Featured History What is the point of outrageous asking prices for common vintage parts

They want to brag what they own. When the person dies their family gets a dumpster and throws it all away as junk or clutter.

 

Its fun if you always remember...
Sellers job is to screw you out of your money.
Buyers job is to screw you out of your parts.
Don't take it too seriously and anything in between those makes for decent dealing.

 

stainless trim I need is $200 a piece. trim I try to sell is worth $2 a piece not sure why

 

Asking astronomical prices is only part of the problem, it could be worse:
I feared with more tuning I will blow up my Vincent engine in my race bike so went to GB for an advertised set of crankcases to build another engine and try my wildest tuning ideas. When finally arriving in the Midlands I rang the door bell, waited at least 5 minutes before someone came to the door and opened it. Turned out the very frail geriatric chap was the bloke that advertised the crankcases. He showed me his 3 Vincent motorcycles, all very dusted and probably not run in the last couple years and in the next room a long row of shelfs, filled with lots of Vincent stuff. Finally we reached the shelf with the crankcases. There were at least 5 sets. I found the one where a conrod had left the engine - an ideal piece as it should have been cheap and I planned a lot of welding anyway for my ideas. I asked for the price and the man said he had changed his mind after placing the ad and he might need this case for another project..... I left with empty hands, travelled 1000km back home to Germany and still mad about that idiot, I started making moulds to have my own crankcases cast. Now I have crankcases, cylinders and heads with the possibility to go up to 1850cc - much more than the original Vincent.

 

"Testing the waters'' is one that always cracks me up! What, are they selling wetsuits?
Like the item is so rare it's being waved in the public's eye to start the crowd talking.
Gimme a break, just sell it!

 

I knew a guy like that, my neighbor.
He had been hoarding Hemi stuff for years. He would constantly tell me “if you know anyone who needs…”.
So I turned a HAMB member onto him. The guy drove a hour or so down to talk to him.
He didn’t have the time to go look. I guess this happened a few times, the HAMB guy called me.

I called the neighbor.
He wasn’t ready to sell anything just yet.

 

If I see something I have been looking for and it is for sale, I'm buying it !!!!!!!! Prices are usually all over the place.

I made a comment in a thread looking for a specific manifold. I've seen a few for sale but for whatever reason, I never got one. A HAMBer sent me a DM with an offer for exactly what I was looking for plus a lot of extras. I did the math in my head, I knew what the stuff was worth. He asked me what I wanted to pay. He never quoted a price. We agreed and I got the goods. Did I pay too much ? Maybe !!! More than anything, I didn't want to insult the guy with a low number. He probably would have sold it for less but I'm tickled to death with the deal.

 

I don't follow Vincents, but I thought that there are repro parts for almost all of the engine pieces.

 

I've always said that the definition of the perfect transaction is when both parties walk away thinking that they got the better end of the deal.

 

I love the guys that want to offer low ball without seeing a one piece of junk I’m trying to sell . I also get frosted when I hear I p***ed on last week for 1/2 price of what you want . I got so mad over this one time I busted the part in front of the clown , handed him the junk and told here’s your special deal hit the driveway and don’t let me see you lookin at me the rear view mirror .

 

Oh but some of us do

 

Yes there are all engine parts reproduced. But in those days there were no crankcases made. Anyway I would have had to modify them heavily for bigger bearings and stronger walls around the crank and of course cut the gearbox off. Here is a pic of the homemade cases etc up in the shelf. The only Vincent piece is the timing cover.

 

I view it much differently, I view it as making sure the parts get put to use whether I am buying or sell!

A great example is the parts run I made back in May. I was after the 37/38 axle wishbones and 9” Ford.

I sold the Banjo rear and reverse Mercury wheels to a friend, I am in everything for under $20.00 at this point I still have the Model A axle to sell and the parts I need/wanted!

I view the keeping the parts I need as the profit! Many would want people to keep the parts they need ad still make large some of money on the deal!

 

There was a fella here who had a m***ive collection of N.O.S Holden parts, mostly for HG, HK or HT. They made a 2 door variety here (Monaro) which was Australia's first "muscle car" made by GM. (Even though the base model 2 door was available with a 161c.i. 6, with a 3 on the tree, but the "good" ones had a Chevy or Holden V8), so parts for these 2 doors were like gold. He would set up at a swap meet with all this juicy stuff on display, only to tell people that it "wasn't for sale", and he basically just displayed it for people to drool over his collection. I think that after several people had told him to "go and get stuffed" he no longer appears at swap meets anymore. Now hopefully his collection will come out at his "estate sale".

 

There has been talk of Barrett-Jackson I think car auctions and auctions in general total can totally f-uck prices!

Because all it takes is two people with more money than brains trying to out bid each other to completely blow things up!

Remember million and a half Hemi cars?

Think about it this way-

If my b***et hound takes a giant steaming **** on the front lawn and two people start trying to out bid each other and it gets to a million dollars, does that mean every pile of dog **** is worth a million dollars or does it mean two idiots got in a **** swinging contest and didn’t know when to stop!?

 

Heres a cheap Monaro.

 

Why if that’s a Hemi car it’s worth at least a quarter of a million!

 

Some of these cars... can only be hauled to and from shows, for insurance purposes. That is where the original owner back in the day... had the most fun.

 

My buddy has been doing the $1 and $5 5gal pail lately, move stuff low effort.

 

when I go through all of the work to sort, price, load truck with stuff, unload truck at swap meet I don't want to load up and put back in storage. on some price stays but, on most stuff ready to lower price to see it go. money in my pocket better than putting in storage. even have done 50% off and free sections. most recent swap no one buying magazines.

 

A friend of mine talked to the sellers wife and got 2 perfect 32 Radiator shells and one which was extremely nice but possibly an repo for $50 ea.

 

We need a little more information before we can decide who is the jerk.

You didn't tell us if the collector advertised the intakes for sale or not. You only say that your friend, Tom, just fronted up at the collector's place and tried to get the guy to sell him an intake. When he was told they weren't for sale, it sounds like Tom didn't want listen, and got a little smart with his comments.

If that is the case, I think Tom might have been the jerk. Guys don't have to sell their stuff if they don't want to. Do you know how annoying it is to have something special and to have every Tom, ****, and Harry asking if you want to sell it?
It can wear pretty thin.....

 

You and I both know that depends.
Is it a GTS, and are the plates still on it......???

 

If we had a hippo pedal boat, we could find out

cheers,
Harv

 

A couple local hillbillies have car bodies worse than that fo sail at quarter of a million $25,000. One dude ad says "I'll let it rust into the ground before Id take less $$$".... at-a-boy jethro !

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Reminds me when I was looking for Pontiac speed parts to build a 389 w/ 4spd for my A.

I haven't ever told this publicly... not in detail anyway. Story time:

I put out want ads looking to buy specific parts.

One gentleman sent a bunch of pics and when we spoke on the phone, he lead with something like "I have the whole set-up under my bench but it's not for sale." He also explained that he didn't have any projects or money or energy.

The conversation was so odd that he might have been indulging in having something someone wanted.

I remember asking him if he'd consider an offer since he did send pics and call. Maybe there was a price? I asked him what they were worth to him... he hemmed and hawwed and gave me what he thought. I said I'd do that price and drive out and pick them up.

After a spell, he sighed and said, "no, someday they'll worth more." Now I am at the point where I am thinking this guy might have me by the balls and I am falling for it. But, this guy "has the parts" and he's on the phone so what the hell... I go up.

In the back of my head I am thinking, this is why guys run SBCs. I'm doing the mental gymastics about how many 327s I could build for the price of a built 389/4spd.

We sat in a long moment of silence. Eventually, with what sounded to be sadness, he sighed and said no.

Later, after giving up the search and collecting vintage parts for a 327, I posted a pic of my ch***is and drivetrain and he posted "you should've bought my set-up."

That's not the end! Last year he messaged me and asked if I knew anyone who'd be interested in the set-up.

 

The ultimate Troll

 

I had something that a friend was interested in for their project. Being nice, I sold it to them for what I paid for it ($35.00) even though it was worth more. A month later I learned they took it to a swap meet and sold it for $350. Never spoke to them again.

 

Damn. That one landed. What a complete ***hole. On the silver lining, it didn't cost much to get that **** stick out of your life. And as my Dad used to say, "No good deed goes unpunished."