Any interest in a blogging capability here?

[mike_israel]

All,

I was thinking about adding functionality to the forums that would enable interested members to create and maintain personal blogs. Could be things like "adventures of an Amphibian", "Restoration Journal", "Maintaining Your Amphicar", "Vendor Deals of the Week", etc.

Before I spend time and or $$$ adding this feature, I wanted to see if anyone had an interest in becoming a blogger here. There would be not cost to you as a blogger, but only want to set it up if there is an interest.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[BuckeyeFloater]

I would love to see what some of the members have to say in a blog...I just don't think anything I would have to say would be to interesting.

 

[mike_israel]

The forums are now 17 years old (some of the members have been around here from the start). This site was created when I was looking to buy my own amphicar and simply could not find much information about them.

There are times when I debate between further investing in the forums, as done recently with new features, and just shutting it down completely.

In an age of "selfies", I suspect that communities and forums are becoming increasingly irrelevant. In the past year or so, a lot of info that might have once been shared here, or through the iaoc, has moved to a half dozen scattered Facebook pages.

For now,I remain committed to keeping the site alive. Will it reach the 20 year anniversary mark, only time will tell.

 

[jfriese]

Mike,

Please keep it up and lets encourage those on social media sites to get back on the forum. Some of us don't want to fool with social media and its security issues.

John Friese
67 White
67 Red

 

[Steve]

I echo John's sentiments. This pretty well sums up my opinion of Facebook. Thanks for your efforts Mike.
http://www.theirishexzaminer.com/2013/11/why-im-leaving-facebook.html

 

[Gr8cobbler]

I agree that the forum presents a much better structure for archiving information and supporting the Amphicar now and in the future. Facebook just doesn't have any interest in depth or substance, it is almost definition-ally superficial. I'm an IT director and find very little value beyond the simplicity for social outreach and incredible advertising aspect. That said it provides very little to a community like this one. I'm an avid fan of www.thesamba.com , a VW site like this one that is very active. There were a few million more old VW's out there but the wealth of information is incredible. There is no way social media could provide what is there. Blogging happens there via build threads, it's amazing and wonderful.

The challenge here for the Amphicar community is the limited Amphicar Stock for folks to join the club. I chased it for many years and simply couldn't find a machine I could afford or believed I could resurrect with my available time, skills, and funds. My dream died a little when some rich guys got into a bidding war and took a Barrett Jackson auction Amphi over the 6 figure mark. Amphi's that had significantly settled back into earth were now asking 5 figures.

We need to increase the membership and to do that need to bring forth more inventory for folks to enjoy. I was very hopeful that the Fiberglass Amphi kit would materialize. Seemed to be possible and I believe a significantly FG specimen is already swimming. AmphiGill's Finzilla is sporting a new drive system with Hydraulic water drive...should really scoot. It would also increase the value of the rare originals you all are fond of by creating more overall interest. The current market for a new amphibious car starts in 6 figures, I think there are a lot of folks that would enjoy an affordable nostalgic kit that would be far less than half that.

I'm many years into building an amphibious dune buggy to satisfy my obsession with the idea of owning an amphibious machine. Took it for a test spin last fall and discovered more things I need to do but she swam and looked good doing it.

Speaking of blogging......... This is also known as a thread hijack. Thanks for keeping the site active, I appreciate it.

 

[mike_israel]

Speaking of blogging......... This is also known as a thread hijack. Thanks for keeping the site active, I appreciate it.

No worries about hijacking.

The price of Amphicars has indeed gone up quite a bit in the last 5-10 years. I attribute this to a combination of healthy and unhealthy factors.

1. The quality of the existing cars has improved significantly. If you went to Celina 10+ years ago, you would have seen a lot of rather rough cars. Many of these have since been restored and today you will generally find many in very nice condition. Those do bring up the prices of all Amphi's, so the old rule about buying the best one you can find still applies in terms of cost-effectiveness.

2. Parts and services (the good). The price of parts has gone up a lot but vendors like Gordon Imports and others have also reinvested a lot of that money into reproducing stuff that was previously unobtainable. There are now several specialist restoration shops such as Gator's Amphicar which simply did not exist in the past. A specialty shop will save you money in the long run as they are not trying to figure out things that specialists have solved a hundred times over.

3. Parts (the bad). There are a small number of financially well off individuals who have gone on a parts hoarding binge over the past few years. I am not talking about the guy who keeps a spare transmission or stash of parts. These are people who have 6-10 transmissions and other items, who may not even own an Amphicar. Warehouses full of parts. They are simply playing the futures market and do a huge disservice to the community as a whole.

4. Recognition. The club, the internet, etc. have all brought a lot more attention to a vehicle that few people even knew existed a few years ago.

5. The bubble (now burst). A few years ago everyone was sitting on internet money and huge home equity.

The Scottsdale event was an anomaly. A typical Scottsdale event where a couple of guys get into a bidding war to show how has the bigger, um, wallet. You can find exceptionally nice cars for closer to half the 6 figure mark.

Mike

 

[Gr8cobbler]

Good points, guess maybe I'm harboring a little hurt and disappointment that I'm still a wanna be Amphicar owner. lol. As for growing the community I think we still have a bit of an inventory challenge. I also think many Amphicar owners may not fully embrace the Internet. It would be interesting to see what the demographics on owners looks like.

Maybe we should reach out to some of the other Amphibious product groups like Dutton, Watercar, TerraWind, Schwimmwagens, and Gibbs to name a few and maybe even embrace some real oddballs like mine. It might be entertaining if nothing else....