If anyone wanted a car badly enough they didn't even need to get off their duff.
I at last understand the Simpsons beer jokes! 'We are both fluent, Bough, but sadly in different languages'!
I have had several chats with folks about the effects of the auction. It all depends on you standpoint of course. I think it inevitable that the unit price will rise by an, as yet, unknown increment. Certain cars will get overpriced and unavailable for a bit till folk calm down. A lot of duffers will sell quite well as folk will make the assumption, alluded to by Chris T, that you can restore into profit. The problem is that the spares and purchasable skills sets will rise in value and the target of finish for 'top' money is now firmly established as better then off the production line. Only a few people will have the set up costs, talents and time to fulfil a restoration to that brief. Buying it in is, as always, a risky business. The genuine enthusiast will not care save that the entry price will probably rise. The cars to go for, and rejected by the bling boys clearly, remain the good unrestored cars but more and more pressure will fall on these as they represent 'easy' restorations for increased value at the expense of worth. That is important for me as loose those cars and the history, roots and meaning of all the other cars is lost for ever. An incorrectly over restored car in the wrong environment is really not very interesting to those who originally valued and saved these cars. Does that matter, probably not, but it is where I walk away saying 'boring'.
Root, on the other hand, has seen another positive. That is that there other 'silly little cars' that are not yet collected, overpriced or even valued for the interesting things they are. They might be on the margins of what I describe as a MIcrocar but RUM recommends a broad church so you can still muck about with I.C., French Fridges, Moped/quad type weirdness from round the world like Funtech or Norjska. A.B.O. in most cases for the folk who like sitting in fields but not quite hitting the mark for a tour of Wales. Then again light cars are dirt cheap too, they do now do tours of the Pennines etc. not least in the hands of Micro Maniacs. Sadly I do not see either arena really doing it for me, but it will come in for many folk I am sure. Change is consistent.
Its very tough for anyone new without a budget or a car though. That does not bode well for the long term grass roots activities.
