Investing in old Jeeps?

[Gary]

I'm noticing more and more calls coming in to transport Jeeps within the Western half. Not just Jeeps, lots of other stuff also. A sign of the economy picking up some? or possibly a spike in sales due tax checks? Car collectors making their move?

I've been watching Jeeps on Ebay and craigs list for a few years now thinking about buying the cheaper projects and such and storing them inside ocean containers in the back yard. What do you guys think? Would buying older jeeps up and sitting on them for the next 15/20 years be a good investment? With the new body styles here I'm thinking it could raise the value of the older stuff? However with the way hybrids and smog laws are being pushed on us I'm also a little worried about not being able to resale them 20 years from now.

I have a neighbor thats been buying mopar vehicles for years dissasembling them and storing them in Ocean containers on his property. Everyone knows how valuable the right Mopar stuff can be, the guys probably sitting on a fortune. I also use to know a guy that started buying Chevelles years ago that made a fortune when he sold.

Just wandering if it could be done with flatties, CJ5's, and 7's? I see a lot of this stuff out there that could be picked up at good prices. Being in the trucking business also saves me a some on transporting them to my location.

One of our Owner Operators moved this nice looking flat fender a few weeks ago from CA to TX.



Here's another nice looking Jeep we hauled.

[OU812]

I doubt that the dollars and cents would work out. I like to see these things taken care of in such a way. But I think that your money is better invested otherwise. My best guess is if you spend $20,000 buying up old Jeeps you could probably find 7-10 decent ones worth preserving. And if in 10 years you were able to double your money on the purchase price of the vehicles, than you would have to consider the cost of storage and all the time you spent on buying them and selling them. I do think that if you considered your time worthless you could show a profit after 10 years. But I don't think that profit would be any better than the average mutual fund that requires no work on your part.

IMHO

[Gary]

You could be right.

[blackZZR]

I have a lot of old Jeep Junk, err, treasures in my back yard you could , ah, purchase for a song and a dance to start your collection of beat up used, I mean pristene antique Jeep artifacts.

[Gary]

Ha Ha, Complete unrestored Jeeps is more what I was thinking about.

[Roger]

Part of the increase I think is Jeeps don't hold up well in the Midwest, south, and northeast because of the salt and other chemicals used on the road for snow & ice. I recently sold a decent set of CJ7 wheels to a guy in the south and two others joined MJR to buy them! The guy who bought them said that you can't buy Jeep wheels in his area - they are all rusted out. So if the wheels are all rusted out, the rest of the Jeep must not be doing well either.

People still love old Jeeps for various reasons, so the price is set by supply & demand.

[Gary]

You definately have to be careful what you buy online.You can get that heavy rust/rott along the coast out here also. I purchased one for $600.00 off Ebay over by Santa Maria and had one of my Owner Operators pick it up for me. I new it had some rust but I needed the the column and power steering componants to stick on another 5 I had. Figured I'd get a few more parts off it also. Got the parts i needed but other than that there really wasn't much worth taking off it.

[Kodiak Spirit]

I don't know about the investment side of the house, but if you figure in the fun factor, you may have something there. I think that if you enjoy collecting as a hobby and jeeps are your thing, that's cool. and if you sell, then make some dough, more power to ya! you can always list high and wait, somebody will com along and want what you got eventually. I would worry about the damn laws though, you might not be able to sell anything gas powered in the future, at least here in CA... :2:

[Gary]

Yeah no doubt, before to long they'll probably have us installing electric motors in these things.