Hi BS,
Certainly have to agree with the poor man's classic car resto analogy.
The price of the initial machine is now the killer of these mowers as an initial outlay of $400 that's being asked and then the price of just a few or the standard replaceable bits soon blows it over 1K and that is totally absurd in my view.
A few guys in the industry have already noticed a slow down before winter came along and feel the bubble has burst on these machine as there's no cash to be made from restoring and then flipping them for a profit. One particular chap here in Adelaide who used to do resto's and put them up on eBay has now resorted to merely getting hold of any 45's he can and then stripping them for parts only and making more than he used to on a full tear down and re-build.
Personally I feel this simply won't go on for too much longer as most of these people think that these mowers will turn a weed patch into a bowling green and those smart ones certainly know that's merely a fallacy and thus why most of these young whipper snappers won't do this as a long term hobby and thus will turn back to their electronic devices to get gratification from.
Cheers,
BB.
