sedan for less than I paid for the M3 ... which is objectively a lesser car by any measure. I'm fulfilling a childhood dream, so I figure YOLO (or something ... I don't really know anymore LOL).

In reply to LanEvo :

If it makes you feel better I'm pretty sure I'd find it an obscene amount of money as well. LOL

RyanGreener (Forum Supporter) said:

I can't afford to pay nostalgia taxes on cars I loved growing up.

The flip side is that the cars we still lust after 30 years after they were last sold tend to be special. If guys like us want one, chances are lots of other people probably do as well. If the prices are appreciating rapidly (like the M3 I just dropped my kid's college fund on) then you'll come out ahead in the long run. 

In reply to LanEvo :

About 5 years ago a friend bought an NSX and made a comment about the kids college fund. I told him he won't lose a dime on it and in fact will likely come out well ahead.

I've never been all that impressed with how the e30 m3's drive, but I'm at altitude where they take a 20% haircut in power.  Where they didn't have much power to begin with

I did something nostalgic this weekend. The bike with the mags is mine. I rode it in middle school and high school. :)

Chainring?

You mention a cheap thing that's now expensive. Recently I was looking at GReddy parts on ebay, including a shift knob I had two of (one red, one blue) back in about 2003 until I sold it in 2010, they were about 50 bucks...and painful in the summer when that metal knob got HOT.

Now theyre on ebay for HUNDREDS. And I had two.

All that old stuff is expensive. Rare. Nostalgia. Whatever. It drives up prices.

I spent Saturday at a guitar show and, yep, nostalgia was in full force. The black Fender Jazz Bass is cool, but its $8500 price was about $8250 past my budget for the day. 

Old, worn bass and guitars go for SO much

In reply to hybridmomentspass :

Sadly, yes. I'd love an early-’70s P-bass, but that's not a cheap date. 

What is this nostalgia you speak of?

BMX nostalgia did me well a few years ago when I sold off my old bike from the early 80's.  I had a few vintage Hutch parts that sold for good $$ on eBay.  There is a market for vintage mtn bikes, but the values are a fair bit below their original prices - far below when inflation is taken into account.  

Vintage musical gear... yeah... I'll admit to a bit of nostalgia there, having bought a fair number of old 80's and early 90's rack gear - some of which I had when it was new (to go with a lot of the gear I still have from that time).  But at the same time, a lot of the new gear made today is so much better than what we had back then. Cheap guitars are actually decent guitars a beginner can learn and play. Cheap modeling amps and effects are far better than the best pro studio gear from 30 years ago.  It's similar to comparing old and modern cars.  You play old gear because you're after a certain feel, but not because the gear is always better.  

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, old Hutch stuff is worth its weight in gold. You know, I don't think I have owned a Hutch part, now that I think about it....

In reply to David S. Wallens :

At my house the Redline Squareback is the Holy Grail........current prices are higher then my Formula 500.

In reply to Tom1200 :

Definitely a Holy Grail bike. 

I avoided a nostalgia moment. 

One of my old cars, a Trans Am that one David S. Wallens put in readers rides of the month once, came back up for sale. It was a car my dad and I repainted together, put a ton of blood, sweat, and curse words into, and a ton of memories. I sold it when I took a great job opportunity that changed my life but also had a kid on the way. 

Went and looked at it and walked away. I was quickly overwhelmed with all of the problems it used to have, what the kid that had bought it from me had done, and that it would be better suited for someone else. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

Sometimes, yeah, you don't want to go back.

Many years ago, I had a VW Rabbit GTI that we built as a magazine project car. It had all the tricks but, along with them, some bugs, too.

A few years after I sold it, another Rabbit GTI came up. It was the one, built by the right shop with the right parts. I forget the price but it might have been fair.

So I took that GTI for a sale. After not even a minute, I decided that it wasn't time for another one. 

I am still slowly collecting all the period correct goodies for the nostalgia on my mk1 gti.  Recently found the autotech adjustable front tie bar.  Negotiating the matching rear bar in FB.  They are more expensive and do nothing better than the bars already on it.  The tweaky period correct stuff is worth the effort.

84FSP said:

I am still slowly collecting all the period correct goodies for the nostalgia on my mk1 gti.  Recently found the autotech adjustable front tie bar.  Negotiating the matching rear bar in FB.  They are more expensive and do nothing better than the bars already on it.  The tweaky period correct stuff is worth the effort.

See also: a Comptech rear bar for a wishbone Civic. (Not saying it's better/worse than the current offerings, but it's oh so period correct.)