DO YOUR HOMEWORK before buying "vintage" parts

A guy on Ebay is selling a sender that fits the vintage Sun blueline water temp gauges for $125.00 Buy it Know. And he sells a bunch of them.

The original senders are near impossible to find and normally go for $200-250 each.

The ones the guy sells on ebay for $125 are S/W senders from Summit catalogs for $9.99. Talk about a markup.

 

At one time I bought a truckload of those type open mouth scoops that Speedway sells for $19.99. I do mean a truckload as in several hundred of them. I sold them in sets of 3 at a starting price of $40 and even said on my auction "Speedway sells these for $20 each, so basicly I'm letting you have 3 for the price of 2". Mine were made by Jen-e (think thats the name). Anyway, I had one auction go to $160. Before I was even done laughing at the close of the auction, the guy wrote me saying "I see you have several sets, would you mind selling me another set at this price?" I couldn't do it. I let him have the second at the $40 and free shipping.

 

That happened to me with a bunch of $7 So Cal cowl tags... people started bidding on them like crazy, some ended up selling for $30+

You can't point fingers at the seller!

 

Thanks Shakey

 

I hope Speedy Bill doesn't see this....his price just might go up on those.

 

Speedy will probably start listing 'em, with the user name "barnfinds"

 

I would expect Offy made these for years. I would hesitate calling someone a liar based on spending 45 seconds on their auction page...

Parts sell for whatever people will pay...Like SP said, do YOUR homework.

BRT

 

I bought an SCTA medalion from their booth at the LA Roadster show a few years ago for $5.00. I've seen them go on ebay for really stupid money, over $100. Is it the sellers fault, don't think so. Before I found them in the booth though I guy I know tried to sell me one for $50. Now that is slimy. I don't do business with him.

 

I have seen vintage Hurst slicks go for more than I sell new. People never stop amazing me. Always like watching "TV" Antique Road Show on Oregon public broadcasting "OPB". Some people and thier story's ,lots of reproduction and production are very close to the same thing. You have to be ejamicated!!

Cody

 

It's only worth as much as you're willing to bid on it... I don't lie about what stuff is, I just list it and let them bid. Sometimes I get a surprise. Usually, not.

 

In June I bought a complete '34 Ford BB big truck off of a fellow hamber in Montana. I live in Michigan about 28 hours away give or take. By the time I got it home I had almost $3000 between the purchase price and fuel/lodging to go get it. Work's going to sh*t so I had to sell. About a month ago I put a $2200 reserve and a $3000 buy it now. Within 3 days a gentleman took the buy it now providing I delivered it to Ohio, only a 4 hour round trip. Upon delivery he wished it was in better shape?!?! 3 weeks later I see it on E-bay once again with a $4000 buy it now price! It went up to $2400 and never hit reserve. What I don't get is that a prospective buyer can look at the seller's buying/selling history and find out that the truck was just purchased for $3000 less than a month ago!

 

I lost an auction on a Drag Star Hemi intake a few months ago. About a week later the guy I lost to listed a set with 94's on it, the ad said he "had them on the shelf for years". His last two feedbacks were for the manifolds and a lot of 94's. I thought it was funny.

 

I loose on every drag star.

 

Tell me about it.

Would it kill someone to cast some log manifolds? Sheesh.

 

Unfortunately,sometimes part of doing your homework is "paying tuition".
I guess we have all done it.
Another part of doing your homework is asking the vendor a bunch of questions.I always save their replies. Occasionally I have to remind them of what they said.

 

This problem isnt as big as the problem with all the bidders jacking up the bids!!! My God you see pieces of Sh** cars that were thrown together and are totally unsafe (Rat Rods) going for like $27,000. Then you see the damn thing back on in the next week saying there was a dead beat bidder on the last auction and the seller keeps doing it every week. If you cant get real bidders then it obvisly isnt worth what you think it is!!
When selling the parts like the offy pedals I see it as is if you list your item with No Reserve and put it at like $10 or the same price that it cost you then its totally up to the buyer. Thats how I do my auctions. I put almost all of them at like 9.99 and no reserve so what ever it hits is what someone wanted to pay for it and sometimes I get very surprised at the prices.

 

Do you guys really think that that Ebay seller sand blasted and replaced the hardware on that pedal!? I am not letting that seller off that easy.....

Seems like he is intentionally misleading people.

Mike

 

Oh yeah, and he happend to have two....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140185334709

Anyone want to bet he finds another "old pedal"?

 

I love eBay, If buyers don't do there home work oh well, it all helps fund my hot rod projects woooo frickin hoooo

 

really hard to figure out the reason for the tears. just watch the e-bay commercials and it explains everything, the rush of the victory regaurdless of the cost! those commercials look more like special olympic tryouts.

 

I can't believe I'm posting on an ebay thread. Anyway, pictures don't lie. I make it a point to know what I'm buying and others don't. It is alot like gambling, some people get all caught up in the moment and have to "win". I love those buyers, I wish I could sell only to them.
Always check a sellers history as a buyer and a seller. Chumps are usually easy to spot.

 

Some people don't work hard enough for their money,
and obviously have too much of it.

 

If you had read the descrition that was on the first one that went for over $300, the seller implied that he dug it out of his old man's drawer, cleaned it up and replaced some of old nuts and bolts with new stuff. That's ********. I got screwed on a timing tag a few years ago. It was a repop described a vintage used timing tag "from the old man's stash". Negative feedback on E-Bay rules. **** 'em back, I say.

 

Buyers do your homework!
Just about anythig Offy ever made, they still make.
I was looking for a 2x1 bbl manifold & valve cover for my 223 six, and Ebay prices were 3-500$ for a snotty old manifold & 200$ for a valve cover. AND, they were snapped up as soon as they went up for bid.
I went to J&M speed in Corona, Ca. and got mine for 187$ + 123$ N.I.B. from Offy, and the manifold came with linkage.
A buddy of mine in Wa. built a 64 Rambler w/ a 390 AMC, and needed a 2x4 manifold for it. He contacted (As I recall) M/T, and they dusted off the molds and cast one for him along with a set of Valve cover for 500$.

 

Maybe i should buy some new Offy stuff,bury it in the back yard
for a few months to take the shine off,then put it up for sale.

The key words "barn find" and "patina" should be worth another $100 each.

 

He's probably gonna have " his guy " install it for him for another 150.00 labor charge.

 

IS it just me that sees the second one that's gl***beaded looking as though it is cast BR***? The first one looks like aluminum. Are they available in br***? I see lots of parts going for stupid money lately. Individual part prices so high the completed car will never be sold at a profit. Maybe the idiots that are ruining the car hobby will loose a bunch of money and go back to golf or whatever they did before they discovered cars.

 

Dude the seller is my hero!!! You know they say "a ****er is born every minute" I have one of those in my garage that has been polished thats got to be at least worth $500!! ha

 

Right- I've been outbid a bunch of times on used Offy/Edlebrock 59AB heads, but there's just no way I'm going to pay the same or close to the price I could get a new set for from one of the catalogs, especially with heads which could be a pig in the poke. And as far as what I'd really like, something a little rarer, well, what the previous poster said about deep pockets out there is sure true. Not much gets overlooked anymore on eBay.

 

I've been watching Model A rear xmembers on eBay for some time, and a guy recently put one up cheap and it went up to around $160.00, which is about the going price now. He just put up a second one he had, he sounded stunned when he mentioned what he got for the first one, so he said his second one "is outta here." He started this auction at $100.00.

I just scored one for $66.00. Now I get to see what the guy's definition of "light rust" is. Gotta love eBay.