Customs $XX.XX Invested and Selling

He's not saying it was a GOOD investment.

 

If I were to add up all the money I spent in the last 10yrs on my ride including including "research and development" to make it reliable, it would probably be 50% more than its worth today. Luckly I plan on keeping it.

 

i've always been rather skeptical of stated amounts invested and disgusted by the frequency that guys announce it.... i always thought that being a "hot rod" guy was more about enjoying the various processes of building your own car, not slapping a price tag on it.... there's always gonna be guys who have to know the cash value of everything they own... i don't give a fuck how much you paid for something, high or low. does the sonofabitch make you HAPPY when you drive it? do you get a chubby just SITTING in it? or is it just another piece of merchandise in your estate inventory waiting for you to die so it can make book on what you think it's worth? which, BTW, won't much matter THEN, except to your heirs.

 

Funny thing is I know a guy with a body shop and every year he does a few cars for himself to resale. I know on a couple of situations where he bought a fixer upper and was offered 3000 dollar profit as it was. Then he would get the cars done and play hell to break even. Its about profit not how much it sells for when your in business. Also not how much you make but how much you keep. My 2 cents.

 

I knew a smart body shop owner who would buy a fixer upper like a 66 Mustang or 68 Camaro and put it out front for sale at a profit. Then make even more profit fixing and painting it for the happy buyer. On a time and materials basis of course.

 

They always seem to make money on those tv shows where they chop and rat rod and flip cars. not sure of the name of it, but it cracks me up how they always have someone walking through the door at the last minute to hand them $25k for that 5K rambler they bought to save the show and the business. haha whatever

 

Thats just good business. I know hes done some deals like that.

 

"Build cost" might be a more accurate term as anyone who has built cars knows darn well you will almost never get your money back, so best have a ton of fun with it.

 

I have a photo album of pics that I've taken since 1972 of several hundred vehicles I've bought and sold. Through wheeling and dealing I've learned what it takes to make money and how to lose money too. I bought my first car at 14, a 62 Impala for 25 bucks, put a freebie motor and trans in it and drove it to school. Sold it a few months later for 300. I was hooked.

If you buy the car for a good deal and can do most of the work yourself and decide to turn it, you can make money. But you gotta know how to do it and that takes years and you also have to learn how to deal with idiots.

I learned that you make money when you buy the car. Getting good deal is essential to making money. Of course you have to know the game, have the money in your pocket when a deal comes along and know how to sell it. But if you plan on paying for professional build it is difficult to get a good return on the vehicle.

I bought a sedan delivery few yrs ago for 10k. The guy wanted 20 but I waited him out. A month later he offered it to me for 14 I told him I had 10 and he took it. I did few things to it myself and turned it for 20 few months later after I had fun driving it around plus I made money striping out of it too. There is another advantage to my system, many of the vehicles I've bought in the past I've used in my business so 95% of the time I made money with it either way. I made out good on the sale that delivery and added it to my memory collection.

 

Hahahahha


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in the 70's i bought cars for $20 and sold them for $200 and a hour or two of fixing
now i got a few 25K cars that would be lucky to go for 10K
shop tools and equip are worthless too
its a changing world
i keep track of parts in a car, and just enjoy the labor

 

Creating something from nothing has value... to the person who did it. Not to the person in the market for a finished hotrod.

 

It ain't an 'investment' if'n ya pour more money into it than you can sell it for!

Profit 101 - ya only invest a little to make a lot, not the other way 'round.

For 'investment' read 'spent'...

 

I can see none of you guys are involved in real estate or the stock market. Or you wouldn't be shocked at the idea of losing money on your "investments".

These days you might as well take your dough to the track. At least you get some fun out of it .

 

Are you talking that '50 pickup on craigslist?? that thing is a piece of shit!! Either he's lying or he got soaked!

 

No, it was on the HAMB sale threads here...something about $50K invested, selling for $17K...

I just get a kick out of these people who say they've invested so much into them that they can barely get 33% back on their "investment". It makes me less than eager or willing to negotiate on the price. Also, I am not really one to haggle on a good deal, but the people who list their "investments" with how much has been invested, I just pass over as they usually get their panties in a bunch when offered less for their "gem" of a rod. Usually has the generic Chevy 350 and a ton of chrome or rust.

Which truck are you referring to?

 

I have had a handfull of wealthy customers that get a weekly stipen from their business's and they spend money just because they can. One guy said "if I don't spend it I will get a lesser amount" and yet another that his hot rod was going to be advertising for his business. He needed to spend loads of money to "lower the companys tax bracket" you know it's all just a "write off", he says!

I had a customer that had a car that he bragged about having $105700 into. Five years later he came to me to help him dump it because the business had made alot of profit that year and that if he dumped the car at a huge loss it would save him from paying alot of taxes. Said the money he lost on the car is pennies compared to the gains of what he'll save on the taxes. The next year we started building a new car with the same goals in mind. And so it cycled on.

 

This one says $50k invested selling for $12.5k needs paint, engine, wheels.....
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/3312503831.html

 

In my mind, 'investing' in a car is a bit like 'investing in movie tickets, or tickets to Disneyland , or even a girlfriend. You pay a lot of money to have an experience, and have fun, you can't expect to get money back too ?

 

When it comes to cars mostly 'invest' is a weasel word to use when you are telling your friends how many $$ ya actually 'wasted' on your project !

 

I am currently looking for my next hotrod, I answered an add that read 15K invested will take 8K, I thought this has to be looked into. When I talked to the seller I found the seller did not lift a wrench and all the money spent was on over priced labor at a "Speed Shop" when I looked at what was done it was all labor with very little new parts. The car needed in my opinion another 15K in parts with my priceless labor to get it finished.
So amount spent is not always the cost of the parts and you have to look at it that way.

 

I have friends who build the cars that say $100,000.00 spent sell for $35.000.00, these cars are built for people who have no mechanical skills but make a good living. They want a hot rod but what they have the skills to do is make money not build cars, so they pay some one else to do the job. It is no different in the hot rod show circuit, most of the better cars have at least $100.000.00 in them. Those show quality paint jobs can cost well over $20,000. It become about ego when you start trying to win the major awards at the LA Roadster show or any of the Good Guys events. Most of the cars at the Good Guys events are built by someone besides the owner. Believe or not some people have a lot of money to spend on their ego,wheather it be sport cars, customs, muscle cars or hot rods. How can you justify a $50,000.00 dollar 65 Mustang or a $100,000.00 40 Ford sedan? With these people it is all about I've got more than you, or mine is bigger than yours. Look at the houses these people live in, who really needs a 4,000 to 6,000 ft sq house for two people?

 

>>>Y'know, this is why I laugh when Repubs claim we need to lower taxes so that business can survive. If taxes are so onerous, then stop making so much money! lol Nope, no one ever cuts down on the money they make just so they can pay less in taxes--they just make the money and find a way to spend it down afterwards. Taxes only hurt businesses that don't sell a product/service people didn't want to pay for. Gotta spend money to make money.

then again, I laughed at all the people buying 1st houses at inflated market prices a few years back, claiming a house is an investment. Gee, what happens when the market goes up? you sell your investment, and live on the street...or buy a new house, when the prices are inflated. There goes your profit.

The OP is right to post this, its a wake up call for some. They watch one of those TV car shows on discovery channel, and think they can find a rare car for cheap and flip it for thousands. The only person making $$ is the shop you paid to do your work for you.

but, hey, so what? there's more important things in life than $$. money's just a tool...nothin' more. you earn it, you spend it on what makes your life better.

 

there are bad investments if we all did this to make money ! we wouldn't so it must me at least for me the pleasure of it all

 

I guess you could say my car is a bad investment, but I have never looked at it as an investment. If anything its a complete waste of money, but its my waste and I'm having fun with it. I work my butt off running around playing G.I.Joe all the time so I would rather have fun with the money that I make from sweating on a daily basis. The point is not to sell the car, its to learn while I make the car the way I want it and to have fun while I'm doing it. So far its been great fun and I am happy to lose money daily on something that is fun.

 

An old car is a better financial investment than a new car if you buy it right, maintain it, and fix it up yourself. It will probably never be worth less than you bought it for and even if it is, you had the enjoyment factor while owning it.

Sinking $100K into a custom build is like buying $100K new car, in 5 years it will be worth less than half that.

As for the original post-- advertising is a word game and "invested" is a better word to show that the seller's loss is the buyer's gain.

 

One thing I've learned in my life (the hard way) is that cars ARE NOT Investments!!!

and if your in it for money, you aint a real gearhead

 

You invest in a Duesenberg or a Packard. A Ford hot rod is a hobby. Like fishing without the water.

 

Hey - leave weasels out of it....

It has always seemed stupid to me to brag about what is basically stupidity - throwing money away that you are not going to recoup and then bragging about it to the world. It makes not one jot of difference how much you have got in it - it is simply what the market will bear. It is invariably cheaper to buy someone else's spend for cents on the dollar than it is to build your own from scratch. I am a poster boy for throwing stupid money into cars - money I will never get back in a million years, but that's my prerogative and my luxury. It makes absolutely no fiscal sense but I want what I want and if I can afford it and it makes me happy, as long as no dependents suffer economically then that is my deal. You don't have to agree and I do not have to justify it. It's just my bag as they say. But I am certainly not going to brag about it and it makes no difference to the resale value. I am into the cars plain and simple - for the sake of the cars which I regard as the expression of an art form - not the conspicuous display of consumerism or flaunting money.

The world has changed and the older generations are not in touch with the new reality. Since the economy went south in 2007 and the housing bubble burst, people no longer have the $$$ equity to pull out of their home to buy toys. Values of just about everything have dropped and adjusted to real world conditions - not bubble hype. Kids want instant gratification and just about everything is a non recyclable consumer product. If it does not have a use, toss it. They have more interest in electronic gizmos and the latest iGadget and texting to their friends about how empty and meaningless their miserable little lives are than actually getting out and doing something with their hands. Parents and grandparents die and the kids sell everything off in a fire sale just to get some cash. This hobby is being legislated out of existence - sneakily and gradually - by self serving pols whose only agenda is to jump on a feel good bandwagon and create a hot button issue so they can get re-elected to do more of the same - all with other people's money. It's an erosion process and you hardly notice until one day - wham. Add to that - generally speaking - that the younger generations have little interest or understanding of the passion that drives us and it is a recipe for extinction. we are basically a bunch of dinosaurs! So do not expect to get back what you put in - or even a fraction. Just enjoy to the max as long as you can....

 

If you don't think that tax rates affect business, I guess you've never run a real business.