While in no way disagreeing with the thought processes expressed above and by way of agreement and observation I suggest the following.
It has long been a habit in the UK to buy up a car and 'nosh it up' as the phrase has it. Many of these are produced by folk more interested in a quick profit than in producing a quality classic car to use and enthuse about. Others are a product of a lack of skill and refusal to invest where that skill is lacking. Add to that cars restored many years back when the values were much less, as was the acceptable quality of restoration, now coming back into the market from long ownership. The comments above reflect the experienced enthusiasts view that there are a lot of good looking clunkers out there. A particular bugbear in our damp and salt flavoured roads is rust and the repair, or otherwise, of it.
It is clear to me this high level of shoddy cars in Britain has not gone unnoticed abroad where the prices achieved in their local markets seem much higher. You would think they would be targeting our cheaper cars off the advertisements. However I think that to many poor cars have been loaded into the export market and the word is now 'Beware the British Bubblecar'. Certainly the standards of some markets is very much higher than our home market.
So we have the situation where a reasonable restoration project Schmitt sells for more than half the value of a fully restored known running car on the home market - see Ken Bell's Schmitt for instance and reflect on the price given for several known projects in the same period. That should not be the case and our well restored cars are not collecting the prices they should be, and as they do in the rest of the world.
The projects however are in demand as the enthusiast wishes to restore himself to ensure he gets a proper job, the idea as expressed above. The Noshers are looking for more stock to turn into a fast buck. Also the export market will buy these if they are good prospects as their home market will support an enthusiast rebuild. Sadly that means not many home enthusiasts are buying projects to restore as the entry price is to high to produce a quality job and get your money back. Few can willingly do this, especially during hard times. However you can buy as an investment as the prices will rise at sometime in the future so we have the rise of the well financed owner of limited hands on skill. Or you can nosh it and try to take a profit out of a car that is then neither a project or a quality restoration. Neither of the second two groups have much interest in going, taking part in or organising rallys, events or even clubbing save from personnel gain. That in a nuttshell is where we are.
So at the moment it is not worth my restoring my collection of schmitts beyond having a runner. The rest are best sold for others to restore while I sort my stash into kits of bits to be full in the knowledge the cars kept have all the parts they need for when they get restored sometime in the future. As if to back this up is the cautionary tale of a chum with 12 restored microcars. He has now found the cost and time it takes to maintain that collection is as much as it was to restore one of them - though this guy actually drives most of his cars in turn. Now he is happy to scale back to half as he realises the situation is ridiculous.
Quality complete unrestored cars can be stabilised. Complete restored cars go off. Which is the better long term investment my friends? That does not aid eventing, action etc. A fair market price is needed to keep interest up and newly restored cars coming up to populate the active scene. The market currently is out of balance on certain types of cars. On the other side I expect to see quite a few more French Fridges out as that area is buoyant and cheap enough for folk to buy into so it is not all bad news.
