Article: The dark side of owning a car collection

The dark side of owning a car collection
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/dark-side-owning-car-collection

There was a good thread on another site that discussed the trend for more urban living in much smaller apartments or condos in the city center especially with millennials and subsequent generations. Living in a densely populated area puts a premium on square footage making renting a large space financially infeasible unless you have a large income or substantial assets. This makes getting younger people into collecting much more difficult.

The above article is especially interesting since it goes into the challenges of owning a classic car collection, perhaps one of the most difficult to store and space hogging collectables out there. Collecting automobiles might be possible in rural areas or on the edges of cities but in a large number of more urban places it becomes a near impossibility for anyone in the middle class. Just think about residents of cities like New York City, many of them likely don't even have a garage or dedicated parking spaces for a personal driver let alone for collectable autos and self storage spaces would likely cost an arm and a leg.

Your thoughts?

 

collect smaller cars....

 

I think coin collecting is primed to capitalize on this space scarcity problem if the correct "marketing" occurs. Coins are relatively compact and high value so they should do well for residents of small apartments that need everything to find into a small safe or safety deposit box.

Jewelry collecting too.

Bulky collectables like art pottery, books, furniture may continue to face challenges since many may not have the space to collect them.

 

abandon city living like rats in cages that would help

 

The trend towards micro apartments is crazy! Less than 300 square feet in many higher priced cities. Check out Hong Kong's cage dwellers, it is incredibly sad.

 

Not just Hong Kong, all Westcoast US cities have the same size things being built. As long as people are stupid enough to buy them, they will continue to be built.

Greedy carpetbagger developers using money from pension funds. Without a national housing policy (Canada) the trend will continue till the cubicle becomes the norm.

 

Hi,
I used to live in the 2nd floor of a Brooklyn brownstone. I had a bedroom, living room. study, dining room and kitchen and a bath about 2000 sq ft. Got married and moved into a 400 sq ft CO-OP.
There were two people three cats and about nine rooms of furniture living in this tiny box. I could not wait to move to Jersey. The moving company that moved us thought it would take about three hours to move us. They ended up spending 7 hours to load us up. They did not know we had two apartments, a storage room and a back yard full of furniture. We moved into a three bedroom 1905 colonial with a full walk up attic a full basement and a two car garage with a loft. When the movers left everything was filled including the attic, basement, garage and loft plus the yard. Thank God the mover was a friend from church and did not charge us much. A regular mover would have cost us over 10 thousand bucks.
greg

 

here we're losing golf courses...to condos and single and multi family dwellings....
2 were in the range of downtown....& 2 more under pressure...the rest are all in the countryside....
although one...was sold for canabis grow Op !!!

 

Another car collector article. I've often dreamed of purchasing a large supermarket to turn into an antique mall but buying a big box store to house your collection is kind of insane!

Man Buys A Walmart To Show Off His 225-Car Collection
https://www.motorious.com/articles/news/396587/walmart-225-car-collection

 

@gregsglass

What kind of furniture did you have in your back yard? Do you have any photos from that time? Genuinely curious, that's all.

 

Hi Ghopper,
I have some photos I will dig out. This was all 1950s steel gliders one three seater, two two seaters and 4 chairs plus a full size table and a couple of end tables and a coffee table. They survived in great shape until they came to the Shore. Salt ir does a number on iron and steel.
greg

 

My older brother collects cars. My Mom despaired of him ever being a success at anything; he never graduated from high school; spent all his time working on old cars.
But he got a job with a vending-machine company. He began to service the machines, and when computer/robot assembly lines came in, he learned to service the assembly lines. Turns out that is quite a high-paying job, so he began to collect vintage cars, rare sports cars, whatever.
But he lives in Los Angeles....so he started to buy and sell houses; bought houses with garages, and sold them without rights to the garage.
Imagine buying a house that does not include use of the garage, instead giving the former owner rights of access, with appropriate notice; but it certainly works for him, although his car collection is rather scattered.

 

How does he do that? Deed restrictions or doing a lot split with the garage on a new parcel?

 

Details vary, and I haven't seen the paperwork....he prefers lots that can be subdivided; but I believe some are similar to easements, on the deed; and some he also rents out, where the details would be part of the rental agreement.