History "Stuff I flipped too Early, 40-50 years ago."

There is another thread on Cars as an Investment, made me remember some parts I bought many years ago, had to part with them to keep funds rolling in. No regrets really, but if I had them today the current projects would be getting closer to done. What slipped through your garage door in years past, that really turned into something of value today?

NOS set of ARDUN heads for $2,500. to pay the balance on the plumbing in the house I built.

ARDUN V8-60 engine the First one that Duntov raced in a Midget on Long Island, swapped for $2,200. worth of Reproduction 1932 Ford Roadster parts.

 

I'd rather have put $2500 in IBM stock back then...if making money was the objective.

But hell, having those heads or that engine today would be priceless! that's real neat stuff

 

I just can't. No --

 

Smart guy that I am...
I decided to start downsizing about 15 years ago. Over the years, I had accumulated over 20 grilles, '32s, '33s & '34s. I was amazed that I was getting $400-$600 a piece for them on Epay...and thought this has got to be the "top" of the market, and we'll never see prices THAT high again...oops

 

I have sold at a loss and or sold early on many car parts & cars but in the end those deals got me what I have and or wanted so as much as those parts would be great to still have I am content/happy with all my deals... except selling my EK Holden sedan, my one regret .

Oh, and here is a photo of V8-60 from PNW 1953

 

Bought a Deuce shell with a Pines insert for $150. Sold it years later for $1,500. Boy was I happy with that profit. Now I own a couple of 32’s and wish I had a Pines. Or sell it now for ten times that.

 

I sold a (slightly) off topic '67 L 79 Corvette coupe in perfect shape with 23K that I had bought new two years earlier for $3000 in 1969. I used the money to exercise a stock option in the company I was working for then. I was able to get out of the stock 6 months later for, you guessed it, $3000.

And then there was the "roller" '35 3 window I gave away in 1972 because of a divorce and loss of storage.

 

I don’t really even want to consider all the stuff I sold too cheap years ago. But, what I can say is that I made enough profit to think I did ok at the time on most of it.

 

Boss 429 block I paid 50 bucks for. Traded it away for a set of pistons and machine work on a 429 block. Didn’t even dawn on me if it had the numbers on it someone needed it would be priceless. 70 Torino SCJ dragpack body in excellent condition, sold it for 700 bucks. List goes on and on. Ugh

 

In the early 80's I parted out a few '32 Ford sedans, was selling complete sets of window garnish moldings for $125 & was happy to get it. Oh, well.

 

My off topic early model broncos I owned. It pains me to think that all those broncos that gave up their nine inch rearends might be worth up to twice the price of the hot rods that received their axles

 

Too many Pontiac parts to list; 421s, 428s, complete tripower setups, 8 lug wheels, countless Muncie four speeds...seemed like a good move at the time. I also remember selling a three side draft setup from a '54 Corvette for $300.00 and feeling like quite the entrepreneur.

 

Not sold but gone. A flathead 60 removed from an OT MGTD that I replaced with MGA running gear. My dad had it taken to the dump when I was in Basic training.

 

A quick ask of Dr. Google says that $2500 in 1980 is almost $10k today. Not sure what Ardun heads are worth today though? Either way it’s probably too rich for my blood!

 

That is how I look at things today, the stuff I sold over the years went for what I wanted then, and allowed me to do things at that time.

 

makes me think of the time about 15 years ago i bought a rusty EB for its 9" , Then scrapped it , thing is it was to far gone at that time, today it would be a 6-7k project (same with a square body about 10 years ago.I bought just for the reman 350/350, scrapped the truck and it wasnt really that bad other than it was a long bed )

 

Sold Too Cheap...Now I Need It Back...

 

Didn't we sell items for the value at the time? So, we sold it for it's worth. And we needed or wanted the money!

 

The $$$ difference doesn't matter to me at all, but the fact that I got rid of something I want back now, but can't afford makes me wish I'd never sold anything car related over the years.
But I did sell a complete subframe I was never going to use last Monday. For 5X what I paid for it 30 years ago... That I'll never regret. The 28 YO buyer is putting it back in a car that came with a similar one in the 70s.

 

Selling wasn't always like it is today. I remember throwing away leftover parts, even new parts, because the vehicle they were for was sold or traded, or circumstances had changed, and because of my urban lifestyle at the time I had no room to store anything. Once upon a time, a classified ad in the newspaper or maybe a special interest mag was all there was....... and that was only suitable for certain things.

 

The ol hindsight is 20/20 regret

 

There was a time when I'd go to a swap meet at least once a month, plus Hershey. Stuff that didn't sell got tossed in a low spot on the side of the garage out back and covered with dirt. Then eBay started, I dug up most of the stuff and sold it.

 

A lot of the stuff I've accumulated I got because it was free or basically worth nothing. Over the years I've found that most of it is now worth less.

 

Oh! the stuff I had...

 

Everything is relative, over the years my dad has sold parts and tools cheap many times to feed the family.

Yes many of those items have more than doubled in price/cost (in my eyes an item's value and its cost are two different things, but he made sure his wife and son didn’t go hungry and I always had a Christmas!

I am also reminded of our very first trip to the Ford Motorsports show/swapmeet at Maplegrove PA.

I was very young 7 or 8, dad had a fair amount of N.O.S FE parts 427/427 Ford parts intakes, cranks, rods, N.O.S. Hi-Po cams some Halman-Moody.

He wasn’t even getting parts out of the truck of the car and people were buying it!

One guy came up to him and said “Your selling this stuff for about 50% of what it’s worth.”

Dad looked at him and said I bought this stuff when it was current it hasn’t cost me any thing to hold on it and no one wanted to buy it in little Grand Gorge NY.”

 

in the early '70s, if you had the part numbers you could get everything at the local chevy dealer!

 

I remember Randy bought out a 1932 stash of parts and there was a pines winter front in the mix, he sold it at Hershey in the late 80's for $3,500 and felt like he hit a home run.

Today the sky's the limit. HRP

 

How about buying a $75 '50 88 ragtop for the engine & taking a year to give the rest away ???

 

No clue when you sold that stuff. But let's say, you sold the Ardun heads in 1976...that 2,500 bucks is equivalent to almost 14,000 dollars in today's money...

 

And that is the reality of it. The Knucklehead basket motor I sold for $5000 about eight years ago is worth about three to four times that in today's goofy market; but the stuff I bought with that money, is now worth about 5 times what I paid for it. If you are not gonna use it, lose it. Never could get that hoarding mentality.