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Just thought I would post some pictures of the projects (I use that term loosely) that the widow still has. None of these cars are for sale at this point. The son-in-law has convinced her that he is going to restore them for the grandchildren. I am also waiting for a pig to fly while hell is freezing over....
These are the cars that I consider reasonably restorable. They all have VIN tags.
1954 - pretty solid car with a 57 passenger car 6 cylinder
1956 - Rough car that was being converted into a replica Ferrari???
1956 - A "little" better shape that the other 56
1957 - This is one that had a tree grown in the engine compartment
1962 - Most of the body work was done on this car, 15 years ago, and now it sits
The dilemma as I see it is that many of those parts have no value unless the seller knows what they are. The knowledge needed to value them is not free. If they hire an expert to tell them much of the stuff is worthless, they will have to subtract that cost from what they get from the stuff that has value. Alternatively they can spend the thousands of hours needed to become knowledgeable about their stash and that is not free either. They are not going to get anything near the true value of their stuff unless they can talk someone into providing that knowledge free of charge. That would seem a huge task for even a generous friend.
Yes, I am her "expert" on valuing and marketing these items. I actually enjoy it, and I know I am honoring her late husband's wishes.
Both she and I are still amazed at the number of her late husband's "friends" that came over to console her, and "oh by the way, let me get that piece of junk out of your way so you don't have to worry about it". They offered pennies on the dollar.
She called me one Saturday morning about 2 months after her husband had passed. Some of the late husband's "friends" were over at her house making offers on some of the cars. This was when she had 60 plus project cars laying around. I was at the junk yard at the time, and I told her not to agree to anything, and that I would be there in 20 minutes.
I got over there and listened to the arguments and comments about how these guys (and I knew some of them personally) were willing to help her out. They "knew she needed the money" (which she didn't) and would do her a good deed by buying some of the junk.
One of the junk cars that they wanted was a 1957 Nomad, complete car with very little rust and a 1964 283 engine in it. This dude had the ***** to stand there and tell her, with me listening, that "even though the car wasn't worth it, he would give her $500 for it to help her out".
I asked her to come and have a private discussion with me. Once we got alone, I told her that the offer was not anywhere near what that car was worth, and that this was exactly what her late husband was worried about. We discussed it and I suggested that, unless she needed money right away, we could do much better than that. She said that was fine but she did not know what to say to her husband's friends. I said "let me handle that part". She agreed.
I went back to the group of guys and told them all that nothing was for sale at the moment. They started to argue when I stopped them all and clearly said "Someone offered her $500 for that 57 Nomad, and every one of us standing here knows that car is worth 10 times that amount, if not more". She is not ready to sell anything, and I will be assisting her in putting values to everything that she was willing to sell, and until that time. nothing was for sale.
One of the guys started to complain that I was the one taking advantage of her, since I could value it at a low price and buy it myself.
The others started to nod and agree when I held up my hand and told them all, "Lee (her late husband) asked me if I would help her value and sell these cars, and not let her get taken advantage of." I agreed with one stipulation...I would not offer to buy any of the cars or parts, and I would not accept any form of payment. I did not want anyone questioning why I valued something the way I did, and as long as I had no financial interest or possible gain, then no one had any right to complain about possible conflict of interest.
They shut up after that, and left soon afterwards.
Long story short, the 57 Nomad brought $6300 on Ebay, and went to upstate New York. And she got good prices on all of the cars, and especially on the Breitling watch that I found in one of the cars.
And then there are the parts, and more parts, all over the place....
These are pictures of the parts in the garage attic. The bottom of the garage is just as full, and there are two buses full of parts as well.
Hi jv04 - That's incredible, a veritable Aladdin's Cave, interesting to see how things were stored into categories, and probably filed away in the Cerebral Filing Cabinet - GV
Hi jv04 - That's incredible, a veritable Aladdin's Cave, interesting to see how things were stored into categories, and probably filed away in the Cerebral Filing Cabinet - GV
Exactly. The late husband knew exactly what he had, and where everything was. I recall being out at his place one day, poking around (with his permission). I picked up a 2x4 intake and carb setup, looking to see if it was for a 56 (it wasn't). I had to move it closer to a source of light.
I put it back in a different spot. A bit later the husband asked me if I had moved anything, like maybe a 2x4 setup. I told him that I had, and why. He was fine with that, but he knew something had been changed.
I got a graduate level education in C1 Corvettes by wandering around his yard, looking at cars and parts. I learned lots of interesting, and in many cases, very subtle details about differences between years.
One that I recall is that the C1 trunk and deck lid hinge stand (the sheet metal part the the hinges bolt to) are slightly different from year to year. Mostly it involved extra holes, which I theorized were for cars with and without power tops (locations for switches).
Hi Ed; it's quite a dilemma to be in, the current owner has no use for the parts or cars, but still needs to realise upon their true value, and there's lots o valuable stuff there; hence I understand your view point of not wanting to let this stuff go for peanuts ; I guess by setting a "fair" price it does two things (a) establishes a price point between a "willing buyer" and "willing seller" - under those conditions the price point set is "fair" and not over the top and the part goes to someone who has a genuine need and (b) if the price point is "set" too low, it just encourages those whose only interest is an opportunistic "flip" to make a quick buck - Cheers GV
The dilemma as I see it is that many of those parts have no value unless the seller knows what they are. The knowledge needed to value them is not free. If they hire an expert to tell them much of the stuff is worthless, they will have to subtract that cost from what they get from the stuff that has value. Alternatively they can spend the thousands of hours needed to become knowledgeable about their stash and that is not free either. They are not going to get anything near the true value of their stuff unless they can talk someone into providing that knowledge free of charge. That would seem a huge task for even a generous friend.
St. Jude Donor '09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17-'18-‘19-'20-'21-'22-'23-'24
Trump will vote for Pelosi for president before the son-in-law, or anyone else, restores any of those as they are now. Hopefully they will realize their best and most profitable option is to rely on someone who can combine knowledge of the cars with knowledge of the market as OP is doing, and sell them off one by one. May take longer than an auction but IMHO opinion that's just too many "projects" to dump on the market all at one time.
BTW - thanks for posting those pics. Amazing! And proof that the old cliche is true - you CAN'T take it with you when you go!
Last edited by Railroadman; 02-16-2019 at 08:16 AM.
The dilemma as I see it is that many of those parts have no value unless the seller knows what they are. The knowledge needed to value them is not free. If they hire an expert to tell them much of the stuff is worthless, they will have to subtract that cost from what they get from the stuff that has value. Alternatively they can spend the thousands of hours needed to become knowledgeable about their stash and that is not free either. They are not going to get anything near the true value of their stuff unless they can talk someone into providing that knowledge free of charge. That would seem a huge task for even a generous friend.
Yes, I am her "expert" on valuing and marketing these items. I actually enjoy it, and I know I am honoring her late husband's wishes.
Both she and I are still amazed at the number of her late husband's "friends" that came over to console her, and "oh by the way, let me get that piece of junk out of your way so you don't have to worry about it". They offered pennies on the dollar.
She called me one Saturday morning about 2 months after her husband had passed. Some of the late husband's "friends" were over at her house making offers on some of the cars. This was when she had 60 plus project cars laying around. I was at the junk yard at the time, and I told her not to agree to anything, and that I would be there in 20 minutes.
I got over there and listened to the arguments and comments about how these guys (and I knew some of them personally) were willing to help her out. They "knew she needed the money" (which she didn't) and would do her a good deed by buying some of the junk.
One of the junk cars that they wanted was a 1957 Nomad, complete car with very little rust and a 1964 283 engine in it. This dude had the ***** to stand there and tell her, with me listening, that "even though the car wasn't worth it, he would give her $500 for it to help her out".
I asked her to come and have a private discussion with me. Once we got alone, I told her that the offer was not anywhere near what that car was worth, and that this was exactly what her late husband was worried about. We discussed it and I suggested that, unless she needed money right away, we could do much better than that. She said that was fine but she did not know what to say to her husband's friends. I said "let me handle that part". She agreed.
I went back to the group of guys and told them all that nothing was for sale at the moment. They started to argue when I stopped them all and clearly said "Someone offered her $500 for that 57 Nomad, and every one of us standing here knows that car is worth 10 times that amount, if not more". She is not ready to sell anything, and I will be assisting her in putting values to everything that she was willing to sell, and until that time. nothing was for sale.
One of the guys started to complain that I was the one taking advantage of her, since I could value it at a low price and buy it myself.
The others started to nod and agree when I held up my hand and told them all, "Lee (her late husband) asked me if I would help her value and sell these cars, and not let her get taken advantage of." I agreed with one stipulation...I would not offer to buy any of the cars or parts, and I would not accept any form of payment. I did not want anyone questioning why I valued something the way I did, and as long as I had no financial interest or possible gain, then no one had any right to complain about possible conflict of interest.
They shut up after that, and left soon afterwards.
Long story short, the 57 Nomad brought $6300 on Ebay, and went to upstate New York. And she got good prices on all of the cars, and especially on the Breitling watch that I found in one of the cars.
02-16-2019, 03:33 AM
Not For Sale - Yet?
it's quite a dilemma to be in, the current owner has no use for the parts or cars, but still needs to realise upon their true value, and there's lots o valuable stuff there; hence I understand your view point of not wanting to let this stuff go for peanuts ; I guess by setting a "fair" price it does two things (a) establishes a price point between a "willing buyer" and "willing seller" - under those conditions the price point set is "fair" and not over the top and the part goes to someone who has a genuine need and (b) if the price point is "set" too low, it just encourages those whose only interest is an opportunistic "flip" to make a quick buck - Cheers GV
