Market for collectible vehicles running hot

Got the soul of a speculator? Mitch Silver figures you could do worse than buying a decked-out Cadillac Coupe De Ville from 1970 or so, a big ol' boat with gold paint and brocade.

With any luck, Silver says, you'll double your money in a couple of years.

And if your luck doesn't hold? Well, you've got a big ol' boat with gold paint and brocade.

Silver, who will put about 900 cars on the auction block during four nights of action during Hot August Nights, said the other day that tightening supplies of collectible cars and surging demand are pushing prices upward.

"I'm seeing some of the best prices and highest interest in cars I've ever seen," said Silver, president of Spokane-based Silver Collector Car Auctions.

Among the factors boosting buyers' interest, he said, is the growing popularity of classic car events around the country.

"City after city has events," he said.

"In some big cities, there's an event every week." So what's hot in the classic car market?

* Muscle cars from the late 1960s and early 1970s some models of Camaros, Pontiac GTOs and Mopar products manufactured by Chrysler.

"Those cars are going up so fast," Silver said.

"We set a world record year then we break it the next year." * Nostalgia cars from the 1950s.

Something with big fins and white sidewalls as wide as a car salesman's smile is likely to stir the soul of a Baby Boomer with cash to spend.

* Novelty vehicles, most of them small.

The tiny vehicles made by Messerschmitt in the 1950s or the "bubble cars" carrying the Isetta nameplate have legions of fans.

For buyers looking for steady appreciation, Silver suggested a close look at pickup trucks from the 1950s.

Many of those trucks, he said, have doubled in value during the past decade.

High-risk investments? So far, Silver said, there isn't much strength in the market for what he called "really nice, honest cars" from the 1960s the four-door sedans that hauled innumerable kids of the era to Girl Scout meetings and school functions.

The auto auctions Hot August Nights is among Silver's biggest are fast-paced affairs.Typically, bidding lasts two minutes and 45 seconds for each car.

Silver's company takes either a 4 percent or 7 percent sales commission.

Given the fast action and the prices some in-demand cars are likely to command $60,000 or more buyers usually have lines of credit or some other financing available before they into the Reno- Sparks Convention Center.

And that means, Silver said, that business owners most of them male, most of them 35 to 70 years old are the dominant demographic at his company's auctions.

"They're risk takers," he said.

"They have the ability to manipulate finance.

They can get lines of credit."