History Old car parts DONT smell like money

The problem with rare parts is is that the people that need them are just as rare. It is easy to believe parts are gold, even for car guys. I know that my stock Henry J take off parts are rare, and that someone needs them, but most guys with Henry Js are doing the same thing to theirs, and taking off the same parts. So I've really got rare junk. American Pickers may like my stuff, but bottom dollar for me is it is cheaper for me to take 100 bucks out of my bank account, haul a load to to the scrapper, and buy a copy of Hemmings than to think I can make a buck at a swap meet. I am loading up a bunch of stuff now,and giving it to A Rat Rodder. If he uses any of it, then its another (car?) On the road. There some things that are worth keeping no matter what,and I will be damned if I let that stuff go at any cost. To convince others can be a Fools Errand.

 

Is that stuff still in the same spots 9 years later?
Yeah, sell it real cheap and you won't have to worry about logging it back home. Fire sale prices.

 

Hi. I will help a bit if I can. Sure I need more but the one part that comes to mind is do you happen to have a locking pawl for a 1946 Chevy Stylemaster Coupe trunk handle?? Mine is missing so I do not have a pattern or I would just make one. I think mine is the round rod with the groove in the center. I may need the spring that goes on the shaft also. If I do not find one soon I think I will just start experimenting with a piece of round stock & see if I can make it.
Jimmie

 

My biggest gripe at the swap meets, a guy has 3 tables loaded with parts and nothing is marked with a price or what it fits.. How hard is a piece of tape with a $ amount on it...

 

I never get mad when someone makes me an offer on something I have for sale. Even if its a lowball offer. I thank them for their offer and state it takes X amount of dollars to buy it. I myself like to buy at my price. Ive even told some folks that their stuff wouldn't be worth half of what they want if it was dipped in gold!

 

My price always depends on the attitude (or lack of) of the person asking. More than once i have given stuff to kids just to see them smile.

 

I give away things to guys who can use the parts-have done it here on the HAMB. Swap meets are a pain-except to buy stuff. Neighbor and I used to go and just sell for a while-then put free on everything-didn't want to haul it home.

 

When I was restoring my Model A a few years back, I used to go to the Pomona Swap Meet. There was this guy there with a trailer full of Model A stuff, a real A-hole. You know the type, fast talker, expert, huge prices for (maybe) restorable parts. I told him I was looking for headlight lenses. $25 each he says and turns to someone else. I wait for a minute and then ask him "Well???". He says he doesn't have time right now so I could rummage through his stuff. There's this crate FULL if lenses. So I start looking. Now, original lenses have a small number cast into them, re-pops don't. I find 2 excellent examples with the SAME cast number. I walk over to him with my $50 and pay him. Not even a thanks. As I walk away I tell him "Hey found 2 originals WITH THE SAME NUMBER!" He starts hollering at me "Hey WAIT A Minute!!!" Sorry I'm on my way.

 

Since I'm mostly living in the past, the prices I put on my stuff is always too low - I see the same stuff across the swap at twice the price. I usually sell most of my junk however.
B.A. King has a point. If a guy has lots of "attitude" he will pay the marked price for sure.
And some people seem to deserve a freebie - I had a father and son show me pix of the car they were building together; basic, low buck DIY Model A coupe, Nailhead powered. I gave them flanges and collectors so they could build their own headers.

 

My recently acquired '56 210 came with a brand new lovely set of Ridler 17" wheels and rubber band tires (uh huh). I pulled 'em off and put 'em on CraigsList for $700. A guy called me and said directly - "I have $500 to spend on wheels and tires, will you take it?" I'm thinkin', Hell no, but he gave me his number and said think about it. Next day I called him and sold him the set for $500. I actually liked his approach, and it worked. He saved $200 and I got $500 toward new tires and could stop fielding stupid phone calls and emails.
Honestly, I guess it never hurts to haggle. I wasn't raised that way but I'm getting better at it myownself. You need to act deserving of a discount though, not like you're entitled to one.

 

= WORD!
Always up to us to dictate things...... Offers are nice, but if your trying to chop off my knees, well......

 

I dont see anything rude about offering a lower price on an item.I have been going to swap meets for many years,as a buyer and a seller,and I seldom pay the asking price for anything.If we can't agree on price I walk away and we are both happy.

 

There is a time that offering less becomes offensive. When someone has an honest price on something and you offer 50% or more less that the asking that is offensive. For example a couple of years ago I had a matched pair of vintage racing carbs for sale. I was asking what about *30% more for the pair than a single was going for at the time. A fella offered me about 70% less then my asking. That was offensive, and there are no ifs ands or butts about it.

*Assuming that a single was selling for $300.00 I would have been asking $390.00 for the pair. The offer would have been about $45.00.

 

My sister called me on Friday and said they were having a "Spring Clean-up" where residents could take junk to dumpsters behind the hardware store and they would take anything and everything that wasn't hazardous. I took a pickup load on Friday and another on Saturday, mostly '49-'51 Mercury parts that I have hauled around to swap meets and listed on eBay with not even a nibble. Pretty awesome to have more space now. Sometimes you have to ask if keeping it is worth the tripping over it.

 

I usually just walk on by these guys even if they have what I want because I have learned that they usually are so overpriced that they are afraid to put out a price. If I have to ask a price for something not marked I figure I can't afford it anyway.
If I see something I really need and the price marked is reasonable, I just buy it, no haggling.

 

What 56don sez!!!Me too.

 

Start putting it on the for sale board right here!
At least most on this board will appreciate it if it's cheap.

Jim

 

Here and Ford Barn. (assuming it's Ford stuff) I've found some great deals on here from fellow HAMB Bros. Promotes and extends Good Will.
Thanks, Fellows. ...And, you're welcome!

 

Funny thing about that, once I needed a piece for one of my old hoppties. I found it in the class ads, and wrote the fella and told him that I needed to round up some more cash but if he still had it when I got my money together I would buy it. He wrote back and asked if I needed it and I said that I did and he asked if I had enough to cover the shipping. I said that was about all I had and he shipped it to me. no charge, just the shipping.

 

An older gentleman (maybe mid-70's) saw my VW and mentioned he had one in his barn that he was thinking about selling, so I went over there a few days later to look at it. There wasn't much to look at; floor pans gone, hacked dash, lots of rust and missing parts, not even a motor. He asked me what it was worth, and I told him maybe a couple hundred bucks. "Oh, but I'm told I could fix it up and take it to California and get ten or fifteen thousand dollars for it." I wished him well and went on my way.

 

yes I've offered less and often given more than asking - like at last week's swap meet....

 

Yup, and then when you do ask, the guy behind the table is just his buddy, "He's out walking around, I'll call him, just a minute" and then you get to sit there and fuck around for the guy on the other end to say "Ask him how much he'll give me for it".

Everything for sale at the swap meet needs a price, and price it to move! That's how you sell shit. I've only done maybe 10 or 15 swap meets but every one I came home nearly empty from.

 

It's kind of ironic this topic came up. I've got a couple tables at a swap meet coming up in a couple of weeks. First time I have ever sold at a swap meet. I'm not young, and I'm not old (in my reference frame anyway lol). I've got some good stuff I'm going to price fairly...... with price and description on masking tape. I've been on a kick lately to get rid of stuff. At some point I won't be here, and I don't want my kids having the chore of trying to figure out what's what and what it's worth. I'm thinking the old saying "he who dies with the most toys wins" is so off base.

 

When I have something for sale, for say, $50, and someone asks "whats your best price?", I tell them MY best price is around $200, but you can have it for 50.
So the "That belongs to my friend, he's gone for a walk/coffee/piss, just wait here and he'll be back soon" phenomenon occurs worldwide at swaps, huh?

 

He asked you what it was worth NOW, not to gaze into a fucking crystal ball to see what it could get after a full on resto beyond his means in California. WTF? People like that drive me mad, you know he'll never get around to it. Besides, if you think you can get someone else to restore a vehicle for you and then sell it for a profit, you are a fool. All you have to do is listen to some of the pros on this forum to learn that they probably work for $8 an hour after all is said and done.

 

I recently sawzalled an OT Mopar up because I couldn't sell it whole as a DAILY DRIVING CURRENT REGISTRATION cool old classic for half the value of what the parts were in it.

I got lowballed and fantasy offers from people. When it got to the point where the asking price was the same as just the four speed setup I decided to kill it.

Then I get all kinds of other assfucks telling how valuable it is/was as I'm cutting it up.

Uh hey, no it's not.

 

Not specific to swap meets, but I used to low ball on car purchases all the time. Go look at a car and get his number, if it stays in the classifieds another couple weeks call up and make an offer. "I see you still have the car, I can't get all the money together, I don't want to insult you but would like to make an offer, I can give $$ today"
Got told to F-off sometimes, got into some strange negotiations as well - what else you got? Bought a $5000 car for $2200 a set of sbc heads and an old shotgun, wondered if I was going to have to bring a live chicken to sweeten the deal.

 

Just have to suck up the whole reality. Older folk with tons of shit, either a widow or widower, swap meet "experts" who are the smartest motherfuckers in the world (as far as they know), and the whole fleabay/craigshit gig. You nailed 'beaner, we can't save em all. I'll be at a swap this weekend with some specific needs, but I'm really fighting the urge to set up n sell. Do I have a table's worth or 2? Maybe, maybe not. I usually stop if I attend a meet and sell nothing. Hershey doesn't count, but 2 local meets that have been historically good for me flipped around to a less than zero sum game. I now buy and don't sell. We all get tired of the Frank n Mike posers who believe we owe them our shit for 1/2 or less so they can make money, and I have less patience for them too. It's not good for me, or for business, spending a day telling posers to go fuck themselves. They deserve it but it's a small world and there's bound to be someone you'll have walk in your door some day. And yes it's also true that some of them will be told get lost then too, but you get it I'm sure. Back to the OP, that was that moment where you gently clear your throat, "...and thank you taking the time sir..." and chalk it up as another one. Add it up this way, consider that every month past 60 days to sell it off lowers the "take" by about 5%. Consider that 1/3 of what you shag outta there will go straight to the dumpster but you have to move it to get the rest. What's that real number? Would he bite at that? Probably not and that's why you say no. Better to pass on a negative exercise like that, it's not there. It's why auctions pile 20 pcs of "new" parts in a box and sell it as 1. Good luck...

 

Yup, can't stand the speculators, ala F&M posers.

 

I was sharing a stall at a swap a few years ago. I had a nice clean Chevy q-jet intake for sale, asking $25 just to get rid of it. One guy is chopping me down to $15... there was another looker. I asked him if he was interested in the manifold, he said yes. I simply gave it to him... the $15 guy, his jaw was on the ground... a Kodak moment...