Collector car preference, per state

[Guest BillP]

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/?p=870512

[joe_padavano]

So this is based entirely and only on cars listed in Hemmings.  Not exactly a statistically valid sample, especially since the Interwebs.

[mercer09]

actually, as Joe says- this is ridiculous speculation...............

 

still wondering why I subscribe to Hemmings?

[billorn]

And below the article I find this photo:

 

 

Not really the best way to advertise your car for sale is it?

[Restorer32]

Shouldn't "collector car preference" be based on cars different state's  residents are looking for and actually want to buy rather than cars they want to get rid of? No one sells a car they love. I have athlete's foot and research ways to get rid of it. Doesn't mean athlete's foot is my favorite disease.

[joe_padavano]

23 minutes ago, Restorer32 said:

Shouldn't "collector car preference" be based on cars different state's  residents are looking for and actually want to buy rather than cars they want to get rid of? No one sells a car they love. I have athlete's foot and research ways to get rid of it. Doesn't mean athlete's foot is my favorite disease.

 

Yeah, I was going to point that out also. The Hemmings listings used for data in this "study" are cars for sale, not cars people want to keep.

[60FlatTop]

I think writing articles like that can make one go blind or grow hair on their palms.

 

What will they do up there in Vermont when winter comes and they are snowed in?

Bernie

[H.M.X]

True, the data for most commonly listed cars on Hemmings is merely a proxy for popularity, but it's also the best data we have access to - state-by-state registration data is unavailable due to privacy laws - and it's pretty good data, given that Hemmings caters to the entire collector car hobby and has done so for several decades now.

 

That said, we have an awful lot of data at our fingertips. What facets of the collector car hobby would you be interested in quantifying with that data?

 

dan

[joe_padavano]

3 hours ago, H.M.X said:

True, the data for most commonly listed cars on Hemmings is merely a proxy for popularity, but it's also the best data we have access to - state-by-state registration data is unavailable due to privacy laws - and it's pretty good data, given that Hemmings caters to the entire collector car hobby and has done so for several decades now.

 

 

Sorry, but you have no idea whether or not this is "pretty good data".  All you know is that it is the only data you have.  It's leaps of faith like this that have generated so many bad "statistics" and "studies" that are published today. There is a lot of extrapolation and very little verification or "ground truth". Anecdotal "data" isn't data in any way, shape, or form.

 

There is absolutely no way to know if cars for sale in one magazine is in any way representative of car ownership data across the hobby.  My gut says it is not.  And don't kid yourself about "catering to the entire collector car hobby". There are far more collector cars for sale on ebay than in any given issue of HMN any more.  Of course, this still doesn't prove that cars offered for sale in any way reflects overall ownership trends.  I have over a dozen collector Oldsmobiles.  None have ever appeared in Hemmings, and most have never been on ebay either.