what has changed?

[ZENVWDRIVER]

[iowegian]

[Abscate]

[TDCTDI]

[Abscate]

[TDCTDI]

So you’ve gotten rid of six girls, and a new boyfriend of yours every year, the youngest being 20? You are a sick puppy. You must hav a hard time finding refrigerators on a regular basis.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Gary Haberman]

Could it possibly be that our hobby has reached a sort of saturation where the average enthusiast is older? Are we dying off? I remember reading a post where it was mentioned that owners of Model Ts can't sell their cars for a reasonable price anymore because there are no takers. Let's face it, we buy our car (in my case and many others, "cars"), fix them up and then what? We slow down our purchases because we are done with repairs or restorations. I don't buy nearly as much as I did years ago. My two bugs are the only cars I drive (wife drives the fancy Lexus). Are car sales dropping? Have all the barn finds been found? I know there are younger people purchasing ACVWs on the west coast but I'm in eastern NY and I rarely see any older VWs, maybe a few times a year. Perhaps a poll of the average owner's age might be telling....
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'62 T1 rag top.
I repair radios and dispense free advice on their repair.

[jwp67]

[crofty]

Lowballing on everything or not reading an entire ad will elicit a no response from me as a seller.

I list a part for 30 shipped
you offer 15 shipped

"euro taillight 62-67 "
Will this fit my 66 21 window?


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Your Vanagon sucks, Stop waving at me.

[mukluk]

[static]

There are newspaper articles regularly about how heirs really are not interested in inheriting silverware and bone china from their parents.

One of my frequent fears is me dropping dead and then afterwards my Nephews look at my old Dinky, Matchbox and Corgi collectible toys, shrug and then toss them into the trash.

[mukluk]

[TDCTDI]

Yes, my grandfather collected those Franklin Mint pewter cars & kept them in their hermetically sealed, backlit, mahogany display case. Years after he passed, my uncle, remembering how enamored I was with them when I was 3-6 years old, tried to give them to me but I graciously declined. It always pissed me off that there were these perfect toys that I could only look at. They're probably sitting in a storage unit of his somewhere.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[modok]

[TDCTDI]

[vwinnovator]

I have seen a constant decline of aircooleds in my immediate area, but it continues to amaze me how many continually show up on IG daily that I've never seen before.

There are still millions around, which in turns keeps them "affordable"

My shop is overloaded with engine and restoration work, with about 2 yrs backlog on beetle work alone, with avg jobs from $25-40K+. I barely do any in/out service work anymore. For a 3-4 person shop, it's still a good way to make $$$.

I believe used parts sales are declining daily because there is an abundance of used parts that have flooded the internet. Selling your parts first, requires a "let it go" valuation you can live with. If your in it for the money, its about moving that money constantly. If your in it to sell for the most you can get, because you value that part beyond anyone else...your gonna sit on it a long time. Guilty of this myself on several nice items...and I can wait until someone likes it as much as me

I've also recognized over the last decade, that those who have acquired the "good" "desirable" cars have also acquired the "good" parts and have no need for avg used items. Only wanting better glass, better chrome, etc...

Avg. used items have little value now, even to the "patina" seeking crowd.

PPL continually offer less, because they know they can wait for a cheaper one to appear.

I recently disposed of two full trash cans of '70 later front turn signals that were in decent used condition. I simply recognize that there are still so many avail, that I would never sell them all, even at $5set...
Every show I go to there are multiple bins full of them avail...

One major change I have noticed though, is that more and more sales and work is coming from out of state for me. It appears that quality shops are drying up as vw owners gain more accessibility to internet parts and youtube knowledge. There are quite a bit more DIYers than ever before.

everyone with the internet is an "engine builder" now.

Stocking and selling NEW parts has become a thing of the past, as most vw owner have no problem popping on the internet and buying from amazon, walmart, etc. Consumers just have a multitude of available avenues to buy from now. Just google vw beetle master cylinder and see how many options are avail. from $30-100...

I'm expecting it to be another 20yrs or so before OG used parts begins to hit their peak similar to the porsche market of today.

We'll dispose of thousands more '70's beetles and the '68-79 market will emerge (and I'll be kicking myself for throwing out all the turn signals)

As the market changes, you just have to adapt to meet what you want out of it, or bag it all and find another market to get involved with.

Funny how so many of us started buying and selling parts to make $$$ and are finding out that we now have some of the largest used parts COLLECTIONS on earth.

Think of the value of the indoor space we use/waste protecting our COLLECTIONS

[Spezialist]

[Gary Haberman]

I like to believe that unlike collecting objects to place on a shelf or display case, we collect cars to use; even those who only drive them on the weekends or to shows. I still enjoy driving my bugs; I've even taken them on trips of over 250 miles to places where there is no chance of finding a garage who could service one. I travel with a great deal of spare parts (distributor, fuel pump, carb, clutch/accelerator cables) and of course tools.
I used to collect antique radios, TVs and phones-but frankly, I hardly ever turned on a AM radio the size of dog coffin that needs an outdoor antenna and external power supply or batteries-I sold whatever I could for less than half of what I paid for them and restored, the TVs have no value and although the phones do work, I sold them off as well only keeping one.
At least I can drive my car on the highway and keep up with traffic if only in the right lane. It's really an adventure driving these cars-we all know they're unsafe compared to today's models but I bet we're a lot more careful driving then most folks and we don't use our cell phones when we're behind the wheel!
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'62 T1 rag top.
I repair radios and dispense free advice on their repair.

[ZENVWDRIVER]

[Zundfolge1432]

Model T collecting is similar to VW in that there exists a large aftermarket to support the hobby. While it is smaller you can buy every part needed to restore a car new. Like VWs pre 1916 Ts bring more money than the later models and are easy to spot with brass radiator. As for dropping prices I don’t think so a quick look at Hemmings Motor News shows prices holding steady. My father in law was a big model T collector buying his first one in 1947 for about 10 dollars. While I’m not active in that hobby through him I stayed aware of what was going on for the last 30 years. You think owning a 50 year old car is fun? Try owning one that’s 100 years old