That bubble has truely burst, and now those same cars are back to pre-pandemic levels.
Hoovies Garage and Vinwiki are two of the most watched car YouTube’s and both deal exclusively with collectible cars. (And tgeee are plenty more similar guys… Matt Farah, he’ll even Doug Demuri is don’t more or less exclusively high end stuff these days. Daily Driven Exotics, Rob Ferretti…)
Hoovie just announced that he is having to sell some stuff to cover debts because his collection has dropped in value over a million dollars.
Used to be those guys could buy some super car, make videos with it for 6 months, making money on the videos, and then be virtually guaranteed to sell the car for more than they bought it for, because the whole market was up 5-10% a month. Some models literally doubled in value or more in under 6 months.
Like they put effort into a vid and it just bombs for unclear reasons. Or it goes great for unclear reasons.
Having your financial health depend on that sort of dynamic seems really rough
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/20/24044533/mkbhd-weighs-in-...
The car YouTubers are just a little behind the curve.
There was a pandemic bubble in 2020 - 2021 where ad spending on video was huge, tech companies increased their headcount substantially, and creators were riding high. Twitch and YouTube were dropping eight-figure exclusive contracts left and right. Those days are over, the money isn't there anymore, and we are seeing the tail end.
My personal hobbies as well as an off-road race we started amongst friends years ago accidentally becoming insanely popular has lead to me getting to know and becoming friends with auto related content creators, TV personalities, and professional drivers through the last decade.
- A bunch of money came in just before but especially during the pandemic and the capitalists want ROI.
- This means the creators don’t get to do all of the fun stuff they used to do, and now have to justify and get approval for projects that they used to just do on a whim.
- Things get “grown-up” quick and the internal culture goes from likeminded folks “just figuring it out” to planning, meetings, and being forced to produce more repeatable and formulaic content on tighter schedules. Sometimes working with brands you do not want to work with, but have to.
- A lot of these deals happened 2-4 years ago and earn-out clauses have hit their expiration. Now they can bail and realize as much gain as they can.
- Some people are leaving because they realize how royally screwed they’ve gotten.
Finally, the whole industry is a grind. I’m only tangentially related to it as a hobby and seeing what my friends have to do seems EXHAUSTING.
Click-bait title.
Then there's Cleetus McFarland which has diversified and taken business to the real world but even they have been pressured by the popularity of 'stupid' auto related channels* to make more jackass style videos.
*WhistlinDiesel
I think just like TV, very few creative endeavours can keep even fans entertained for more than single digit "seasons". Even the biggest pop stars can only keep their parasocial relationships lasting so long. People grow up along with creators, and sometimes creators stops being the kind of person you are invested in following at new stage of life. And like TV, production value of earlyTube is not great, very few worth revisiting, and most are filler "content" not worth remastering.
a few to check out are Dieselcreek, I Do Cars, and Watch Wes Work.
