My family deals in cars for a living and enjoys them as a hobby, too. I taught my son early on that there are 2 kinds of cars; commodities and possessions and to not get them mixed up.
We often spend money and time on the possessions that don't necessarily make financial sense. But as long as it's reasonable and enjoyable, and that's how you want to enjoy the fruits of your labor then go ahead. Just don't make that mistake on the commodities.
The difficulties come in when we confuse the 2 at some point or another.
This makes sense.
It would kill my joy to view my hobby cars as an investment, even though I'm not blind to value vs costs.
But once I own a car, I don't look back on the net value when deciding whether to spend money on it or not.
The only thing I can add is -
Having been in the hobby long enough, I feel pretty confident what values are, so I can spot a deal when I'm buying on the open market, or if I overspend it's because I decided to.
Other times, I have lucked into word-of-mouth private sales, which is what I prefer.
- Art
