not rocco related (holy crap)

[marc at getty.net (Marc Getty)]

Brendan Doyle wrote:
> Sorry but what fool would pay 5.5 million for a car?  Sure, the
> Cobra is gorgeous, and being one of Carrol Shelby's personal cars-
> well.... yeah.  But seriously?  Would any of you ever drive a car
> that you spent 5.5 million on?  You could have a Ferrari for every
> day of the week plus a computer-controlled auto climate garage to
> put them all in for that.

Just down the street from where I work in the middle of the city is the
first 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe <http://getty.net/daytona.jpg> which a
local neurosurgeon Dr. Fred Simeone bought $4.4 million in 2001. Last year I
got to take a tour of his amazing collection of over 50 vintage unrestored
sports cars. His collection dates back to 1901 with a focus on 1920s and
1930s Alfa Romeos, Aston Martins, Masseratis, and my favorite: two gull wing
Mercedes-Benz SLs, one of which the doctor drove in college.

Personally, I don't think that it is always foolish to buy a car for $5.5
million. Just think that this was sold at auction and there was another
"fool" willing to pay $5.4+ million who was outbid by a "fool" who paid the
$5.5 million. As long as there is someone out there willing to pay the
money, the car is worth that much money.

Remember that perfect early year Mk1 ('75?) with less then a 1,000 miles on
it for sale for $10k in central PA? Well it was snapped up in a heartbeat
and could have sold for a whole lot more. Who bought it? Volkswagen of
America. Hell, I seen 23 window deluxe VW buses sell for $50k to $80k all
the time!

A friend of a friend came into $10k and spent $8k on an Alienware Laptop to
play games on. To me, that is foolish. In 24 months that thing will be worth
1/4 to 1/8 of its up-front cost. For a guy of moderate means this was a
complete and utter waste and makes buying a sports car look like a good
investment in fun to dollar ratio over time, and doing that is quite
difficult!

Just my two cents.

-Marc

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
'83 VW Scirocco California Edition
'84 VW Rabbit GTI Pickup Truck