Hot Rods Price of original parts, just venting

You are letting emotion cloud your judgement. If there was an item that routinely sells for $1000........and you wanted/needed it.........would you only buy it IF you thought the seller was only profiting a small amount? What if the item came to the seller for free (legitimately)?

Would you refuse to buy it because the exact same amount you'd pay anyone else would be, in this case, all profit? More importantly, what would YOU expect to get for that item if YOU happened to be the seller, not the buyer, in this example?

Ray

 

That's the hoarding problem. I once saw a banger Riley OHV on a shelf. Owner wouldn't sell and has no intention of ever using it. I don't know what anybody can do about this kind of behavior.

 

I know the super secret location of a complete 34 Ford RPU...same story. I'm pretty sure I can hear it sobbing quietly from its shed every night.

 

A. Go threaten him with his life if he won't sell....or just kill him and take it

B. If you aren't a violent person, wait until he isn't home and steal it

C. If you aren't a thief, offer to pay for his Psychiatric Counseling

D. Accept the fact the man has a right to his property and his hobby is collecting
Automotive Memoribilia......and that most of us wish we had something someone
else has, but don't......and may never.

Ray

 

1st don't bitch...work harder. I think the chase is part of the fun. Regardless your part (s) are out there. Ive been involved in car stuff all of my life I know what stuff costs. Costs are relative to the venue... if you ever raced you bought the very best piece available or you were embarrassed. I say embarrassed because your "shXt" ran over the crank 100 foot out. Old cars are similar don't start a 32 roadster restoration with expectations of completing the project for the same monies that a shoebox restoration would be. It costs what it costs...

 

I have no idea why you think this is hoarding. If I own something and want to keep it, what makes me wrong just because you'd like to have it instead? Maybe the pleasure to the current owner is just knowing they own it. Maybe it has some family memory value. The owner doesn't even owe you an explanation. Just "Not for Sale" is all one can realistically expect. Doesn't mean you can keep checking in, though.

 

It does sure seem like a lot of people seem to have entitlement issues on the hamb

 

I spend a lot of my free time looking for old treasure, whether it's here in town or on any road trip. Tell people you meet what you are looking for, and if need be offer a $$$ reward that leads to a purchase. I picked up a wide 5 18" wheel awhile back in an out of the way second hand store for $10, if I hadn't have dug through a huge pie I never would have found it. I have picked trash trailers many times made from early Ford front and rear suspensions for free or next to nothing. The pic below, $40.00

When I go to swap meets of course I look for parts that I need, but my main goal is to buy stuff that I make some $$$ on, that cash pays for the trip and goes into shop supplies and my projects. Sometimes the parts may need a good blasting or a small repair and that is right up my alley. Also make friends with local scrappers, tell them what you are looking for, and if they find an item or items give them better than scrap price, I have done this for awhile, and it pays off.

To me the hunt so much a part of the build/builds, it's great when that part you need finds you or you find it. You can't always get everything for cheep, but hustling other stuff for extra $$ makes stepping up for that expensive part that much easier.

 

I can relate. I have a lot of items that I may not use but like to keep them just because. Like 6 restored 40 clocks--they are all working and in my office or two restored dashes on my garage wall complete with working clocks (when I wind em)-like the way they look. Also an old minty factory 4 spd shifter (59 pass car) and a 58 FI pass car air cleaner to look at (had since 75) and a bunch of 40 stuff as well. May never use this stuff and may go for next to nothing when I ck out but oh well.
I have let some items go to guys that needed them for their projects and given some away as well to guys who really were going to use them and needed them. Just gave a guy a bunch of 57 Chevy stuff he needed and he was very grateful. Also have given away some of it here on the HAMB.

 

You're a good man

 

I am very close to deciding on selling my '49 Olds. But, I really, really hate dealing with buyers. I'm stupidly concerned about what happens to this car. If someone has the money, but has bad taste, it'll kill me if he's a local to me. I'd would HATE to see if cruising around on 24" "rims". Selling stuff is not fun, for some people. Old cars, that you've held on to for a long time, are like pets, or something. I remember when I sold my '56 Olds, I ran idiots off. So, the price often is determined by how much hassle it is to sell.

Regarding the commentary on guys who "hoard" stuff. Please explain to me why some of you folks think you have any say in what someone else owns? If you wonder why prices are high, it's because of that attitude. Like I said, selling stuff is not fun.

 

This is mostly directed at the hoarders, but is also something for everyone to think about.

I find quite a bit of irony that there are guys that claim that they love hot rodding, want to see it continue into the future, lament the lack of young people getting into it, while simultaneously sitting on an out-sized number of desirable parts, thus creating a false-scarcity, and artificially driving up prices.

If you are intentionally throttling the supply of each individual desirable part to the level above a San Francisco mortgage payment, you are, on some level, turning people off of this hobby, or making it just a rich man's game.

We might not even have gasoline by 2050.

Will your precious keep have seen the light-of-day by then, let alone road-duty, or just a smelter?

Yeah, they are your parts, and it is your business, but this is our pass-time, and your learned habits are threatening it.

Think about it. Choose your actions wisely.

Please don't tell me that I should rip out the SBC from my Model A, and put in a flathead V8 when you have 8 verified-not-cracked 24-stud blocks and rotating assemblies in the back of your garage, that you claim you will never part with (another guy I know).

 

Oh, an it is not the selling stuff being hard that is the issue, in my experience.

Each of the gentlemen that I have encountered has directly expressed the dollar value of what he's sitting on, not fully realizing that the dollar value is determined by the SALE of said items, not their mere presence.

You might think that you have $10k in parts, but until you sell them, you have garage ornaments.

 

I see a lot of these parts move form swap meet to swap meet with high prices by the same people and never get sold.

My father like to say some of these parts have a brithday every year.

I am 33 and I hear older people ask why aren't more young people in the hobby (I view it as a life style) part of it is the prices!

 

A friend of mine was telling me about someone with a wall full of 331 Caddy intakes

Tom asked" what he was doing with them?"

The man said "do you know what they are worth?"

Tom said "nothing because there is no fuel and air going through them!"

 

I guess to an extent most of us with spare parts, parts cars, and projects sitting around are hoarders. I prefer being called a car collector and a dreamer.
I recently wrote a thread about the 1939 Ford I've had hoarded away in my garage for 36 years. Many guys wanted to build various customs out of it, even chop the top. Life got in the way; my job with overtime for years, kids, surgery for my wife, me, kids, house payments, car events, motorcycle rallys, camping, and... like I wrote life!

Still for 36 years I've had my 39 Ford stored in my garage. Of course I hadn't even seen it in the last 21 years after retiring. But I assumed it was still there and reasonably happy. When I did see pictures of other 39-40 Fords, and touched them at car shows, my mind wandered and I dreamed of getting mine on the road again.

Just recently my son and a friend drug it out from it's 21 year sleep and hosed it off. That's all. The inside is still dusty with cob webs. The 40+ year old bias ply tires still have 1975 or earlier Illinois air in them. The only real reason it sat was because I put too high pressure radiator cap on an old 55 Chevy radiator and the top tank burst.
I just spent $600 or so on a new alluminum radiator, water pump, hoses, battery cables, etc. Swapping the 1954 Chevy front brakes to a disc set up will be another $500 or so. There will be more expense plus a set of WWW radials on chrome reverse wheels. See I'm not hoarding, I'm still dreaming.
Right now I have my son doing things I can no longer do and spending money I should be using to move. But I'm once again following my dream. You call it hoarding. I call it saving for the future. I have other old cars and parts I bought at various flea markets, swap meets, farm sales, garage sales, etc. Parts I actually looked for and drug home for possible future use. Maybe I'm hoarding. Maybe I saved this crap from the scrap yards.

At my age I may kick the bucket tomorrow and my kids will scrap everything. Too many guys want my junk and know the value. Too few want to pay close to what any of it is worth. The most I've been offered for my 39 Ford coupe was $10,000 and I don't think those guys have $10 to spare. I know roughly what it's worth. But to me the dreams are worth a lot more. So maybe that's why others hoard their old cars and parts.

 

We need guys like you Model TI!
The barn finds many of us dream of wouldn't exist if it
wasn't for guys like you!
Thank you for doing your part to keep your dreams alive,
and feeding mine!
Hope you get in it and drive soon!!!

 

You illustrate the issue yourself, so eloquently, but you leave out a critical detail.

The worth of a part is set by the price that it is sold for. Until a transaction takes place, the worth of a part is in its utility, as in its function, as a part. If you are not using it, it has no function as a part.

If a part has no function, and you do not sell it, it has no inherent or established worth.

Sentimental value does not convert to currency, nor do dreams.

 

I think I get what you are saying, but technically it is a physical thing and does does have some value always even if it is scrapped there is a value in any currency in the world ,but the money buying it in the USA is paper not backed up by anything so realistically the money buying it would have no real value.... No?

 

If you've hung onto a car or part for a quarter century and haven't done anything with it, maybe it's time to consider selling.

If you know for sure you'll never get around to using it and you know your heirs will have no idea what it's worth or how to go about getting a decent buck for it, it's time to sell. A fellow hot rodder would be happy to purchase some of your things for a fair price.

To me as a car hobbyist nothing would be more depressing than knowing that I collected and stored parts for a good portion of my life and knowing it all would have less than zero value when I'm gone. Less than zero value - meaning your heirs have to work for days and days to load all your stuff into a rented dumpster because they know no better way to deal with the situation during their time of grieving.

On the price of parts, I have no problem paying market value for popular or hard to find old car parts. I also have no problem asking for what I consider to be the current rate for the stuff I decide to sell.

 

gimpyshot I saw your similar comments earlier. I understand but everything has a price. Most buyers don't agree with all prices. However somewhere one buyer may think this price is a good deal or needs the part badly enough to give the asking price. As a seller or hoarder we can hold out for as long as we want.
I've gone to swap meets and saw the same parts for years. Sometimes it's just a game. Eventually the price may come down or someone that's looked at it for years realizes he better grab it before someone else does.
I've never owned a 49 Mercury. But found a near mint grille at a large swap meet. It was close to what I figured was fair. Yet I realized I may never own a 49 Mercury. Still that was another dream of mine so I went back to buy the grille. I figured I could always sell it later. The grill had already sold. Obiously someone else thought it was worth the price.
Another lesson. Buy the part if the price is right or you think you will need it. I still don't have a 49 Mercury so it doesn't matter. However if I had the grille maybe I'd bought a Merc.!
I've seen 39 Fords like mine sell for $50,000 and others for a few thousand. So the worth of this part must be somewhere between those two.
As far as my 1939 Ford deluxe coupe, I'll admit it's far from perfect. Yet I'm sure many members here have an idea what it's worth. The price does not really matter at this time because when I get done with it my oldest son gets to hoard or drive it.
A new 40 Ford metal body sells for somewhere over $10,000. Add the price of a new hood, fenders, etc. and you've got a lot of money in a fake 40 Ford, or 39 if you wish.
I don't look at buying and saving an old car as sentimental value. I still call it living a dream. After all millions of guys buy or dream of owning a 32 Ford, making them worth whatever the seller can squeeze out of the others.
If you ask $100 for a $1000 part someone will offer you $50.00 for it. If you ask $1100 you may come close.

 

No discussion of politics is allowed on this forum, so I will pass over the currency issue. Don't start. Just leave it alone, or you will get the thread locked or deleted.

I reiterate, potential value unrealized, is NOT actual value, until a transaction takes place (even if that is to a scrapper), or the item is used for something (preferably its intended purpose).

 

Being a Deuce nut I have collected parts for many years,I have a couple of extra grill shells,who knows if I might be involved in a accident and might need a original shell to repair my car.

I'm gathering parts for a new build and I can go to the barn and scrounge up many parts that can be used in the future.

I've had people want to buy parts from me but offering me less than a reproduction part.

They quit making original 1932 Ford parts 83 years ago and these parts are not cheap. HRP

 

Perhaps not a traditional car by HAMB standards but have a very old friend that has a compete 64 tri-power 4 speed GTO sitting in a 40'-0 storage van for over 15 years. Along with it are several 421 and 389 engines, Tri-power set ups, 4 speeds and a complete original Rochester fuel injection unit from his brother's long gone 57 Pontiac. Won't sell it to me or to anyone. Wants to finish the car himself but sold his home with a four car garage and lives in a town house now. Even told him I'd help get the 64 GTO done for him but there it sits, crying out to be back on the road. He has the money to get it done but for some reason I suspect it never will. Maybe he fits the description of a hoarder...not for me to say.

 

This is getting me sleepy!
I really need a nap.
Was just talking with a Hot Rod buddy.
He just told me he was going to check out a '32 five window
5 miles from his house.
It hasn't seen daylight for 56 years.
Lets all be happy that somebody "hoarded, preserved, saved, rescued
whatever"
If everybody could have one they wouldn't be as desireable and much cheaper.
Keep lookin, and keep drivin.Done!

 

What many of you are also overlooking is entropy. Entropy is not an option. All systems move automatically from order to disorder.

You might say "What the hell is this dude talking about?!"

Your precious keep is also deteriorating, little-by-little.

Everything you have is breaking down. Steel and Iron are rusting. Aluminum is oxidizing. Rubber is decomposing.

Entropy takes it all, in the end. You cannot win against it.

That dude with the 40' container of Pontiac parts may now have a 40' container of unrecoverable junk, before it ever sees the light-of-day.

If y'all are all okay with this, keep it up. It's your stuff.

 

Entropy?...Seriously?

A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.

Good googly moogly man..this ain't a physics class!. HRP

 

Gimpy, yer mah hero. Dead nuts with the previous posts, too. This mentality can be applied to car clubs, as they can be a haven for these folks with this mindset. If you can't afford a top notch 32, and instead build what you can afford, then you're not worthy. I've personally heard the same old timers lamenting how there's no one to pass on their knowledge to so that it carries on.

Seems to me that they're doing the same thing with their clubs and knowledge as they often do with their parts. Nobody said it needed to be for free or without sacrifice. I'm just pointing out the inconsistency. I had a local club mention lack of members under 50, and gave me his card. I emailed him after the show along with my build thread. He acted like we never met and said "thanks but no thanks."

 

My purpose of commenting here is not to argue with you guys.

My purpose is to point out that there is a pattern of behavior in some people, when taken to its extreme, is having a detrimental effect on our hobby/sport/pass-time/lifestyle.

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything.

I just want you to think about it, and then base your actions on whatever you decide is best for both yourself, and hot rodding.

 

Okay, the how about y'all's sh!t is rustin'.

Better?