Typical glider depreciation?

On 8/11/2011 11:58 AM, Paul Ruskin wrote:
I think all that you've said is true Eric. None the less, with enough

I also observe that it's possible to buy a then state of the art
glider from the 1960s for £5K, from the 1980s for £20K and a new one
will cost you £100K. OK, not like for like, but my suspicion is that
if you buy a new glider and keep it for a long time, it will
depreciate.

If you keep it for a short time, it will almost always depreciate. Keep
it for a long time, and it's a total guess about what will happen. If
your currency tanks, you'll be delighted with the amount you sell it
for, and you could even show it was a good investment; if the number of
soaring pilots continues to shrink, you'll be selling into a buyer's
market and the opposite will occur.

I'm a little curious as to by how much.

I just told you exactly what will happen: you will lose or gain money
when you sell, and there is no way to know which it will be 10 years
from now.

Hence the request for data!

You can't do it for the glider you end up buying - too many important
parameters that can not be predicted or controlled, and like the
investment people tell you "past performance does not guarantee future
results". If this is just a fun thing you like to do, have at it, but
don't even think about it if you want to own your own glider.

Instead, buy one you can afford, that you can fly safely and enjoyably,
fly the hell out it, and hope that A) prices are really high when you
want to get out of the sport; B) Prices are really low when you want to
get a different glider.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl