It’s tough when you have an expensive hobby but no money, like being a yacht-lover when you work at the snow-cone shack. This totally applies to cars, too.
As anyone who loves cars can tell you, the shiniest and most-restored vehicles didn’t get that way with a garden hose and dish soap—it took cash.
So what do you if you want to be involved but can’t afford a classic car?
Volunteer at an enthusiast club
Maybe what you do have is skills at spreadsheets, websites, newsletter creation, membership development, advertising, event planning, or something else. You’ve got passion, too, which many clubs are sorely lacking in. You can be around classic vehicles, make connections, and contribute to a community you find interesting.
Learn how to appraise vehicles
The main question everyone has at an auction is simple: what’s it worth? The vintage car arena could always use an expert eye when it comes to translating real-world dazzle to cold-hearted calculation. Whether it’s for insurance, purchasing, wholesaling, or scrounging for parts, a talent for articulating value will give you instant standing.
Attain expert-status on a brand
If numbers aren’t your thing, perhaps history is. There’s always that one guy who knows an esoteric story or two about a particular brand; if you delve way into the research, you’ll be able to tell what makes a particular model special and why. Even if you can’t say what it makes something worth, you will have the story that guides the valuation.
Make Videos, Photos, or Essays
And now we have our documentarian. Whatever your medium, this is a great time to be a content producer. The best stories don’t mean anything if no one ever hears them, so it’s your job to get them recorded and presented in a way that’s interesting, simple, and beautiful. Plus, you get artistic license to tell a story the way you think it should be told. The pen is mightier than the sword!
Those are our thoughts, at any rate. If you want to be involved, there is definitely a space you can occupy. Tell us on Facebook how you got involved when you were broke.