[MotownMadman]

Tom,
It seems like I said something similar on the other thread, I too at my age tend to wander aimlessly from time to time. I also remember the chain of events that led to what I call the Woodward Avenue crash rather then the Wall St crash. When muscle car collecting and investing took off in the Mid Eighties it was a mad scramble by everyone interested to collect as much and as many possible. That single growth boom event is what caused a equally rapid demise in the market. At the beginning of the boom just about anything that could be considered a musclecar was being rounded up, restored, collected, and inflated. The problem began when reality hit home that about every garage or barn in America held some type of musclecar, so that being the case over a rather short period of time the market flooded itself whereas supply began to exceed demand. The mistake made by many, including myself, which caused a great deal of money lost was the fact that many if not a majority of the muscle cars being found, restored, and collected were low to mid level cars in the area or rarity. Being a rather new investment market to a majority involved, many mistakes were made, such as collecting cars that had higher production numbers then mom and pops station wagon, added to the fact that nobody was paying the attention they should to correct matching numbers cars, documentation was something that for the most part was had by accident when found in the glovebox, and in the rush to invest and collect many common muscle cars hit price levels that may not happen for another ten or twenty years. That is not to say everyone involved was rushing around with a fistful of money buying every 396 Chevelle or 383 Roadrunner for 30 to 40 thousand, but many were. There were those that by choice, accident, or plain common sense and intellegence were after the elite, the low production, the highly optioned, the ones that never did suffer a major downfall, the ever elusive Supercars. By the time the average collector had figured out what the Yenko's and equivelents were, the majority of the market was dropping like a smart bomb over Baghdad. I was fortunate enough at the time to have a few which helped make up for the losses on the average. Just as in the stock market there were the wise, some of whom you mentioned in your post, and others who chose to remain unknown as they do today without ever being in attendence at a major event, the wise held out with the cars that were not flooding the market, the ones that were not in every garage in America, so when the pendulum swung the opposite way back to an investors market again a whole new chase was on, the chase for the cars we here either own or dream of owning. Difference this time around? Not enough out there to flood the market. At the reunions it may seem that there are many available due to the quantity in one place, and TV and magazines brought this to bear for the average guy, but when everone goes home from the reunion's these elite cars are few and far betwwen in comparison to the average. So, like a snowball going downhill the opposite happens as the first time around, supply cant meet demand and away we go. Now there are a lot of people who want one that cant be found or for the most part cant be afforded, so here come the clones, which further advertises the real thing and adds to the mystique. The average guy at that time has a hard time knowing a real from a clone so overnight it becomes an affordable way for John Q to have a Yenko. So the big $$$ question, does that hurt or help the value of the real thing? I would tend to think it adds to the value through advertisment, and on a physiological level the public begins to come to the conclusion that if they are being copied they have to be extremely rare and valuable. The clones would most definetly hurt the market if we had no way to document the real thing as with say a 69 Z-28 for example, without documentation the market would be hesitant and cautious on spending big bucks on a maybe. Take two 69 Z-28's of early production with no X code's, one has passed down documentation and one has none, even though they are both real the documented car has a much greater value. The clones? Help the market? I believe so for the reasons stated, but what really brought the market to the level now is the guys like yourself and Ed and Kurt and Marlin and everyone else on this site and off who have spent countless hours of research giving these cars a undisputable pedigree. Without the determination of the serious minded Supercar enthusiust, the clones would create a world of hurt to the market, but considering they are not real and never will be, the site of a clone ripping up and down Woodward avenue may be all it takes to bring a new player into the market, thereby adding once again to the demand side of the scale which is only balanced by adding the weight of money to the other side. Personally as I stated, I would rather not see the clones, not for reasons of a threat to the real market, but rather for the reasons you mentioned over on the other half of this wandering thread, the fact that the family that made it all possible is getting screwed. If not for that then it really wouldnt matter, the owner of a Picasso is no way bothered by the obvious undocumented fake. So Tom, the credit for the hobby as it is today goes to the guys who devoted a great deal of their life protecting the integrity of the hobby, guys like Ed Cunneen who have spent countless hours buried in books and paperwork, guys like yourself who opened this arena for the education, debate, and unbending devotion to something that is truly believed in, guys like Kurt who recite part numbers from memory, and to all the regular guys who may not own a Supercar but hang out anyway taking in all the education and advice they can get for the day they will own one. What are they worth? I think Jim M. put it best in a conversation we had recently in discussing the value of these Supercars, he explained "take the cars weight and multiply it by the price of scrap steel, there is the value. Real worth is what someone is willing to pay for Bragging Rights" Obviously that is a bit extreme, but when comparing the real to the fake the difference becomes pedigree where you can hold your head high Tom, while the owner of the clone car parked next to yours may be nowhere to be found. One of the real downsides to a clone for me over and above the legal and moral issues is the fact that because the real is so rare and desired it has the effect of taking your breath away for a moment, whereas if it comes to the point of 500 imposters racing around Detroit then the effect is diminished when the real deal pulls up alongside. Will The Real Yenko Please Rev Up! My hats off to all you guys that have made this hobby what it is...Real!
Motown [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif[/img]