When Do Old Items Become Valuable?

When do old items become valuable?

Today on British TV we are inundated with programs such as  ‘The Antiques Road Show’ and ‘Cash cash in the attic’ or ‘bargain Hunt’ the list of programs is growing all the time. As a nation or indeed as a planet we are realising that old items from Jewellery to simple plates and cups are worth a fortune to collectors of antique or old items.

Antiques and collectables used to be the purview of Antique dealers and auction houses. I remember as a child being taken around sea-side resorts on holiday and my parents taking me around antique shops. My parents would drool over an Antique pistol or a silver letter opener or a Victorian dinner service.

There were cupboards that had cracking wooden tops that were for sale. They even had children’s toys made of tin or lead for sale at huge prises! There has always been money in old items or as commonly called antiques, although many items are too new to qualify as an antique but the term has been adopted to represent old items that the market place will pay good money for.

I’m sure you the reader know this its not a secret! Car boot sales used to be a good source of picking up old items that the seller had no idea of the true value in fact a ‘bargain’ however TV has closed this source of Antiques and sellers use the internet to find out the true value of what they are selling long before it reaches the boot of their car!

What I am concentrating on in this article is the break off point when something of very little value starts the transformation into being very sort after and worth a mint! I am not qualified in Antiques so all I can do for this article is fall back on what I am qualified in speaking on which is cars. Being in the motor trade all my life I feel I have seen many cars being launched and in production to being out of production then scrapped and now worth a solid gold fortune!

Let me use the Ford Capri as an example of just that process. I have owned at least six examples of the ‘Ford Saturday Night Special’ or the ‘European Mustang’ The Capri was launched in Europe in 1969 and called the MK I Capri for obvious reasons. Its production run ended in 1974 over 1,000,000 Capri’s were sold in the UK alone! Not including mainland Europe and believe it or not America! The home of the V8 Muscle cars bought the weedy 1.6 & 2.0ltr Capri’s in the thousands.

(My MK I Capri 1.6 GT worth £10,000 now!)

In 1974 the MK II Capri was launched and it was a more modern looking car with square headlights and most importantly a hatchback. Now this was a major dent in the value of MK 1 Capri’s the bottom fell out of the market! I remember buying my first out right owned Capri in 1982 I wanted a MKII Capri and not a MK I as they looked old and dated. I remember MK I Capri’s being advertised in the car section of local papers for £50! Or  ‘£25 take away or scrap’

The MK I Capri cost around £600 new in the 1970’s and 10-12 years later no one wanted them there were even top of the range 3.0ltr V6 Capri E models selling for £75. I used to buy parts for my Capri in scrap yards as being only a working class man. I distinctly remember row after row of the ‘Ford Saturday Night Special’ in scrap yards some stacked 3 high! Some had rusty bodywork which all 1970’s and 1980’s cars suffered with, and some had perfect body shells but there must have been a major mechanical failure such as an engine and or gearbox, therefore they were scrapped due to the low value of the Capri on the second hand market.

(My MK II Capri worth £6,000 now)

In 1978 the MK III Capri was launched to much acclaim and trust me the earlier MK I Capri’s were long since forgotten as soon was the MK II Capri it too looked dated come 1980. That is just a typical story of production cars regardless of what manufacturer the only exception being cars that were ridiculously expensive to begin with such as Rolls Royce or Ferrari’s or Porsche’s these cars are kept safe in heated garages and mostly if kept will keep their money or appreciate, not so the humble production car or so I thought!

I like many people around the globe have the internet and use sites such as E‘-Bay’ to buy simple house hold goods etc at cheaper prices than available on the high street. Over the last 5 years or so many people have started to use E-Bay to sell cars and why not? I just out of interest put in Ford Capri’s for sale as a search and well! I almost fell off my chair! I saw a MK I Capri 3.0 V6 in very nice but not perfect condition for sale at £19,990 ! New the car was worth £700! How did this happen? £10 short of 20k or $35,000!

I mused how the hell could this crazy situation have occurred? Turn the clock back 25 years you couldn’t give away MK I Capri’s! I am not talking about an item that is 200 years old or an Egyptian Mummy! It is a standard if top of the range 1970’s Ford! Thousands were made! Over a million examples sold in Britain alone! This crazy situation has occurred? Its because us the general public have no vision at all! I am just as guilty as you or the next citizen.

(MK III Capri Brooklands worth £10,000 upwards)

I wanted a MK II Capri over a MK I because I wanted the newer product with a later registration index. The item or the product the Ford Capri in all its variants the MK 1. MK II, and MK III is and was a very basic car. It is stylish and its looks have become ‘Classic’.  I am going to state the obvious to you. The only reason that the Capri is worth so much now is because of its rarity value! There are only a handful left in the UK. We as consumers cast the product aside and said   “thank you very much for the wheel spins and girls I pulled in my Capri but its off to the scrap yard for you buddy!”

We didn’t just scrap them in thousands we scrapped them in millions! If it was an animal it would be regarded as hunting until extinction! Other Fords and Vauxhall production cars have faired even worse with no examples left they are truly extinct! The only reason any Capri’s survived was because of its sporty looks and boy-racer reputation. Some 12 years ago I saw a MK II Capri 1.6L for sale at £200! I viewed the car and was not impressed with such a basic model and it was in an awful brown colour however the car itself was faultless one owner from new and it had been garaged. I declined to buy it.

On the way home to my house I stopped in a newsagent and bought a car magazine and just by chance saw that any Capri was selling for around £1,000 if not more for older examples! I drove back at break neck speeds to buy the car only to see it being towed away by a car dealer! Boy how I regret that mistake. Now that particular model is for sale at £6,000!

I don’t know the answer to this particular problem? I could have bought up several Capri’s years ago for less than a month’s wages and now when sold I would have thousands of pounds in the bank. I didn’t have the storage room for the cars and without a heated garage and lots of tender loving care the cars would deteriorate. How does one know which car will be worth a fortune in 30 years time?

This example I have given can apply to any item or product; old items are worth money some times but not always. If one is far sighted maybe by saving a certain product you can make money in time but do you have the storage and inclination? I guess this process will always be repeated down the years its in our nature to discard old for new? One thing is for sure the general public is more aware of what is worth money now because of the internet and TV programs the Antique dealers are feeling the pinch of general knowledge!

Lord Banks