Is there any merit in former SOTA gear,

In cars a 356 Porsche is an outdated car, but highly collectable.  Many cars could run circles around a TR-6, MGB, heck even a 250 GTO Ferrari.  But still these are highly collectable.....not bad cars at all and many "cool" looking but not SOTA.  It seems that audio gear that is old, is often just seen as old.   There are people that collect old radios, old cameras...etc.  Do former state of the art audio units have any collector value, or are audiophiles in the "what have you done for me lately" group?  I would guess you could say "it is all about the sound", true...but in cars it could be said it is all about the performance and there are current somewhat ordinary cars that will out perform older classics.  The Hudson's that won at Daytona in the early fifties are mainly in junk yards. 

Do any of you have a collection or system of older/former SOTA components?  I no longer have it, but the original CJ ART pre-amp would be fun to listen with again.  I have considered putting together a 2nd "retro" system....kind of thinking out loud here. 

Sorry, slow night.....just waiting for the Andy Griffith reruns to come on.