[Shotimes] opal frost

[Donald Mallinson]

The facts are that in the world of collector cars, the best color is 
"resale" red.    Black is also always good.      These colors also seem 
to sell well in new cars and newer used cars.  Emotional colors work.  
So there we agree.  But not about White:  White is a big seller, but 
that is mainly because of fleet sales.  White is a "safe" color to 
stock, and you will see lots of them, but not at the big collector car 
auctions.  White is boring and seldom seen in the collector car world.  
Bright yellow on the right car is wonderful, but not a big seller in 
general when new.

Where you are wrong Ron, is in assuming again that just because a color 
is "oddball" that it isn't valuable.

The absolute proof is in the weird and low selling colors from Mopar in 
the late 60's and early -mid 70's.  Plum Crazy, etc.  These car colors 
are bringing big bucks.  If  you watched the Barrett-Jackson auction 
earlier this year, and this weekend, some of the "oddball" colors were 
getting the most action. 

It is NOT true that just because something doesn't sell well (color, or 
options, model) when new, that it will be worth less when old.  The 
Hemi, GT500 Mustangs etc all sold horrible, but are now the most 
valuable.  Same can go with paint colors.  Whatever turns on a buyer is 
what will sell, and in collector cars, the unusual is usually what is 
desirable.

Paint colors are a very personal thing of course.  what one person likes 
isn't what another person will like.  The dark greens have been one of 
the most popular colors in the past decade, that was true of the SHO 
starting in 1991.  But those cars won't be worth as much to a SHO 
"collector" in the future as a more rare color like the dark blue.

Yes, I do like the unusual colors, but I see it from a perspective of 
the collector, not trying to go along with the herd.  And as for my 
favorite colors, earthtones (to give it a more current label), they are 
now starting to get at least a little action in the auctions, but as you 
and I both know, Resale Red is still king $ maker, now and probably 
forever.  It is the ultimate emotional color.

And if SHO's will be worth "squat" according to you in the future 
auctions, then you have to put in other cars too, including your Subaru 
for instance.  But collector car auction performance has little to do 
with enthusiast action, as we both know. 

Ron Porter wrote:

>Maybe.
> 
>But, look at the car auctions......not that old SHOs will ever be worth squat in 20 years......but the biggest sellers are usually the most popular colors. The oddball colors are not an advantage.
> 
>Probably gonna piss off Don again (but I understand that he likes the offbeat colors....especially brown), but the off colors (and the dated colors like the "rare green") will be less valuable than the basic bright red, white, or black.
> 
>Ron Porter
>
>"Adam J. Green" <ajgreen@epix.net> wrote:
>Having a low miles Opal MTX, how many of the 1302 were MTX? If I take an 
>average which for that year seemed to be 18% of sho's were MTX, would that 
>mean that my car is 1 of ~~~200?
>
>
>-Adam