WIX Archives

Re: with these prices, the future? - 1960/70's

Posted by PeterA on Mon Oct 28, 2002 02:02:55 PM

In reply top Re: with these prices, the future? posted by Ron Henry on Mon Oct 28, 2002 09:39:58 AM

In the early 1960's an airworthy Mk IX Spitfire was about ?4,000. With the build up to the BoB film in the mid 1960's that was ?6,000 and post the epic, 1970, ?12,000. By 1974 it had risen to ?35,000 and we couldn't believe it. The BoB film did for Spitfires what the James Bond film did for the Aston Martin DB5.

: : Cees,
: : I?m not qualified to to even speculate what wealthy peop
: le
: : might want to do with their money. I think that it will
: b
: : e more difficult to convince someone of the good cause f
: or
: : sponsorship in the future. It will probably take some g
: en
: : uine warbird interest to prompt these investments or hea
: vy
: : expenses, whichever way they are regarded.
: :
: : In one of his posts Peter pointed out that if the value
: of
: : the warbirds actually equalled the expenses for rebuild
: ,
: : then that would be a motivator for investors.
: :
: : If I?m not totally wrong, Sea Furies sell at $500,000 or
: b
: : elow. Should you find a project somewhere and haul it to
: a
: : rebuilder you?d be looking at over $1M.
: : In the light of that it doesn?t surprise me that there?s
: n
: : o hurry with the Tempests!?
: :
: : I know one thing for sure though, in the sixties, had I
: kn
: : own what I know today and had my weekly allowance been s
: li
: : ghtly higher, then I wouldn?t have collected plastic sca
: le
: : models!
: :
: : Christer
:
: Yes, Christer, had you known what you know today...... !!
:
: Way back in the early 1960s interest in old aircraft was m
: uch less, and the pool of enthusiasts was much smaller. Ho
: wever, amongst us enthusiasts it was well known that there
: were nearly 20 (IIRC, it was 18) Sea Furys in outside sto
: rage at the Royal Navy's Air Station at Lossiemouth in Sco
: tland. They really were there - I saw them myself. By 1965
: , they had all been sold for scrap.
:
: Then came the 1970s and 1980s and the warbird thing really
: took off in UK. A friend of mine who'd also seen the Sea
: Furys used to reflect on them and say "If only I'd had the
: money to buy the SFs and store them - I knew they would b
: e worth a fortune." I think he was kidding himself - Brit
: s with his alleged foresight then were extremely rare inde
: ed. It's always astounded me how the UK warbird scene has
: grown during the last 30 years - in the 1960s, I was convi
: nced that the dead hand of the CAA would never allow it.

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