Before Craigslist there was THE RECYCLER

I dont know if any of you rember running down to the store on Thursday mornings to get the new issue of the Recycler in order to ****** up the best deals before someone else.... way before there was an internet..... The Recler is online now (recycler.com) and they still have the paper copies out there. Their biz model has changed a little but there are still the best cl***ifieds out there IMO. Even though most of us probably use Craigslist a lot or the HAMB or Egay it would be a shame to forget about The Recycler. We need these guys to stay around and its probably pretty hard for them to make it work right now in these changing times. Well, They're thowing a Car Show at The Speed Zone in the City of Industry (Ca.) on Oct 24th. And in pure Recycler Style the Entry Cost is absolutely FREE. There's trophies and all kinds of cool junk... maybe even some free mini golf (I think they're working on that). So, if you want to bring your car out and show some respect to The folks at the Recycler... here's the entry form... just print fax or mail... or re-scan and email..or....

 

I used to make a living with the Recycler.
I found out were the first drop was from the printer and would haul-*** to a pay phone that a friend was staking out and would call on the best deals.
Lots of fun.

charlie
Pipercustom.com

 

Yep I use to love reading the Recycler, I was in high-school at the time just hoping to find a deal that I could afford for whatever car I had or a friend did at the time.

 

I bought my first car from that rag.

 

I bought and sold a lot of stuff threw the Recycler, Oh the memeries. It use to be the go to paper to buy and seel anything not just cars.


CBB

 

Every Thursday morning on the way to work.

 

Found my chevy in the recycler one lovely thursday morning in 1997 I've never been quite the same!

 

I also made a lot of money with it. found a lot of really good stuff there.
THANKS RECYCLER!

 

yeah, i remember thursdays new edition.
go to liquor store and pick one up.

i think it was just under a buck for one?

 

I preferred the Diablo Dealer.

 

When I was younger I lived in Flordia and we had the Auto Trader and the Bargain Trader. I would get one of each every Friday and always had one with me like Joe Dirt. I bought many cars and parts from those rags but now I'm a Craigslist junkie.

 

For me it was the Tradin' Times. Got hooked reading my Dad's copies dreaming about "someday" when I was 10 or so.

 

here in australia we had the trading post, when i was uemployed i used sometimes buy a car, take it home and give it a good clean up, buff, polish, etc and sell it out the front on the busy road i lived on.
i used to get to the newsagency at 5:50am to be the first one in the door to buy the trading post and then park out the front of a phone box with a highlighter and highlight all the bargains, then by about 6:05am i would be in the phone box giving all the sellers a nice early morning wake up call.
its kind of rude to call that early here but there is a exception when calling a person who has advertised in the trading post.
since ebay the trading post is just about obsulete and all the bargains no longer come up.

 

Ahhh, the good old days of anticipation, waiting and timing. Now every damned thing happens waaaay too fast. That's my inner curmudgeon coming out!

 

Please read my about me page I wrote 3+ years ago about the recycler , Wed. nights I couldn't sleep . I was like a kid on X-Mas eve ! I bought my Zephyr out of the Recycler , still have the ad even .

 

I don't remember the Recycler, but I remember Yahoo Cl***ifieds when they were free.

 

i remember!!!!

 

My buddy and I bought about 50 VW's from the Recycler! Don't think we paid more that $600 for any of them! Those were the days! It's still around...

 

Oh man, Remember all the free running cars people used to give away!? They were always pieces of ****, but hey! Free running car!
Actually most were late 70's land barges... coulda sold em' for hundred these days... ratrod material. Once got a dodge dart ******* for $100 from some old lady. Ran OK too, but I sold it the same day.

 

ive always been a craigslist person...im 21, so i dont remember the recycler.

 

Can't tell you how many times we would get there and the guy or lady would say "take everything! Just get it all out of here!". One time we went to this guys house who was gonna build a Manx style buggy,til he found out he had to cut the pan! He pulled off the body and the head skratching started. We got a '70 Bug,Manx body,new wheels and tires,exhaust,new seats,6-pt rollbar,all for $1200!!!!!
What a score!!!!

 

i used to work next to a liquor store (rod's in el toro) and used to read them. i also would DRIVE to corona to get the inland empire one because everyone around here only carried the orange county edition. i finally asked the driver and found a place that carried la, ie, sd and oc...............it was heaven. i bought my girls '61 bel air and my '60 elco from it (and still have them) and bought and sold many parts/cars.

 

There's a little community in South Carolina called Hanahan - it's situated between the main Navy base in Charleston and the Submarine base in Goose Creek.

Anyway, they had a free weekly local paper called the 'Hanahan news'. for some unknown reason this paper always had a ton of hot rod related ads, cars, parts, tools, etc. We'd wait anxiously every Wednesday with for it to come out. You had to be quick to get the deals though.

 

$1.62 with tax...use to buy that and the collector car trader every thursday. both kinda **** now. why did they have to go and change everything.....

 

In NY,NJ is was the Swap Sheet.Many good deals and junk and a few ***holes.

 

Picked it up every Thursday morning, then ran to a phone booth. Scored a lot of deals on there.

 

Speaking of Vw's , it reminded me of 2 21 window buses and about 5 oval's I bought out of the Recycler for $800-1500 . I used to hustle Porshe alloys to the VW guys and made a bunch of money at 16-17 years old doing it (Buying them one week , polishing them and selling them the next out of the paper). Porsche guys didn't want cookie cutters but the VW guys did , same thing with 15 and 16 x 6's , Porsche guys wanted 7's, 8's and 9's so they'd sell 6's that fit VW's cheap . Hauling 2 sets to Pomona in my 72 911 I bought cheap in the paper and they'd sell every time . A few 68 383 Chargers for $2500-3000 (still have 1 of them ) 72 FLH for $2600 clean !! 4 69 Camaros cheap , a really nice ****ernut yellow 67 RS conv. for $4000 . I bought a cherry 55 Chevy Convert. for $17K and drove it home (That was all the money in the world to me ) 356 Porsches for $4000 and $5000 . I'm talking back in 1987-90 era , stuff was everywhere and it was cheap . Nice original blue paint 59 Impala for $6000 . I would go to the newstand and buy every edition they made early Thurs. and get home and start calling like crazy (BEFORE cel phones and usually waking people up !) I remember the San Diego edition would get a lot of the old stuff , I don't know how many dry runs I made looking at stuff 2 hours each way away , but also snagged my fair share ! Those were the days , if only I had known enough to be hunting 3 windows back then though !!! Recycler was the Bible . Oh yeah , a cherry , no rust 2 tone 60 VW crewcab for $1300 in Canyon Country one time and drove it home . So many I've forgotten a bunch .

 

Yeah, Thursdays brought
the Recycler, Auto Trader and The Reader. Busy day looking for bargains.

 

Yup Auto trader also , but you had to pay to be in that , deals sometimes but the sleepers were buried in the Resyche as we used to call it . I'd buy L.A. and Valley editions auto,truck,cycle and especially the good one we'd call sportscar trader (the good , old stuff) . I think I spent about $20 every Thurs. morn from the time I was 16 (1985) to about 30 . I kind of remember the Recycler at like 35 or 50 cents and being pissed when it went up to a dollar .

 

The antique and cl***ic section ran ads from all the counties, how about the early years.....the hand gun column......