Image via Mecum Auctions
After auctioning in 2022 for a whopping $1.5 million, setting a world record, a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird just auctioned again with no reserve on May 17, bringing in a measly $380,000. While the latter price is still insane, it’s also just a quarter of what the classic muscle car pulled in three years ago.
Would you pay $35,000 for this 1999 Toyota 4Runner?
That’s some serious price depreciation. You could chalk it up to just a bad showing at Mecum Indy 2025, but we’ve been seeing this trend building of late. This Hemi Superbird is just a symptom of a larger problem developing in the car collecting hobby.
Fifteen years ago, many enthusiasts could still afford to buy at least one of their dream cars. Today, unless they’re an insurance or private equity executive, most enthusiasts have found those same rides are well beyond their reach.
Values have soared as the affluent discovered they could use classic and even modern exotics as investments. Many have little interest in the vehicles themselves, other than displaying them as works of art in their gallery-like garages, treating the machines gearheads adore as if they were part of a real estate investment portfolio.
This trend intensified during the covid era, likely for a number of reasons. Many gearheads bitterly decided they could never afford the car of their dreams as they watched even some dogs get pricey. The market was out of control.
Now we’re in a period of correction, or what some would call a crash. Just how big it is and how long it will last isn’t clear. And we don’t know if investors will flood it yet again, pumping up values in a sick game once more. But many, not all, collector cars are seeing their values plummet.
We’ve noticed a curious trend among auction houses. Instead of openly publishing individual results, many are putting such information in hard-to-find places, requiring users to register for access, or are just plain not releasing the numbers at all.
If we didn’t know better, we’d say they were trying to hide something.
The fact this Mopar Wing Car saw its value on the open market dive 75 percent in just three years shows how bad things have become. At this rate, we just might be able to one day afford a dream car after all.
See this Superbird’s lot listing for yourself here.
Images via Mecum Auctions
