[maple_leaf_eh]

I follow the hobby and agree that there are probably three motivators.

First is for buyers who can now afford toys, to find whatever they enjoyed in their youth. My Jeeps for instance, are models I drove in the reserves in my teens.

Second are machinery students, who enjoy (?) the challenge of keeping old iron running. The Hammond Barn crowd have WWII vehicles under restoration, and they work on something to learn how it was built and can be brought back to life. The crazier ones have heavy, stinky, expensive and awkward vehicles like 5-ton trucks, wreckers, tracked and big wheeled vehicles.

Third, and far less common IMHO, are collector/builder/investors. There are some of us who see money in everything, and work on projects to resell. (Do they ever get their money back?) Yes, there are investers who want an MB, an M4, a Universal Carrier, or a Ferret, but how many of them are walking around lopsided because of their fat wallets?