Nah.... it's not your job to police the swap meets!! If you can't check a car yourself you deserve what you get!! I know how you feel though!! I see that a lot at swap meets and have to just walk off and shake my head!
That's when you over loudly say to someone close by "HEY, isn't that that ragtop they made out of a four door a while back? I've got a buddy who is well known in PNW rodding circles who can ruin a liar's day and do it so innocently that it takes the guy a while to figure he was exposed big time.
Why does everyone assume the buyer didn't know anything about the car? Maybe it's his dream car and doesn't need the 'expertise' of anyone else.
I was thinking the same thing. There is a chance (maybe slim) the potential buyer knew it may not have been a "true" rag top but was into it anyway. Like you thought, it seemed like a great deal at first. As you probably know those year convert's can sell for big money, so maybe this was a way for the guy to get into one he could afford? I'm playing devils advocate here i know... On a side note, i do know exactly how you feel as i think we've all seen something like that happen now and then. It's upsetting to say the least when you know someone will get burned, but we can't police the swap's..it's ultimately up to the buyers to know what they are doing... Tony
Hey, If the deal was going down as you invisioned, maybe the buyer was intending to pay with funds drawn on a Nigarian bank account " When Karma runs over Dogma we gotta problem "
Funny how things go. This evening I had an e-mail from a long time friend in Ireland. A mutual friend just took early retirement with a big bonus. For a long time he had lusted after Frank's alloy B30 BSA. Frank had his eye on a '49 Ariel square four. Gerry was so in love with the BSA that he bought the Ariel and did a straight trade with Frank for his BSA. The Ariel was worth about five time the BSA but Gerry didn't care. He wanted the BSA. As I said earlier perhaps that car was exactly what the buyer was looking for. Different strokes etc. Now if you heard the seller telling the buyer it was a genuine '56 convertable that would be another story. Still, its none of your business. Best to keep your nose between your eyes.
If the buyer did indeed buy it, he picked up (according to you) a "clean blue and white 56 conv. for $25,000". He's probably tickled to death. If it goes to Sweden, he'll be the only guy in his neighborhood with one. I doubt the guy thought he was buying a Picasso at a fraction of the price. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is... If the buyer's enjoying it, who cares? Since you didn't hear the entire conversation, and are making a few assumptions, it's possible that the buyer knows PRECISELY what he bought. Let's go with that assumption, and quit worrying about spilled milk.
My guess is that the Swedish guy was buying it for resale and sending it back to Sweden. I'll bet he has a pretty good idea what the car will bring over there. At Pate this year there was a guy from Sweden that bought a friends 37 Chevy project and 3 or 4 more cars. He gave what would be considered top dollar for cars here and seemed pretty happy about it. Larry T
I am not sure that older and Swedish means uninformed or dumb. It has been my experience that a lot of the European fellas have a lot more on the ball than their American counterparts. Maybe he was buying it for resale across the pond as has been mentioned or maybe he just wanted it. I look at it this way, I have always wanted a '56 Chevy 2 door hard top with the 4 door hard top roof. GM never made one but if I could lay my hands on a 4 door hard top and a pair of 2 door hardtop doors I would have one for sure. I would consider it to be custom. Perhaps the older fella is well informed and the thought of a 4 door convertable is just appealing, custom. All that said if I were at a swap meet and concerned that someone was getting taken to the cleaners I may have stepped up. Someone once said you don't have to stand tall in this world but you got to stand.
Don't worry about the Swedes. They are ahead of the U.S. as far as old American Classic's go. They been snatching them up for years, when we didn't give a hoot about them. Won't be long we will be having to buy em back from them. http://www.bigmeet.com/
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