Market Forces Make Cars Disappear
I just returned from this year's great Hershey Car Show (I know, it's another car-related piece. Bear with me.)
The weather was perfect, and the flea market had hundreds of vendors.
I walked for more than seven hours. My feet are ready for bronzing.
Of the roughly 40 years I've been walking the Hershey show--first year was 1984--this one had a surprisingly low turnout of cars for sale in the Car Corral.
There's a ring around the parking lot called the Car Corral, typically featuring several hundred antique vehicles. In past years it's been packed with cars and prospective buyers. So packed that it was often hard to get a good picture.
This year the Car Corral looked surprisingly empty, with a fraction of the usual number. I'd heard that last year's Car Corral was similarly anemic.
What's the difference? It's hard to blame it on the ageing demographic in the hobby, since the flea market looked strong.
I think it's competition from auctions. Today there are a seemingly limitless number of online auctions, from Bring a Trailer to Cars and Bids to Hemmings auctions to any number of others.
New ones spring up regularly.
The advantages of an online auction are many, but mainly the car usually stays put in the owner's garage. No hauling to car shows, no tire-kickers (literally!), no unpleasant weather, no unsolicited comments and ridiculously lowball offers.
The market found a better way for many to sell their desirable collector cars. While I wish the Car Corral had its previous complement of great vehicles, can't say I blame folks for keeping the cars home.
Incidentally, the picture shows an extraordinarily rare car from the Hershey show: a 1933 Cadillac V-16 convertible sedan, originally used in a parade in the Chicago Century of Progress Fair. As the name implies, the car had sixteen cylinders (most of today's gas engine cars have four or six), weighed about three tons, and even in its very-worn condition looks spectacularly majestic. Fewer than 125 V-16s were built during that Depression year. #market #entrepreneurship #capitalism #antiques #cars
