Actually im indifferent I feel the same if its some newer vehicle or a older one. thats s****ped. My hoard started out as parts cars and morphed into what I hoped would be a viable salvage yard buisness. That salvage yard never made enough money and the goverment red tape & paper work and ****py customers & thieves ruined any fun part. Ive found as I get older my priorites have changed. Im more realistic. Ive accepted the fact many newer vehicles are better than the oldies. My wife has a 2004 jeep grand cherokee. Pretty fast for a six cyl. and it has 200,000 miles and nothing but oil changes & tires and one set of new spark plugs. and still a good vehicle. Im tickled that the s**** price is higher than what many hobbiest type folks want to pay. When I sell something I really dont care what happens to it. Its mot mine anymore. The fact is there are still a lot more old projects than there are folks who have the money ,time ,finances & skill to save them. Just my opinion! Old Wolf
Well, when you're trying to sell one and people won't even offer you s**** money for it, it's either this at***ude or lose your sanity.
Probably why I don't do it, then. People say lawyers ruined this era, I blame the bean counters. The lawyer says "this is what could happen" and the bean counter says "this is what it does to your bottom line." There's more to life than that.
I just put a '93 Ford Aerostar on a rollback yesterday morning to be crushed. Brought me 80 bucks from the s**** guy. I don't feel bad about that one.
Im fixing to haul off a couple of 93 chev blazers.and 30 years from now some future car guy will lament about the 93 areostar,s & blazers that where crushed. In my younger days I worked for a car masher. My job was to operate the crusher. powered by a detroit diesel. it had a engine mounted aair compressor. The loader would bring a car up on the forks. I jumped down and quickly removed all the lug nuts with a air impact. The loader man would shake tha car and the wheels would fall off. then he would turn it over and using the forks rip the gas tank off. And place it in the crusher and I would mash it flat. It was great fun. most where common ordinary worn out vehicles. We did mash a lot of mid fifties cars that would be desirable today. I would commonly be allowed get to strip desirable parts off the condemmed cars. I would get crome valve covers four bbl carbs floor shifters and four speed transmissions any speed parts ect. The guy I worked for was a car guy he raced a big block 66 chevelle and drove a new 440 superbird.
Where was everyone BEFORE the cars went to the junkman? A lot of cars get sent to those guys because people... car people, try to get them for a song and dance. How many people have gone to look at a car and tried to screw or barter till the owner told you get off his property? If I had an old car for sale and I kept getting tire kickers trying to screw me out of a $100, I'd get pissed and s**** too. When people get tired of being screwed with, they get pissed and crushing ends the ********. Before the "It wasn't me" crowd chimes in, I'm not saying it happens in every case, but it's happened a lot. So, I don't cry about seeing old cars junked. They were for sale at one time or another and either no one cared or they didn't offer a good price. I worked at a body shop that had a salvage yard. The owner would offer old cars for sale before he s****ped them. Most of the people who came to buy, ***umed that since it was a junkyard, an offer of $500 would be good enough for a car that was worth more. This guy had old Buicks, early 60's Chevys and Fords. He had a guy offer $200 for a first gen RS/SS Camaro. The car was complete! A reasonable offer would have gotten it. I name a lot of examples like that. Sometimes, car guys shoot themselves in the foot. And since I'm on the subject, what the hell is up with people going to look at a car for sale with NO money to even buy it!?! If you don't have the cash, don't waste the sellers time with a "Well, I'm kinda short right now." story. All you do is piss them off and make it easier for them to decide to s****. I just bought a beater and it was one step away from the old guy getting pissed and crushing it. Stop wasting peoples time with your dreams.
It's entertaining reading all of the different responses and coming across the different opinions and at***udes that come out on a subject like this. The reality of the matter is, that cars are like anything else in our consumer oriented world. Something to make use of in our lives and when we are done with it we discard it. We recycle it or throw it away, ultimately things wear out or break. There is nothing that has ever been made by us that will not wear out of break. Nothing lasts forever. It's only natural that some things others see as junk, others just love. Look at the wrecking yards today, in the far future you will probably see threads like this lamenting that all the Kia Rios are gone
you summed it up perfectly. i argue with restorers all the time when they say all cars should be restored not butchered. things change, in the future we will be faced with insurance restrictions, fuel issues, and laws and other things that will dictate what is on the road. most of the cars shown were probably a hazard at the time.
On the TV shows that we either like of just hate. Those guys running around buying items carry a big wad of cash. The Gas monkey (Eddie Munster looking Dood) he commonly drags his trailer along when he is out trying to purchase.. Ive got a locked gate. when someone stops buy If I dont know them its likely they wont even get me to unlock the gate. I usually tell them If you cant show me a $1,000 dollars cash and are not pulling a trailer your not a ready willing & able buyer. I usually get the response- Im just looking today. My response is Im not running a museum look someplace else. Its sometimes a lot of fun to yank someones chain! The fact Is when I price something that price is that very moments price. at a later time it might be a different price. Ive learned many of those that are just looking are looking at what they want to come back later and steal. After decades disrespectful of jokers & wannabe time wasters many of us older Curmudgeons have become jaded & irritable
truckers; deal with traffic. landscapers; work in mud. roofers; are in the blazing sun. plumbers; deal with clogged **** pipes. it's part of the job of selling used ****....unfortunately your tolerance has worn out.
Not much of a test....like others commented she will have a ~$300 pre sale bid. That bid isn't a local iron man. it's Yvette and/or her family. They are in the salvage business. They are SMART salvage people!! and few will see the crusher. Her dad collected tri 5 chevys and said when he retired would auction them off. You could NOT buy one part from him!!! He did auction them off and they sold for good money!!!!! this is how Yvette got into the business!!! Not sure but I'll bet there are some collectable cars lined up on a hill, in Geretson SD and when she retires.......she'll have an auction!
Maybe I'm in the minority here but I love looking at old junkyard pictures like that. Just another reminder of another time and place. Pretty cool if you ask me. On the other topic that spawned from this thread. I don't let anyone in my backyard when selling parts. I've even drug a nasty cutup hulk of a 61 Impala to my front yard for a guy to come see. Thankfully he bought it but it would have been worth moving twice had he not though.
The Proler Steel Recycling shredder here in Houston has gobbled up many a potential and not just a few real hot rods over the years. Many days I drove by there to gaze over the piles of cars and those waiting to join the piles for the trip up to the drop to nowhere and there often were old cars even in the 70s-80s. Old cars to me are mostly pre-49 though it isn't written in stone.
a pic of some crushed cars does me no good....some in a field or pasture still have hope.... I started crushing cars when I was 15 and now I'm 56....and have worked and been in/around ALL the Dallas/Ft Worth area wrecking yards like TFred had said....we wine and wine....but where is the money?....that never comes for these old heaps....most crushers have familys to feed too..
No reason to cry over spilled milk or crushed cars.... unless it's your spilled milk or your crushed car!
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