Splitters, Splitterettes and Speculators:

There have been a couple of *value* questions onlist in the
last few weeks.  Insurance companies, sellers, buyers and
wonderers all looking for a deal.  Cleaning out my piles of
VW-related publications last night I found my *old* Old Cars
Price Guide stash.  It appears I bought one every three
years or so.  It also appears that the collector car people
are getting into our less materialistic and more practical,
fun, slow-paced niche:  VW Type 2s.

With some slight of finger, I offer the following ASCII
graph of the Condition 1 value of a 1967 Deluxe bus over the
last decade:

1986 4,800
1987 *|
1988 **|
1989 *5,400
1990 ****\
1991 ******\
1992 *******7,600
1993 *************************\
1994 **************************************\
1995 *************************************************21,500
    4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
                Thousands of US Dollars

Did you REALLY want to know this?  Not sure I did.  When I
saw the post that ONE PIECE of green glass for the roof
windows of a deluxe was going for $125 and that it would
take $1,000 to replace them all (minus rubber of course) the
future of our *hobby* came into focus.  I have never been in
this for the money but you have to know there ARE people who
are.  There are also people who have finally realized what
we knew several decades ago but they now have the money and
desire to pay for what they once considered to be junk.

The Most Reverend Bob Hoover may have a sermon for us on
this subject.  St. Muir passed on without having to see
this.  Hopefully, he has a VW close to him even now.  I can
only suggest two bits of advice

First:  love your bus
Second: protect your investment

We now return control of your screen to the more mundane.

-Jim Bryant