Before You Buy…
It’s that time of year when a collector’s mind drifts into daydreams of buying and driving a historic military vehicle. Whether the object of that fantasy is a jeep, deuce-and-a-half or maybe even a tank, there are few things to keep in mind when buying your first historic military vehicle.
TWO KINDS OF BUYERS
While there may be many subsets, there are essentially two approaches to buying an historic military vehicle: “Impulse” or “Methodical.” Neither is “correct.” Both have merits and both have pitfalls. I will guarantee, though, if you have read this far, you have already moved from the category of “impulse buyer” to that of “methodical” buyer.
To recap, however, an impulse buyer is the guy who wakes up not realizing that by the end of the day, he will be a historic military vehicle owner. The impetus of the impulse might be as simple as driving by a vehicle with a “For Sale” in the window or just browsing eBay during lunch.
Regardless, the impulse buyer doesn’t put a lot of thought up front in the decision making process. He tends to
