Have I been under a rock? Seems like the prices people are asking for c-152s is about 10 to 15 thousand higher than they see a few years ago.

Depends where you live. Here in the west it's hard to imagine a more worthless plane than a 150/152. They can hardly get out of their own way in the summer. If you wanted one around here $15-18K is all they're worth.

Well I agree but I use them for flight schools. In the lower altitudes.

Well I agree, but I use them for flight schools in the lower altitudes.

I think the market is flush with unrealistic sellers.

It's very hard to find a really nice tubular gear (C150L minimum) up to C152.

For a flight school, these aircraft generate a nice profit and the basic cost of the airframe is almost irrelevant. A flight school will not hesitate to pay $30K for a C152 if the engine is less than 12 years old and has time left on it. I just had this conversation this week with a flight school owner who's stocking up on C150s and finding them hard to find.

The aircraft marketplace is very efficient, overpriced aircraft that don't bring enough value do not sell.

Buying an aircraft is not about the asking price, it's about how much it would cost you to create the same aircraft. When you do the math that way, you realize that basically all aircraft are bargains, and the heavily equipped aircraft with low-time engines even more so.

-Pascal

I too have noticed this on the 150/152 recently. Saw one for $50k and a nice example, but no way close to what I'd call market value.

If prices really are going up I would say it's a great sign that supply of airplanes is finally reaching demand and perhaps there will start to be a market for new/refurbished airplanes soon.

I've been watching 150/152 prices for a long time.

A few years ago, 152 prices were really insane overpriced compared to a 150 that was just a few years older, and the 152 had WAY more time on the airframe.

I think back in the day, if you were a Cessna dealer, or a CPC, you were essentially "forced" to buy 150s/152s (and others, I'm sure). So you threw the 150/152s on the flight line. When they got to be "high time" (which back then was probably 2000 hours), they got sold off to make room for this years models.

At the end of the line, say around 1984-85 or so, people stopped buying new 152s. In 1986 Cessna stopped making them. So the 152s that were on the flight line just stayed there....logging 1000s of hours over the years, and cycled through from school to school because 152s were 24v (and the Lyc engine with a TBO of 2400 hours), nobody really wanted to do anything different, so they just kept on ticking.

Meanwhile, the 150s that had been sold off 10 years earlier just sat in private hands. People thought that a 152 was "newer" and a 150 was "older", back when that actually mattered.

A couple of years ago, people finally figured out you could go out and buy a 1976 150 for far less than a 1978 152, and it'd have far less time on it. PLUS the 152 fleet had some SERIOUS time on it at this point.

So what had been overpriced 152s has finally crept down into the later model 150s, and finally into the rest of the fleet.

Stout airplane, runs forever on no gas, engine runs forever and a day with no MX, and stone simple to maintain. No fussy fiberglass or special tools needed. You were building hours, so who cared it was slow?

But, it was pretty cozy for this 145lber back in the day, and I'm sure it's even more so today. But I used to fly one that was tricked out to IFR for $35/hr in 1988 (the VFR birds were $29.95), and that was a steal, even then.

Best,
Rich

Thanks Rich. I think your spot on really.

Just think, there are people out there shelling out 100k for that Cessna 152 "reimagined" that AOPA has been pushing. I can't explain how they sold any of those.

Those are for flying schools. If you put 10,000 years/decade on an airframe, purchase price is irrelevant.

A local flight school as a C150M with 15000 hrs that they bought new in 1975 and it still look as good as when I flew it in 1984. Original paint even, ndh thats pretty rare for a trainer.
I cant imagine keeping a business tool for 40 years, that thing as been depreciated for over 30 years.
Its probably worth $20-25k, what would they had paid for it in 1975?

That would take 99.99995% the speed of light such that the 152 ages 10 years and everyone else ages 10,000 years.

I suspect this is over the Vne.

Mike C.

That would take 99.99995% the speed of light such that the 152 ages 10 years and everyone else ages 10,000 years.

I suspect this is over the Vne.

Mike C.