Vehicles are infamous for having amongst the worst depreciation values of any purchase. As soon as you drive a new car off the lot, you lose thousands of dollars in value. Some cars, after a long slide of depreciation, end up being worth more than they were new. So how long does it take? 25 to 30 years seems about right to us.

Up on eBay we found two very low-mileage 5.0 Fox-body Mustangs for sale, which made us wonder; will 2011 be the year of the collectible Fox?

It’s a trend we’ve been following throughout 2010. The last of the original Fox-body Mustangs rolled off assembly lines back in 1992 (for the ’93 model), which means they are just starting to approach the apex of desireability. Middle-aged men and women are looking to regain some of their lost youth, perhaps by buying a car from their youth. So really, the Fox-body is primed to hit a collectible streak, and what’s more, it’s an affordable-yet-recognizable collectible car.

Just take a gander of these low-mileage Mustangs we found on eBay if you don’t believe us. The first contender is a 1993 Mustang LX 5.0 with a 5-speed transmission and immaculate Silver paint, a dealer-installed GT-40 intake and E-cam complete with documentation. With just over 37,000 miles on the odometer, this car is barely broken in, and has almost the exact same cost as a new base Mustang GT back in 1993, $15,900.

Too many mile and too much money for you? We found another 5.0 LX Mustang, this one from 1990 and with just 21,000 miles on the clock. It is completely factory stock, save for five-star factory pony wheels, and came from a Mustang collection. With a Buy-It-Now of just $12,900, it’s a little lighter on the wallet and, as the eBay ad says, practically a new car.

There are other, rarer Fox-body Mustangs on eBay, including a 1-of-65 Shelby SAAC Mustang (that we’ll save for a later post). But these two Mustangs represent of what we hope will be a vanguard of collectible, affordable Fox-body Mustangs. These popular pony cars are as deserving of a place in car collections as any Mustang Ford has built before, or after. Do you agree?