Been a mostly steady attendee at Sema for the past 20ish years but missed this year because of being buried in the aftermath of the major move thing. Your report verifies the trend that's been visible to those who wished to see it that has been creeping along for some time. It's a function of demographics. Hot rods, as we know them, are pretty much a "baby boomer" thing with some small exceptions. Our cadre is moving into the dying years...........folks don't like to contemplate that sort of thing usually.

A couple years ago, when still in Wa., I saw something that was as stark a reminder as your trip to Sema. There's an active burger stand in Issaquah that host a wide variety of automotive events most weekends of the year, with December and January being the quietest months. The ricer crowd has their event in February when weather is less than ideal for most hot rod guys tastes. A typical hot rod/muscle car event will draw maybe 200 cars if it's very successful, and a fair bit less in the past couple years. The ricer guys had an estimated 1500............in February!!!!! The cars were backed up onto the freeway for nearly a mile working to the off ramp. Amazing!

3 or 4 years ago I started selling off the collection of "extra parts" that had accumulated over 5 decades, and decided to clear out all the project stuff save the one 32 sedan. I knew we were going to make some changes in our life, though hadn't gotten to specifics. Sales plodded along pretty well for a couple years and most of the stuff went away (though I still have a fair bit.....sheesh). Somewhere last winter it was like someone flipped a light switch...........sales came real close to a complete stop. For fun I track advertising and actual sales for certain kinds of cars in the hobby just because it makes me feel like I have a pulse on the health of this nutty thing we do. With very few exceptions of the most prized examples (e.g. genuine 32 Ford roadsters, though there are others) the market is awash with a variety of hot rods that don't appear to be getting much buyer interest. Part of that is driven by the normal human behavior that causes people to see the marketplace as they wish it was rather than as it is. It appears that a lot of the "sellers" (can they be sellers if there's no sale?) think that they can still get 2006 prices when the hobby was at what was likely it's peak. This is NOT to say the hobby is dead today, and it's NOT to say that no cars are changing hands, but it is to say that we're in decline for participation. Denying that is also human nature, folks don't like to think that way usually. Some of us will ride our rods to our dying day and let the chips fall in our absence. We'll see who those guys are that are really in it for the fun........bucks be damned.