Becoming a Sought-After Buyer: How to Buy an Antique Airplane

Recently, I wrote an article about some things I think antique airplane buyers ought to consider when setting a price and selling a plane. I think turnabout is fair play, and here are some thoughts on how to be a great buyer and someone a seller of a treasured antique airplane ought to want to sell to.

 There just aren’t as many of us as there once were—buyers of antiques, that is. And while this is true for airplanes, it’s really true for old things in general. There are abundant stories about the generations following the Baby Boomers who just don’t want the “stuff” their parents collected and treasured on their own, especially from previous generations. While this may change in the future, it certainly seems to be the case now.  This means that as a buyer of an antique airplane, you need to understand that the treasure you can’t resist today is likely to be even harder to dispose of tomorrow than it is for the guy you’re buying it from.  That shouldn’t be today’s seller’s problem – it’s going to be yours – but you need to be careful not to overpay because it will be just that much worse for you when it comes time to dispose of your plane.  Just because you are going to lose money on your new pride and joy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it.  It’s like going to the casino and playing some games.  You know you’re going to lose, but if you have a reasonable idea how much and how long you plan to play, you can figure your hourly, or yearly, cost for the fun you’re going to have! The obvious first step is to do your homework before making offers or buying on the value of what you’re looking for or looking at.  Begin by paying attention to the ads you see posted online and the prices being asked.  You’ll see a wide variety of “classics” which still sell regularly.  And you’ll see some antiques like Stearman’s advertised a lot with varying asking prices.  Start electronically clipping ads. For the incompetent sellers who don’t list a price, feel free to email and ask for it.  Asking prices aren’t selling prices, of course, but they usually get you in the ballpark. 

For the plane(s) model you’re especially interested in, call back after the sale and politely inquire what it sold for.  Build a spreadsheet and track restoration age, condition, TTAF&E, etc., and correlate the selling price with all of that.

Join the type club(s) of the plane you are interested in.  Learn as much as you can about it.  Read everything in the forums.  Subscribe to the Facebook groups of these planes and read them for a few months.  Ask the folks in these places questions.  I guarantee they will be happy to share what they know. 

Go to as many fly-ins as you can where the kind(s) of plane you’re interested in is likely to be.  Look at them carefully.  Take lots of photos for comparison later on.  Talk to the owners about their plane, the issues they have had, what they like and dislike about it, and so on.  Tell them you’re interested in buying one.  Often that will lead to a plane that is for sale but not on the market. 

Find out who the people are that restore and repair the kind of airplane you’re looking for and the engines that power it.  Ask questions about what it costs to maintain and what to look for to avoid problems. 

If you’re going to look at planes a long way from where you live (and if you’re looking for more rare antiques that will be very likely) you may want to talk to one or more ferry pilots about bringing whatever you buy to you.  These folks are also great sources of information about current values and may also know of interesting planes that may be for sale. 

Now that you’re reasonably well educated, make sure you’re flush.  By this, I mean you have the money to buy what you want.  In cash.  In the bank.  Ready to wire.  These planes generally aren’t financeable, so you’re going to need ready cash.  Please don’t waste sellers’ time making offers you can’t immediately make good. 

Know what you want.  Different buyers care about different things, and some care more than others.  Know your mind.  If perfection is important to you, don’t look at airplanes that need work unless that’s part of your interest.  If you have your heart set on a Piper Cub and nothing else will do, don’t look at Aeroncas.  You’ll confuse yourself and waste others’ time. 

Now that you know what things are worth, have the money in hand, and know what you want, you’re ready to start shopping! This part of the search has three phases: initial qualification, inspection, and offer/negotiation/purchase. 

When you locate a prospect, have a set of questions you either plan to email the seller or ask in a phone call that the wrong answers will rule out the plane.  Eliminating prospects quickly saves everyone time.  If at all possible, those questions ought to include being furnished in advance of seeing the plane scans of at least recent logs and detailed photographs.  You’re gathering information but you’re also communicating that you’re knowledgeable, you’re careful, and you’re thorough.  If you don’t get appropriate answers quickly, you can move on, and you should. 

Ask, “Is there anything that needs to be repaired, corrected, fixed, painted, etc.”.  You want to know if this is beyond your interest or the capabilities of your local shop.  It will also give you a really good gauge of the seller’s honesty and ethics when you actually go look at the plane. 

Don’t go see things you’re not genuinely interested in buying. But do go see what you may want to buy.  When you do take your time, ask a lot of questions, and photograph and video everything carefully.

Now, the delicate part.  Very likely, the seller is unrealistic in their asking price.  That was the point of my other article.  That means you have to educate them.  The basic premise that they must accept is that the plane has a maximum value when in pristine condition, and you and the seller have to agree on what this is, or you’ll never get to an agreement.  If you can agree on this, you will then need to politely, and kindly, point out where this plane isn’t pristine and what you think it would take to make it so.  This is worth discussing as the seller may know things you don’t know about that and it’s worth just talking about.  But a 1200-hour TBO engine that costs $50,000 to overhaul and has 1,000 hours on it is a $40,000 expense the seller is trying to get you to accept, and so it needs to come off the value of a pristine, newly restored airplane to get to a fair price. 

This is delicate stuff, and whether you do it in writing or verbally, it’s important to be respectful but also prepared with your sources of costs.  Don’t expect the seller to accept all of this, but you must or you’re going to overpay.  If the seller doesn’t accept your price rationale, they aren’t going to accept your price offer either.

That’s ok.  You can’t avoid a bad deal unless you are willing not to make one.  The willingness to walk away is very important.  Even if the airplane is the only one in the world, there are lots more airplanes than you can buy.  Sometimes, the seller will just need time to understand reality, and unless you want to overpay, you need to give them time.  This means someone else may buy the plane, but sometimes it just means you’re going to buy it later and not today. 

To summarize, being a good buyer means being prepared.  To be knowledgeable.  To be patient.  To be thorough.  To be flush.  To be kind.  To be disciplined.