Event Coverage Value of OTHER PEOPLES Hobbies??

I collect unemployment checks.

 

i've got 18 hand carved wooden goose decoys signed by the beatles. not really just thought i'd interject.

 

One of the big things that keeps cars from being a profitable is the huge cost of both ownership and the tools to work on them. They cost a ton to ship, to work on, to insure, to store and to enjoy. I can't think of any other hobby that costs as much to be involved in, or one that so quickly ****s value out of the commodities it is centered around.

 

Fifteen years ago I spent a couple of hours in Paris, in transit between trains. Went to Centre Pompidou and bought a photo book for like $20, it's a little more expensive now.

I sold four spare photo books I had lying around on ebay, bought a 1949 Crestliner steering wheel for the cash I got.

 

Hey, I've fixed Macs for 20+ years. Now I do it for a living at the company where I work.

It works for me - I do what I love, and they pay me for it. That I can do, but when I'm not at work and I fix computers at home, I find myself just not being able to charge one red cent for it. If I did, then it's a "job" and a "drag", not a hobby.

Go figure.

~Jason

 

I've been told that several of my fairly large collection of hot wheels are worth a lot of money. problem is if I put a price tag on them and sold them they'd be gone and not mine anymore. i like having them so oh well. I'd rather have the stuff I love than try and put a price tag on them. Hey I have two healthy sons too. should I put a price tag on them just cause people buy them. No... why do people start gay *** off topic threads and why did I allow myself to be ****ed in? Is it to boost coment numbers to be the new cool guy with the most comments. After 6 years and thirty comments probably not... after a year and upwards of 4,000 with a majority of " I know what you mean" answers. I think yes. what the hell do wooden ducks and gi joes have to do with hot rods?
johnny

 

I've been an avid guitar player for over a decade, and have am***ed myself a small but nice collection of gear. Just like the car hobby, there is some really coveted stuff that brings crazy money. Vintage Gibson PAF pickups, pre-CBS era Fender stuff, D'Angelico archtops. I stopped paying attention to the vintage guitar market, but several years ago 1959 Les Pauls in Sunburst were bringing close to $80,000. Hell, even my Gretsch would have been over $3000 had I bought it new.

So me and my friend Erin, a fashion major at U of De, were sitting at dinner one night. She showed me her new Coach bag and said that it was almost $500. I said that it was crazy to spend money like that and asker her if she really needed to spend money like that. Since she knows her way around a car too, she asked me if I really needed to spend big money on my 58 Edsel Bermuda tail lights, and that the stock ones I had now worked fine. I understood her point and it changed my perspective. She's into fashion. I'm into cars. As long as you're not spending outside your means and bankrupting yourself or family, then there's no problem with it. Expensive is relative to who's buying.

That said, if you're into this hobby for financial gain, you should probably find something else

 

How about a $500 tee shirt? Some stuff just amazes me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150282529832&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005

(Watch for these at Buzz Rickson or someplace soon!)

Instant collectibles will always be junk, and I hate dealers that put a 'price' on everything.
Having said that it pays to know what floats other peoples boats.

I scored some nice **** for my ride after finding a Patek Phillipe box (no watch inside unfortunately) in a thrift store. $5 down, $380 back. Yeh, I'd do it again.

 

So... what you guys are saying is... my stamp collection isn't going to give me much in return for the down payment on my **** Miller headers for the 330? Time to sell the Lionel train set I guess.

 

Well, I ebay car parts to pay for the car hobby.

I bought my last two projects with other car money.

My 1958 Pontiac Pathfinder and my 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster were financed by a 1981 Trans Am and a 1984 Firebird.

I also have a few T/A's at home and I buy and sell parts to finance my hobby cars.

I buy a parts car, keep what I need and sell the rest. What do you guys do, throw it out?

Say you have a decent, driver quality steering wheel for you car and you buy a parts car with a better one. Keep the better one and sell the driver quality one on eBay for too much money.

Jeez, I love cars too but there's no reason your hobby CAN'T make money to pay for itself.

Just make sure to do your buying and selling on your own terms. If you feel like you "have" to do it then you hobby controls you and not the other way around.

Everyone likes to say they can't be bought or their car isn't for sale or some **** like that but when you get right down to it with cash on the table; You'd sell your car if someone gave you the right amount of money for it. I sure as hell would because the "right" amount is enough to build it even better the next time.

Everything is for sale, for the right price.

Shawn

 

When eBay became a big deal I started selling what I knew, which was mostly model trains and toys. For a while there I had to chase the next big thing, as more and more people found it, some things would stop pulling big money but other things would start. I made some good money off Henry Paul Band vinyl LP's before some European label reissued the albums on CD - even sold c***ettes of some of the harder to find ones for pretty stupid money (that I found for sale elsewhere online no less). And the profits paid for cars. That led to selling cars, and buying more cars. In 2006 I spent most of the year buying and selling out of one yard, trying to get stuff before the crusher.

I find it challenging and fun - it's rewarding to save old cars from being s****ped, and it's rewarding when you sell one to someone who's going to put it to some kind of use. Not to mention the financial benefit. The only place where it doesn't work out is I usually end up spending the profit on more cars, instead of putting one good one together - my '50 Chevy has been gathered up a piece or two at a time, or like when I bought most of the gl*** I bought a pair of valve covers that sold for about what I spent on everything I bought that day, so my gl*** ended up being free.

But it's like a hobby to try to make money here and there. I'd have to have a lot bigger operation to make a business out of it and live off it. It's just been a fun side aspect of the hobby to make some money with it - who doesn't like to make money? I like to make things work out so I get to keep something cool and have no money tied up in it. That same '50 Chevy I bought two cars from the guy, that and a '66 Impala. I promptly sold the Impala, a little more than doubled my money, and I still have the '50. Sometimes it's a challenge to see how far I can go and essentially still have the same money I started out with.

This year has been pretty frustrating, I can still sell things on eBay but they're working to fire all the small guys; at the flea markets sales are way down, and no one's bought any of my cars this year. My buddy's sold a few, but we actually started s****ping some of the really lousy ones to try to get some car money. Or at least have a couple weeks worth of beer money.

But I figure it can't stay that way forever, if s**** is too high for too long it will make the cars we do keep worth more in the long run just because there won't be any more anywhere else. And some of the ones now I don't care too much if I sell anyways. In the meantime, I suppose I could actually get some work done, I finally have pieces enough to get the front brakes up and working in the '50, then I could figure out why it's not getting gas AGAIN and maybe drive it around a little.

 

vintage firearms are fun to collect and noisy too

 

Check out grandpa's dusty old stamp albums if you're looking for something of value. These little babies are worth somewhere between $5 and $10 million each, making them the sinlge most valuable items on the planet for their weight or size. If you want to do the math, they're worth around $200 BILLION per pound!

Cheers, Glen.

 

Quote; Roodinron

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100&#37;" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD cl***=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Ron Mayes
I just love ****in Hot Rods
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Well, stay the hell away from mine, I admit, I do fondle them sometimes, but that's just sick.
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LOL

 

I'm a hot rodder, not a customizer, so I buy Appleton spotlights and sell them for big $$ to spend on hot rod parts. Just picked up a really nice 112, and a NOS 112 last weekend. Ebay here I come.

 

I invested all of my retirement in Beanie Babies. I'll be rich in 10 years.

 

He mighta meant it that way....
I know...potty mouth brain but..He said it, not me!

 

Guitars and Cars are my two hobbies. Flat out guitars sell for more money then cars. I usually pick up guitars and sell them to finance my car hobby. If you know what your looking for you can make some good money buying and selling guitars. Last guitar I bought for $700 bought me a brand new Chevy truck when I sold it. If anyone has an old guitar they want me to value for them or if they just want to sell it to buy some parts PM me.

 

LOL!

"Woodpeckers".

~Jason

 

I have a friend that collects vintage,,,20's and 30's Buddy L toys,,,I could not believe what those thing go for,,,He just sold a Buddy L train a few box cars and some track for over 5 grand!

He has been buying them for 30 years or longer.

He also is a ****er for 1800's rifles and hand guns,,,not to mention knive collection. HRP

 

Friend of mine was selling books and cds on ebay, half.com and amazon.com, was a very nice 2nd income. I have sold books and cd's over amazon and did well.

 

There is always someone willing to pay stupid money for stuff and if you are cool with parting with your stuff to finance another project - go ahead. But, if you start treating your hobbies as investments you can lose the "fun factor". I build for fun, not for $ - but, if the price is right........

 

Odd hobby. I prefer my wife.

My wife and I raise angora goats for their mohair. She does custom dying for the hand spinners and felters out there. I don't knit but I do enjoy weaving and needle felting. I'll sit around and stab at wool with a felting needle and make stuff. I usually do it to relieve stress. I've sold stupid 1" penguins for $15-25 and a couple larger items for more. A friend does dragons for hundreds of dollars each. I've sold scarves and such that are made from my wife's knitting or spinning left overs enough to pay for an engine.

Just like a car, to me the joy is in the making of the item. I rarely keep any of it. I've got 3 shawls I've just made that I'll be selling shortly. My wife has an Etsy account (spinningmoonfarm.etsy.com) to sell her stuff and I'm thinking about jumping on board as well. There are a few HAMBers that have some of my work as well.

 

No need for you to ever sweat about moolah Joe.

If times get hard, you could always move to Detroit and start a squirrel stompin' business.

I know most of you won't get the reference, but Joe will and that's all that matters.

- RBR

 

I keep finding things that I think I can sell to pay my car bills and then end up keeping it all. Vehicle oriented posters are my favorite, and most everything else goes into one vehicle or another. Having double digit trucks, cars, and motorcycles seems to take all my money. Find something really worth something that you don't need, plan on using it to help your projects along, and some good friend will always want it for cheap.

 

I'm hoping my Rat Fink / Ed Roth collection will bring some big money.

 

I have a buddy back in NJ who picked up the hobby of gl***blowing (go figure, he lives in the town of Gl***boro, NJ). he also started collecting locally blown gl*** bottles. One night he showed me a bit of his collection.

"The bottom row? I don't care if the kids break 'em... the top row on this wall (there were quite a few walls covered) will pay for their education!

 

I am an amateur camera buff, I have the first 35mm camera that I purchased while in Viet Nam, every time I upgraded I still hung on to the old unit. I have mostly Nikon stuff and have been told by "real collectors" that I have a small fortune worth of the stuff. I never even considered what it's all worth....I just have a whole closet full of really *****in' old cameras, lenes and stuff that I like.

My wife likes to paint and do metal sculpture....kinda the same thing there, she has art all over the house and sculptures as well. Once again, people who are supposed to be "experts" say we have a lot of very valuable art.

I like hot rods but I really don't care how much mine are worth, I know I have 'way too much money invested to ever sell and MAKE any money.

 

Another funny story:
When my grandmother on the other side p***ed away, everyone picked over what they would like to keep from the house. I was living out of town. Down in the mud room there was an old cabinet with cool doors and drawers. My grandmother and I would always go down there and get an RC Cola from the cabinet to share. It was our special thing together, so I wanted the cabinet. Everyone said I was crazy for keeping it, all brush painted black and beat looking.
So we take it to get refinished, which everyone said I was crazy to do. The cabinet shop did a great job and it was an incredible old piece under the old layers of paint, and worth about $15,000 dollars!
Now I am really driving everyone crazy because I won't sell it for cash.
I am just going to stock it with RC Cola.
Wil
www.sakowskimotors.com
p.s. It ended up that the piece, an old secretary cabinet, was a family heirloom that almost got sent to the Salvation Army. It belonged to my great great grandmother, whose sister was married to Alexander Stevens, Vice President of The Confederate States of America.

 

my friends grandpa sells antique fishing lures...big money there