What!? You're saying you don't want to spend $130k for a 60 year old Cherokee 180 with a run-out engine (but a recent top overhaul!), with a standard 6 pack and a GNS430 and a #2 NAv/COM that looked like it was built during the Jurassic era?
But, even the more reasonable asking prices are high.
Profit on a depreciating toy with high OpEx is an interesting concept.
I've made offers on a few airplanes and the general response is "I have more than that in it". Well if you bought a plane the last 2-3 years yea, you have too much in it.
Worked in 2008, lol.
It makes sense if you don't think about it.
Me, too.
These are the same people who let their airplanes rot on the tarmac with flat tires and deteriorate to scrap because their pride won’t let them take anything less than their ego will let them.
What's that?
A Glasair 2, fixed gear.
What about insurance, fuel, oil, and other maintenance? All that contributes to the sunk cost of ownership. Profit is what’s left after all expenses, but with toys, most people (even me) tend to discount OpEx and only look at acquisition cost and value adds as expenses, which is why I laugh at the thought of making profit on a non-commercial use item. Even most flippers will end up discounting their labor and overhead, knowingly or not.
The cost of operations is the cost for the enjoyment of that experience. If I sold the plane for a loss, that would simply make the cost for those experiences higher than I budgeted for. So, being able to break even, means my costs for that recreation did not expand. Had I made a "profit" it would simply mean my costs for the recreation I experienced were lowered.
Or maybe they are upside down on the loan on their toy. Which means they'd still be paying on a smaller loan balance for the difference on a toy they no longer have. That's got to be an ego sting.
I wonder what the price increase is with inflation adjusted dollars?
There is inflation due to the Fed's continuous printing of more currency to service debt and create liquidity and then there is inflation that happens when a hedge fund buys Hartzell and increases prices 100% because they can. Fed inflation is predictable and makes it easier to pay off our houses, cars and planes. Hedge fund induced inflation is unpredictable and insidious. Inflation adjusted dollars are ~ 2% annually which is manageable. The hedge funds are a wild card. Hoping to get a SLS600 before it breaks 4M but we will see ...
Inflation adjusted depends on your time frame.
Seems likes it’s a horse race between the old airplane crash rate rate and the declining population of old pilots with money.
Yeah the thread definitely drifted from "calling the peak" to just monitoring prices
Wasn't it Yogi Berra who said "The future's easy to predict when you look back at it."?
Supply and demand. The supply of people who can afford the higher prices will decline so the amount demanded by the seller, if they really need to sell, has to follow. I'm seeing it with home prices just starting to drop in big chunks while I scout potential retirement locations.
