So.... Last night I was perusing the local buyers guide which I rarely look at around nine-thirty. In the Antique Cars section I see this ad that simply reads... 1931 Ford HotRod $1600... I grab the phone. The guy answers and I ask if he is selling an old car... he laughs... he says to me "Caller #27"... I ask him what's up... he laughs and says "your the 27th caller this evening. It was a typo and the price is supposed to read $16,900." I laugh. Turns out I know who the guy is, and I've seen the car. He tells me he might put it on eBay. "Too rich for my blood I tell him"... "have you ever heard of the H.A.M.B.??... you should list it there" a few details about the H.A.M.B. are exchanges and we ended the conversation. The reason I'm even bothering telling any of you this is to ask how many times in your lives you thought you found the "deal of a lifetime" only to find out it was not what you had hoped. In all my years around cars, the car industry and knowing people who seem to fall into a pile of pig shit and come out covered in gold I had once again hoped this would be the "one". Between all the "barn-finds", "garage-finds" and bizarro ebay deals I've read on here and heard in other places it must be causing me to think that I could be next. Oh well... at least I got another laugh out of the deal.
That happened to me once when I was visiting some family in albuquerque a few years ago. I was reading the classifieds in the newspaper and it said "32 Ford $3,500" but it was off by one decimal place...
Anyone who says they have never had this happen is either a liar or too embarrased to admit it. Frank
I've got one but it goes backwards....I know an old guy thats got several old Mercurys (he drove a 51 coupe on a lemans chassis). Most of his parts cars were 52-54 models, but amidst his collection was a rough 51 coupe. It was rough but complete minus the flathead and what lower sheetmetal had rusted away. He was building a 53 Merc convert and I thought maybe he could use some cash for his project so I hit him up about the 51. Now this guy knows what he's got, and he knows what these cars bring so I was ready for "a fair price"....so i thought. After telling me that he had a set of rebuilt upper and lower control arms and hubs that went with it, and an extra dash, and a perfect spare decklid, and an extra grille, and a set of repop skirts, etc. etc., I started to sweat....ALOT. So after several minutes of deliberation he tells me that he would have to have at least..(drum roll please)....A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS!!!!! No shit, true story, swear to God. Even came with a clear TX title from a used car lot dated 1956.
When I was 16, which was many years ago, I saw in the classified about a 1954 chevy for sale in the town I went to school in for $100.00. I wasn't allowed to use the phone(parents ran a business from home). I paged thru the phone book until I located the number and got a address. Address matched a car that I noticed around town. Solid car, driver,really nice shape. Well the next day I go to school and go over there during lunch hour. Car is still there. Alright I'm going to buy it. Knock at the door. Guy was very strange and seem very worried I found out where he lived. Anyway it turns out the car he was selling was his parts car parked behind some family members barn. No engine, no tranny, rusted beyond hope for a sixteen year old kid without any car knowledge.
yep happened to me 4 months ago 32 chevy convertable ..1700 bucks on the paper in the window..i was freakin out..when the guy came out to show me the car i opened up the driver side window to notice the missing zero on the forsale sign ..dam..shit..piss..he knows what he has..crap..see ya!
coming at it from the other side, a guy pissed me about on a deal once, so I put his car in the local free ads paper for a very low sum indeed......just to add rub salt in the wound, I mentioned in the advert that I worked funny hours, and could only be contacted after 10 at night...
A few years ago me and a friend spotted two 65 Buick Rivieras sitting in front of a house right off of the highway. We thought surely they are not forsale, since they are right off of the highway, someone has had to stop before. Anyhow, we stopped anyway, peeked at them(super solid, complete, both full power cars), knocked on the the door and a little mean looking old man answered. I asked if the cars were for sale, he said yes and started telling me all about them, finally I asked so what are you asking for the cars......He said $1,000(I'm thinking two grand for the pair, not bad), I said each, he said no for BOTH..........We shook hands on it and I came back the next day with a trailer and the cash.
When I was in the market for a 60's Lincoln my wife spotted one on the road and waved the guy down. She told him that her husband was looking for one and asked if he was interested in selling it. He said that it was for sale and was looking to get about 21 for it. (see where this is going?). She took his number and i gave him a call. When I saw the car it was a '65 sedan in fair but drivable condition. Needed body work, interior and such. I figured it was a fair price and pulled out $2,100. He said, "Where's the rest? The price is $21,000." I put my money back in my wallet and went on my way. Dude was insane.
The year was 1981. I had just bought a very well kept '66 Mustang and all was good with the world. On the way to my girlfriends house (kinda upscale hood) I see a kid working under the hood of a '67 Vette. I stop to check it out. The kid says, "It's for sale. I'm going to college this year and my parents say it will be a distraction." I ask how much? "$2,000" So, I'm sh*tting on myself trying to figure out who can loan me $2,000. I ask my uncle and he says he'll swing it. The next day we go to the house and the kid had sold it. No surprise.
I been fooled a couple times due to the owner's freinds putting a for sale sign in a car at a carshow as a prank to the owner. Prices to these kind of pranks are stupid cheap but in the end you realize that you are even more stupid for asking.
This thread reminded me of the famous urban myth: The almost new Vette being sold by the divorcee for next to nothing. LOL A true classic!
i just got stopped at a gas station here in town we were hauling my buddys ( nitrosquid) 29 sedan up to the shop the guys says "hey , how much are those things worth" we say it depends, why he says " because i know where 20 of them are in a field next to my inlaws" we exchanged cards, and he said some not so kind words about the world champ indy colts ( i was sporting a colts hat) ahhh the dreams of a field full of 32's probably a field full of late 30's chevys tk
I was 15 (some 48 years ago) and I had saved up $400 and was looking for my first car. I heard from a friend that this guy with a fast 56 Chevy 2dr Htp had his car for sale, I called and talked with guys father. He said his son had gotten 3/4 speeding tickets and the first person that came over with $400 got th car. It had a Corvette dual quad motor with 4spd and chrome rims. My dad didn't get off work until 4, so I had to wait. As soon as he got home he drove me to the house. There was another guy and his father at door.......we were second.................the other guy bought the car. Same age, saw an add in the local paper that a car dealer had a 50 Chevy convertible for sale, $400. My dad drove me 30 miles to look at the car. My dad parks the car and we get a salesman. He takes us 2 blocks away to this lot with all the old used cars and this Chevy was beautiful. We go back over the dealers showroom and sit down. My dad has his checkbook out and the sales manager comes over and says it is sold.................my dad blew a gasket.....................but we didn't get the car. Fast forward 13 years. I see an add in the local newpaper for a 1966 HiPro Mustang. Call the guy to verify it is really a 289hp orginal car....it is. This was on a Friday night and guy told me to come over on Saturday. I had a business meeting early Saturday and told he I would be after the meeting. The meeting took longer than I though and by the time I got there they had sold the Mustang.....................it was a cream puff and it went for $1200. I even offered them $1500, but the guy said he wouldn't do it, something about principal....................I told him if the guy didn't come up with the money to give me a call..................the other guy got it.
Actually... this isn't the very first time this has happened to me... that's why it's so funny. I know of a person who went to check out an ad for a 62 Chevy for $600 in the mid 80's... turns out it was a little old widow selling her husbands old car in the back garage after he had passed away. She found the title and the bill of sale for the car. He had bought it in the late 60's for that same price and she figured she should be able to get at least that much for it. He gladly paid her and D-R-O-V-E the car home after pouring some gas down the carb to get it started... the car... was a 62 Vette. Sunnuva...
Check out the 70 Superbee 4spd on ebay for....BUY IT NOW $5,600 if that isn't a typo or scam, I don't know what is.
I called about a 37 Chevy coupe for 35 dollars once...went there it was 35 dollars- and bought it....But my dad made me take it back....Said 35 dollars was too much for that peice of junk. that was when I was 14....Wish I hadn't minded him that time!Ha!
I called on an add in the Recycler once for a '67 Camero Z28 for $700.00. Turned out to be $17,000.00, that was back in the '80's. A friend at work had some buddies of his play a joke on him. They put an add in the Recycler for 2004 Lincoln Navigator for $100.00. They phrased the add that he had won the lottery and wanted to get rid of the car quick. Needless to say he received hundreds of phone calls.
I called about a corvette in the local paper once, sounded like a steal . Turns out it was a chevette. Big differance lady.
This is sort of on the same subject. A couple of weeks ago I put my pro street S-10 in the auto trader listed the price at $5900. The ,trader came out and I got half a dozen calls,and one guy came to look at it .and no one said anything about the price until a buddy called me and said I wanted a hell of a price for the truck. It was listed for $59000. not $5900. The truck sold quickly,I only had one person ask if it was a misprint.
During the late 80's There was this Vette I could see from my back porch in a yard next to mine. It had been there for years. It wasn't my style. I had looked at it from my side of the fence. It apeared to be a '62 it had no drivetrain, no hood, no interior, no chrome. My X wife bugged me about it constantly. I told her by the time I bought all the trim, engine, interior etc.... it wouldn't be worth the cost of resto. I finally relented and went over there. It had one headlight per side.... The people said yes it was for sale and the owner wanted $2500....Hmmm.. I still wasn't that excited. I called the number they gave me. No return call. A couple days later it dissapears and my buddy calls me about a black on black 58 fuelie car that got bought out of a backyard in concord for $2500. He felt about as bummed as I did, when I told him it was the one we had been looking at thinking it wasn't worth bothering with for the last couple of years.
Ahhh...sweet revenge. Kinda like signing up the supervisor who gives ya a hard time on all the naked teen girl free pic sites and using his home email address. Kinda hard to explain to the wife, I bet... dude pissed me off one time and I repossessed a paint job. It was never paid for, so I figured it was still mine and I could do as I pleased with it, even if it was on his 54 Merc. Tal-Strip, a brush, and a quick trip around the car on the Dairy Queen parking lot put a lot of curled up paint on the ground. Next time by god he might pay his bills...
I got suckered into a "deal of a lifetime" about 14 yrs back. '57 chevy Belair. You know the story.... perfect car! Running when parked! We wont talk about everything involved in GETTING to the goddamn car (I still get a nervous tick in my right eye) but it WAS a '57 chevy. I made a positive ID based on the pass. front fender. That fender with a lot of work, could have been a piece of shit! Still though...... ya gotta call, ya GOTTA follow up, otherwise you may just miss it!
There was a really straight 64 Skylark 2 dr sedan witht the 300 V-8 and a powerglide, a few streets away. Original seats and interior, I kept my eye on it. One day a for sale sign goes in it. They wanted $1800 I take a better look--46k original miles, they had inherited it from the wife's aunt. It started and drove like a new car. We agreed on $1,500. They were waiting to have the title mailed to them. A few days later, he called and had the title. I went over there and was told the car had transmission problems. It shifted "strange" and clunked once in a while. They took it to AAMCO and got a $1200 bid to rebuild it. I told them that's how powerglides worked. He said he couldn't sell it with problems because I might get stuck. I smelled a rat. I insisted the car was fine and wanted it. They insisted they couldn't sell it. Then they shocked my pants off. They said we'd agreed on $1500, but since it needed a $1200 transmission, they would only sell it if I'd buy it for $300 and accept it as-is. I told them the tranny was fine but agreed I'd pay $300 for the car.
Still, the one time you don't follow up will be THE deal. My buddy bought a 40 Ford Covertible, solid, but needing restoration out of the local paper in 2005 for $2000. Just like the ole story, it was a wife selling her hubbies stuff, who had met a girl on the internet and left town. The lady said she had 76 phone calls by the time my friend arrived with trailer, and he got there quick. The car later ended up in a divorce dispute with lawyers involved, but my friend had a legal bill of sale, and the judge ruled she had the right to sell.
Here's another: We own a piece of 1/2 acre+ commercial zoned property in the middle of a growing town, on a state highway/main street at a signaled intersection. It's listed for sale. Someone calls and she asks a few questions before getting around to what I know she really wants to know- the price. She asks what the price is. I answer "500" She cooly says, "oh", and asks a bunch of additional questions. Finally, she mentions "500" seems like a pretty reasonable price but is a little more than she has to spend She asks if I'd take $400.00. I said "You do mean $400,000 not $400, right? She starts stammering. I said "you didn't think I was asking five-hundred dollars, did you?" She lets out a moaning-grunt sound like she was just hit with a baseball bat. I said "you really thought $500 was too much and wanted it for $400?" Our call ended pretty quickly after that.
I always keep wanted ads running in various local papers. I get a call from an old guy who says he has a 29 Chevy that was totally restored in the 80's but it's been sitting for 10 years. I ask him how much and he says 6, I say six hundred? He says yes. I get directions and drive right over. It's sitting in the garage and the body is mint, interior looks very good except the headliner is falling down, engine is almost spotless. I ask him again how much are you asking $600.00? Again he says yes. I run home get the trailer and cash and come right back. I count out 6 hundred dollar bills and hand them to him. We get it pushed outside and loaded onto the trailer. I get turned around and start heading out the driveway and he come up to my window and says I think we have a problem. I say what is it? He says I meant $6000.00. I about blew my top and almost drove off. He handed me my money back and I let it roll off the trailer and left.
The Jalopy Journal
