Aircraft values

[ghostflyer]

Is it my warped logic but lately it seems the the value of 170 aircraft has sky rocketed upwards. If you are a owner that’s a good thing . I am seeing prices rise dramatically and stock is being sold. I have a client who paid 14,000 dollars for 170 fuse large [1954 model] and some bits and pieces . I said “are you nuts ?’’ He purchased it from a wrecker in Texas . Then here in Australia a 170b was on the market [totally polished] looked a million dollars and it sold for $120,000. Just have been looking at some of the web sites on prices, and then look back 2 years ago and see the prices then . This is better than gold . [nearly wrote coke,but that’s not political nice these days]

[IA DPE]

I can't believe they've gone up so much, and I'm glad I bought mine when I did. For the going prices I probably would have bought another model Cessna.

[GAHorn]

It’s called “Inflation”......” an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods resulting in a substantial and continuing rise in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.”

[Richgj3]

The nice airplanes are commanding good prices. I’ve owned mine since January. I have a friend looking for one and he’s already offered me “five thousand more than you paid for it”. Of course I refused.

I looked for a long time and being on the east coast, I limited myself to East of the Mississippi just to avoid extensive travel to look at something that didn’t look quite right but had potential. I may have missed out, but ultimately I got a good one. I did call on one back then that was near Denver but it sold almost immediately. To be fair, my friend knew what I paid for mine. He doesn’t know how much my new avionics cost. But, that was my choice. My plane, as advertised had functional avionics and only needed a tail beacon to be ADS B out compliant. Like many owners who love their airplane I probably could not sell my 170 for what I have in it now, but that’s not why I bought it and upgraded it.

Rich

[GAHorn]

I think you have hit on something often over-looked, Rich. An owner often makes costly improvements to their ride that a non-owner may not recognize. The increase-in-value often going without the respect it deserves. While I’ve put a thousand hours on my airplane since I bought it, which multiplied by the $12/hr engine time is worth would cause a reduction in value of $12K by simple math.
But the $5K in avionics, the $5K in mods (bag door, dual land/taxi lts, etc., $3K in ADS-B) and the 3% inflation-multiplier over 20 years (~$20K) would make it worth about $21K more than I paid for it. $43K plus $21K equals $64K .... and it’s NOT for sale!

Anyone feeling pressed-to-sell right now, in my opinion, should not accept “low-ball” offers which might be perceived by the seller as “worth what I paid for it”. Long periods between “offers”, especially low-offers...can cause one to believe one had better accept the “next one”. Patience is necessary.
I can recall a guy once telling me what he’d paid for his 182... then selling it for what he paid for it after having flown it 600 hours... as he said, “basically for Free!”
He was wrong. He lost money, a lot.... and didn’t realize it.... until he tried to replace that thing.
If he’d spent the time waiting for a more reasonable offer that he spent searching for a comparable airplane he’d have come out more “even” and with much less regret for having sold cheaply.

[ghostflyer]

I acquired my aircraft from a number of members of a gliding club committee.however it was in pieces that was going to Be restored . Some members walked away as they realised it was too hard and money was involved. It was interesting to watch the infighting and who was to blame for this and that. I watched with interest as I was using this as a example for a assignment at college .the subject was “group dynamics”. [industrial psychology]. One day I walked into the hangar when a group workshop was going on for about 10 members of the committee, yes they had done about 1/2 hour work on removing bits and pieces of the 170a and they were scattered around the floor. Then the beer came out and they were drinking sitting around in a circle and bitching who hadn’t turn up or Who hadn’t thrown money into the project. I wasn’t a member of this club just a outsider who had a friend who was a gliding instructor . “Bert” the president of the club was on his 5th beer [the number of empty cans under his chair] when, I said in a loud voice “who wants to sell their share”. Can’t said Bert It’s part of the club. That night I received 5 phone calls from committee members offering “their” share . It ranged from 150 dollars to 500 dollars. I wasn’t that enthusiastic about the purchase as it was trigger to a response that I wanted to see. Unknown to me Bert was buying up the shares after my shock question. Then there was 3 shares and the gliding club had got rid of a liability. My gliding instructor friend had one of the shares ,there was Bert ,and another guy who was Thomas. All 3 hated each other . My gliding instructor friend purchased Thomas ,s share for 10,000 dollars . I then purchased Bert,s share for 6400 dollars. So then it was 2 of us. The aircraft was restored and put on the register and flown many hours . Many mods were incorporated [180hp engine etc ] and then I purchased the remaining share for 12,000 dollars. Many hundreds of labor of love has been put into this aircraft BUT it’s a heap of fun. It’s one of the best experiences of my life owning this aircraft and all the great people I have been introduced to through this aircraft. It’s not for sale .
PS. I received a distinction for that “group dynamics “ subject.

[ghostflyer]

Part 2 .
This “aircraft” didn’t have a engine or propellor ,fire wall, no wiring and very little instruments . It was a bare fuse large and the wings propped up on the wall of the hangar and there was a heap of rubbish in a pile that were called aircraft parts . I built a fire wall out of stainless steel fitted it and started the rebuild of the tail feathers . Bert [president of the gliding club] then started telling people that I had [ME] had ripped him off . Then the wings went on after nearly 70% of the skins replaced . Some members of the gliding club were told it was worth at least 80,000 dollars and we had obtained it through deception. I travelled all over Australia and New Zealand obtaining lost parts . The original engine had “gone” missing . It had been sent to another gliding club who had a Member who had a engine rebuilding company. I managed to retrieve some of the aircraft log books from this company . It was 13 years later I found parts of the missing engine in a aircraft that passed through our shop. The serial number of the engine was in some log books that I was writing up and it jumped off the page at me .
But there was many sour grapes over the rebuild of this aircraft from the gliding club but it was generated by a couple of people who were paid a far price .
Bert sold his share due to his wife was sick of the conflict,Bert was having with others and his drinking habits at the airport . The amount of alcohol Bert was drinking altered his perception of reality and It made him a dominating figure . Now days I still see him once and a while but he hasn’t any memory of what happen 20 years ago over the Cessna 170a.

[DaveF]

Quite a story! Mine's a bit different.

"Want to buy my airplane?"
"Yes, but it's a little more money than I have on hand."
"Ok, I'll let you pay me the difference over the next few years."
"Deal."

[GAHorn]

1980 (or thereabouts) .... I was driving to a little grass strip just west of DFW to look at a Swift which had been “geared-up” thinking I would buy it and get it flying again.
On the way, we passed-by another little strip “Goode” airfield (no longer exists...it’s now a neighborhood) and I saw a guy wiping down a little Aeronca Chief after flying it. I stopped to look at it because I’d seen one once when I was a freshman in college back in ‘67.

Me: “Nice little Chief!”

Him: “Thanks! Soo... you know what a Chief IS?”

Me: “Yes, I’ve always thought about owning one.... What are they worth?”

Him: “Well, if someone offered me $5500 I might sell this one, but I’d cry about it.”

Me: “Would $5750 dry your tears?”

Him: “Yes.”

Me: “Cash OK?”

We shook hands and I flew it home having never been in one before.

The second flight I ever made in that airplane it dumped all it’s oil out the overtightened oil temp probe and I had to ovhl the engine. I think the crank I put in that ovhl was the very last zero-time NOS tapered-crank for an A-65 (which we converted to A-75.)

Traded it 8 years later at a substantial loss in order to simplify a divorce. (Flew it from AUS to Deming, NM and traded it for a classic car from a guy in LAX.)

I recently was contacted by one of our Members who saw my name in the logbook of N3507E and wondered if I was the same guy.
(Unfortunately he acquired the airplane sans engine.)