Is hoarding helping our hobby and actually, what is hoarding?

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing I have against hoarding is that it drives up the price of things we want. I'm glad that the old car parts are being put on shelves rather than taken to the dump, but when you need that part it can drive you crazy trying to get it when someone you know won't turn loose of it when even he know he'll never use it. Back in the 70s I worked at an iron foundry down in Louisiana. I watched so many old hemis go into the smelter that it made me sick. How I wish someone would have hoarded them. Bill

 

If your kids don't care about the crap you "collect", sell it or give it away, you aren't leaving them with a "goldmine", your "good stuff" will be sold for scrap, or just thrown away.

 

If my (future) kids don't care about my hot rods.. they won't be my kids for very long.




"Why are you here little boy?" - Server
"Papa kicked me out when I said I wanted a honda took away my shoes and said I needed to learn to walk on my chevralegs before I could come home." - My ex-kid.

 

Everyone needs a good 'HAMB type' friend that will help out the heirs. I'd say the majority of people (family) know that our 'car crap' has value, so the 'HAMB type' friend can counsel the family on the value of the 'goldmine'.

 

I declared a couple of weeks ago that I was a hoarder and was told that I was just an accumulator.

 

My wife makes fun me...tells me "if you have more than 3 of something, its a collection". So I guess I collect a lot of different things!

 

I just ran across this old thread and I can put my 2 cents on this. When I was living in California I came across cars that people were going to send to the junkyard so I gave them better than scrap price. I ended up collecting 7 vehicles by the time I left most of the time I was trying to get someone to put the car on the road and I did buy/sell/trade for other stuff i needed/wanted but then it came time to move. I asked what was a fair price for what I had and everyone that heard my story thought I was going to take one hell of a loss on the stuff I still had.

I had moved to Virginia and when I left I packed all my stuff and loaded it onto a 21 ft flatbed trailer and brought a bunch of household stuff and 2 cars on the trailer across the country it did meet trailer laws just barely. Once I was back in Virginia I traded 21ft gooseneck for a 3 car gooseneck I went back to California and got the rest of the cars and brought them back. After doing that I had tons of interested people asking to buy the cars for what I originally paid for the cars in California I told them my price and why I was asking my price most all scoffed at me and said you must be dreaming. I figure if I went through the trouble to bring rust free cars to the rust belt and store them inside a large heated garage so they are safely away from the elements then I should be able to get a transport fee for each car of 500-1000 dollars because that is what you would pay someone to trailer a car cross country.

People look at me like I am crazy when I ask say 4,000-5,000 for a car that is rust free with a clean title in my name they dont want to pay what I have in the car. But these same people will bitch and moan about me not selling anything and having sky high prices. These are the same people that will buy the 1,000 dollar totalled car with no engine, trans, or title and patch the whole car up with the 100 dollar hf welder and put a crate motor in the car and by the time it is where my cars are they will have 10k in them.

 

Future hoarder here need more garage space going too build a bigger garage for my disease



Posted from Ar

 

Fuck it.........I keep my flywheels in old pizza boxes...

 

I will hoard my cars until I die and then someone can take over my job to hoard them.

 

Wow. Blew the dust off this one. Does hoarding hurt? Yes. If a person is truly hoarding. By definition, a hoarder gathers with no intent to use, sell, trade or give away. Those are the folks who hurt everyone else. For lack of better words, they're the ones with the automotive vultures hanging outside their shop. "You know **** passed away. Sad. So... what's being done with his stuff?"

I think most car guys gather stuff with the intent to use, sell or trade. When they decide to do either, is up to them. I have stuff I refuse to throw away because I've gotten tired of cleaning house and then 3 weeks later, I'm at the parts store buying something I threw out. It's organized fairly neat and when I need something I rarely have to look more than 30 minutes. I've also sold, but usually given stuff to guys and had the same thing done to me. So, it all works out in the end.

Then, there's the guys who get stuff and will never let it go because they like the attention in an otherwise sad and lonely life. They're just plain assholes.

 

I know what my stuff is worth to me. If it's worth more to you, then I'll sell it to you. If not, I guess that makes me a hoarder and thief.

I will say that I gave a lot more for some of the stuff I have sitting around than a lot of folks think it's worth (see first sentence). I'm sure not selling it for a loss, I'll let my kids do that when I'm gone. It'll all be profit to them.

 

Randy C told me he was buying all the old parts he could to "keep the hoarders from getting them"

 

I have a large collection of OT items -- I have enjoyed collecting and having them, but over the past 20 years prices have fallen... I have started selling some of the off, some at a small profit, many at a loss....
(a monetary loss; I don't count the value of having enjoyed them...)

I would rather sell something at a loss than have my heirs consider it junk and sell it for scrap or just throw it out.....


oop -- 4t6frd said about the same.....

 

Yea, I might rephrase part of what I said. I know that some of the stuff is not worth what I gave for it now, but I'm still not going to sell it for less than it's worth to me (I do give stuff away from time to time though. But not usually to folks that ask for it or low ball me on a price). I guess I should have said "not selling for less than I think it's worth" instead of "at a loss".

And my daughters can tell you the difference in a Panhead, Knucklehead, and Sportster. They've also been around hotrods and race cars most of their lives. I'm not to worried about them bringing in a front end loader and selling by the pound.

Now that I think about it, I guess the grandkids are headed in the same direction.

 

I know somebody that has over 50 original 32 grill shells, He will never use them all so is he a hoarder or collector ???

 

Investor? They're getting higher every day, aren't they?
Better than stocks.

 

A collector knows what he has. He might not know where it is, but has the "I know I have one of them somewhere". And there is usually a common interest and everything is fairly well kept.

A hoarder has no idea what they have but know they need more of it and can't get rid of any they already have.

Big difference. We all have more than we need.

 

Hoarding is a double edged sword. When the hoarder is alive he won't sell or let anything go. Many of the guys say shit like "that's an old racecar and I'm planning on runnin' it one day" or "I'm gonna fix that up one day."

Then the guy dies....

Stuff goes back into recirculation.

Big collections are auctioned off. Remember the Corvette collection sold recently or the latest Chevy dealer hoard being sold off?

Smaller collections are hauled to the swap meet. Then we go through and sort through the stuff.

How many of you guys pondered life when realizing the box of tools or collection of carbs for $5 you're looking at was once sitting in a guys garage and now we are pawing through his possessions? Is this what gonna to happen to all my stuff when I roll a seven? Sad in a way .....You look at the grandkid selling the tools, see pops initials engraved into the sets of sockets and wrenches, and at least for me, realize how damned short life really is. Sometimes I will even ask, "were these your fathers tools" and get a little story about Dad always working on cars, fixin stuff, he loved his garage, and then he got old and couldn't use them anymore.

I told my wife that when I die I want a big hole dug and all my tools thrown in with me on top. That way I will still be with them and they won't end up in a garage sale sold for $19...

 

No..... pass them on.

 

Seems to me a lot of people worry too much about what other people have or what they do (or don't do) with it.

 

My famous Uncle always tells me "stock up now, before the hoarders get it all!"

 

Hoarder is defined as: what a whiney bitch calls someone when they wont give or sell him the hoarders stuff.

 

There is a fellow hereabouts who has a large amount of vintage Olds motor stuff. A lot of it is race stuff from a late fifties to mid sixties drag racer from the area. He acquired these items for free. When I had motor trouble with the Olds in my coupe I approached him about a cam and what ever. He told me that this stuff was worth mega bucks on e-bay. I told him, "fine name your price" Still he refused to even consider letting me see the items.
He is not an Olds guy, he is even putting a small block Chevy in the early Olds racer body that came with the stuff. I do not know if you would call him a hoarder or what. I will not print what I call him!

 

Hoarding both helps the hobby and hurts it. There are different reasons why both.

However... without the hoarding, the stuff would have been sent to the crusher 2 decades earlier and the parts would have ceased to exist at all. That ONLY hurts the hobby, and does not help at all.

There really isn't much else. If you have had a chance to buy old parts, chances are you need to thank a hoarder who had the stuff at some point along the way.

 

Have known numerous "hoarders" that went out and bought cars from all over the country and brought them home, parked them, and let them rot into the ground. One acquaintance even had a car-hauler had at least 30 Model As and T's left outside and turned into unusable junk. That's a waste and a nut case for sure and only harms the hobby and history.

 

too much is never enough

too much equals never enough

 

Folks who "hoard" seem to fall into two categories in my experience. First is the guy who is focused on a particular line of parts/cars and takes every opportunity to buy up all he can. But he shows them readily to his buddies, has a car or two that he has finished and enjoys and it willing to help out if you need something. Our late friend Al Berry was like that. A great guy and a good friend that loved all things Oldsmobile and custom cars. That I understand.

Then there is the second type of "hoarder". One that spends a lot of money buying up all sorts of neat cars/chassis/parts and then paying big money to store them without ever doing anything with them. One guy we know has bought lots of stuff from us, such as a vintage FED chassis, couple of vintage sprint cars in pieces, and never misses a major flea market and buys serious money speed equipment. It all goes into rented spaces he has in two states. Never had a car or even worked on one in the time I have known him. Just don't understand the mind process of enjoying just having stuff piled up in buildings and I mean literally piled so there is no walking aisles, you climb over stuff to move around. He is a nice guy, but won't sell anything. He will offer to "lend" something to you if you ask. You have to wonder what will become of all that stuff in a few years, guy is my age.
When we moved a few years ago, I sold off all my flathead stuff from our race car and now just have my current ride and the parts I need for it. I don't miss all that accumulation, got good prices for it, even gave a bunch to other flathead guys like RonnieRoadster in return for their help over the years. Would it have been worth more to my "heirs and assigns"? Maybe, maybe not. But I do know it is somewhat freeing to finally get rid of stuff. Our move last fall into an apartment to be closer to wife's medical care caused us to simply our life and it feels good.

 

I've seen many cars go to waste because of hoarders, either they rotted to oblivion or they were crushed by surviving family members. I saved a 69 camaro from a hoarder around here who had 30+ cars, the scrappers were there at the same time as I was pulling the camaro out and they already had a ton of vintage tin pre-crushed with there machines and loading them on a trailer, I saw a 64 caddillac, 48 chevy coupe, 59 impala and a pair of econoline vans already crushed up with a pile of other vintage tin stacked up on the trailer, he had a bunch more down in the woods but I was only able to save the Camaro while getting dirty looks from the scrap guys.

 

I knew a guy that was into toy trains. He owned a dealership for years and probably had at least one of everything Lionel ever made, most un-opened or mint. He made a point of telling his wife what everything was worth during his bout with cancer. When he passed all his so called friends tried to steal the rare stuff, offering chump change. She told them to get the hell out and ended up selling everything in about a year at fair prices to strangers answering her many adds. Don't know what she got but I did see her driving a new Caddy before she moved to Florida.