How can anyone justify this madness? Has the World gone mad

[Edgar Lowe]

This was in last week Classic Car Weekly.
A 1988 ordinary Mini Mayfair which you can buy anytime in first class condition for £5k.
But because it was first owned by Spike Milligan and £16k spent on restoring it, they now want a hefty £50.000. (www.brooklandsandscars.com )

What about swapping the car as 1936 Austin 7 Opal once owned by Sir David Steel the formal liberal leader famous for saying to his followers Go to your constituency and prepare for government . His car was sold in 2016 for £3500= needing some restoration.

[img]blob:http://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/7a45514f-537e-4de8-8c6b-8b53fa52aec8[/img]

[Austin Carr]

The link appears to be broken but this one takes you to the car:-

http://www.brooklandscarsltd.com/for-sal...-milligan/

Another mad price, was the £84,375 paid last year for a 1945 Willys Jeep that had been owned by Steve McQueen:-

http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/steve...ys-jeep-mb

[mk1-mark]

Speaking as someone who has collected Mini's for over 35 years & who has only just started an adventure into pre war cars.  One of the biggest things that brassed me off about Mini's was the ridiculous prices that they were regularly achieving.

Undoubtedly, a large part of this price bubble with all classics from the 1960's (but Mini's in particular) is the fact that a lot of the buyers are buying car's from their childhood & are now in their 50's & 60's with a decent amount of personal income to spend.  This will as sure as "eggs is eggs" pass.

I also believe that the high water mark has already been & gone.  over the last 2 years "Interesting" well restored Cooper S's have regularly been making in excess of £70,000, with mundane examples often topping the £50,000 mark, the price already seems to have dropped down to £30,000 & I believe that they have got some way to go yet.

While I still think it is questionable whether a really interesting pre war car can be bought for any less than a decent competition Mini, I do hope that the prices are more stable & predictable.  While the demand is undoubtedly lower, the supply is equally meagre. 

Finally, making the mistake of trying to compare a celebrity owned car with a similar item owned only by Joe Bloggs is impossible.  The cache of celebrity ownership will ALWAYS force prices through the roof.

Finally, please note that Spike Milligan's Mini is being offered, it hasn't been sold!

[Dave Wortley]

Some previous celebrity's vehicles eg Jimmy Savile's Rolls must be untouchable and worthless now perhaps.

[mk1-mark]

HOPEFULLY!