SIX RULES FOR INVESTING
1
JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON.
This can be a dangerous thing after it’s already started rolling. Savvy investors get in early. The people that make the biggest returns are the ones that buy before the rest of us have even seen it coming. Once the rest of us cotton on, you can still jump on as the market rises. But leave it too late and you may pay top dollar for something just as the values level out.
2 THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TACTICAL FLIPPING AND STRATEGIC BUYING.
Spotting something you can buy today and sell for a quick profit tomorrow is one thing; investing in a vehicle because you think it will increase in value over the coming years is another matter entirely. I’ve never been any good at flipping, mainly because I only ever buy cars that pluck at my heartstrings, cars that I want to keep. That’s probably why I’m not a dealer. In fact, I’d be a lousy dealer because I’d never want to sell anything.
3 BUYING BECAUSE YOU THINK A MODEL IS GOING TO INCREASE IN VALUE.
This means that once you’ve bought it you need to hang on to it for a while. Sometimes quite a few years. This might mean you need to think about where you’re going to keep it. Obviously, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to buy a Range Rover classic or an early Discovery in good condition and leave it outside for several years.
4 DON’T PUT ALL YOU EGGS IN THE SAME BASKET.
Spread your bets as far as your means will allow you to. It might be better to have your cash tied up in two or three vehicles rather than place your bet on just one becoming the new high-flyer.
5 ONLY INVEST WITHIN YOUR MEANS.
It should be blindingly obvious, but my view is that you should never borrow to invest. Well, not unless you’re a pro and prepared to take the risk and can afford the potential loss. I’m not. I once knew a man who re-mortgaged his house to raise cash to invest in steam locomotive nameplates. You know the sort of thing. A huge chunk of cast brass that was once bolted on the side of 130 tonnes of engine. The only problem was that he failed to spot the fact that the people buying this stuff were of a certain age and were reliving their youth in the 1930s, when they stood on the end of the platform at King's Cross as the steamhauled Flying Scotsman departed for Edinburgh. As they died off, there was no new generation of buyers to step in. He lost a lot of money.
6 BUY WHAT YOU LIKE.
Whichever Land Rover you buy, it is still just another vehicle, and it will benefit from being used, even if only relatively sparingly. If you don’t really like it, you’re unlikely to use it. Land Rovers are no different from other vehicles – they don’t like sitting in a shed for years on end. It’s also worth saying that originality is the new buzzword, whether unrestored originality complete with priceless patina, or restored to original factory spec. But if its restored, make sure it isn’t shot full of pattern and non-genuine parts. Whatever you buy needs to tick these boxes and, if it has been modified, make sure everything can be readily reversed. This includes thinking about the parts you might need in order to return something back to factory spec, and whether those parts are readily available. It’s amazing how much is now unobtanium for many classic Land Rovers models.
All the normal things that apply to any other old car are relevant to classic Land Rovers as well: originality, history and provenance, old documents and photographs, records of work carried out and invoices, MOT certificates, old tax discs, original handbooks and dealer pack, toolkit… You get the picture.