Packard Forum Index » General

Love how asking what this car is worth in a museum triggers fluff.

It out to be obvious that the value of all sorts of one of a kind items is an obsession for many, as in Antiques Road Show, which lives by valuing your junk/heirlooms.

I'd love to see a card for each car that notes that similar cars at auction have brought $2,345.833.00 to 2,939,202.17 in the last two years.... Or $7962 to $9433 in the last two years.....

I think it would be a shot in the arm that would gain us more audience and probably increase the value of your car to as much as 50% of what you think.....

Pat,

We used to get that question all the time when I was a docent at the Blackhawk Automotive Museum in Danville, California. We asked the museum manager why some indication of value was not on the information labels. He said it was because they were displaying the automobiles as works of art, and as such it would be inappropriate to place prices on the displays. He likened the Blackhawk museum to a fine arts museum, which it is.

Other museums may have other reasons for not displaying values on the vehicles they exhibit.

Auction houses and the publications that cover them publish sale prices which are readily available.

Has anyone been to an automobile museum where values were displayed?

(o[]o)

"Something is worth what someone else is willing to pay"

I watch the Roadshow and am amazed by the values these so called 'Experts' come up with. Sometimes, it's quasi scientific, like 'We had one sell just yesterday for $X", but regardless of the actual figure, that number really requires a willing buyer. That's the hard part, finding the buyer.

I've found that with things that are not readily available, desire on the part of a willing buyer really is the key to something's 'Worth'. Emotions (like desire) cannot be quantified in advance, so I think people's difficulty in offering a value in response to the 'What's it worth' comes from that.

Possibly another reason is to avoid seeming to become an authority requiring even more staff and time for questions.

Instead of the ad for the derelict car reading "There is one just like mine that sold on ebay for (or they want) X dollars for" the ad will now read "There is one just like mine in the museum and they said it is worth $X". Following argument will go something like "Mine is almost as good and only needs a few minor things to make it better".

Of course those few things might include paint, upholstery, an engine or trans rebuild etc but those are just minor details.

I would like to see, was given to the owner to preserve,,,,,,,,

Given, is the key word... was not sold to some money hungry snob.......

I think we are missing the point. Obviously in the real world you have to have an able buyer willing to actually pay the price, whatever it is on that particular day, for that particular car.

Putting values on the cars essentially allows the viewer to rank the items in the collection. It is fascinating when you discover how people see a particular car or type or model.... Going back to the antique road show, it is transparently obvious that many people want to see dollar values. So give them what they want.

IMHO it is a cop-out to say insurance won't let us.... and for snobbishness nothing beats the quote above about this being fine art and thus above and removed from sordid commerce.

As to real or imagined consequences....do you really think the responses will really change anything? I don't.

Who sets the value?

Who decides what a car is worth?

There is no official council of estimators that are recognized by all car collectors.

There is Insured replacement value, Market value, and Dealer value.

Just seems like placing a placard on a car in a museum as to a value is just one more thing for the car community to argue about.

You see it here constantly. Someone puts a car up on Ebay or craigslist and people jump in either lambasting the seller for thinking the car is worth X amount of dollars or praising them and the price they are asking.

I got to a museum to view stuff, not find out what its worth. I go to auctions, etc for that.

Quote:

Pat, I encourage you to visit the Blackhawk museum when you are in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a gorgeous facility and the automobiles displayed there are rare and special. It really is like a fine arts museum.

(o[]o)

Appreciate the cars in a museum for your own personal fondess and it's history, not based on the fluctuating market value of said car. Not everything needs to be quantified in terms of monetary value.