dar322

for many...this hobby can turn into an addiction.

dannyman

Really? "Brouhaha"

Saw this coming, right? Pretty much nailed this one on the head!

from Wiki:

A brouhaha is a state of social agitation when a minor incident gets out of control, sometimes referred to as an uproar or hubbub.

Leaving the referenced member out of the original request for clarification of " a hobby ", would have made for an entertaining thread; and no need for the Brouhaha mention.

80Baby

My wife calls my Corvette Hobby an "obsession". She also refers to my Vette as "That Bitch in the garage".

Ironcross

to me the epitome of driving pleasure is doing that in my Vette....which I would not refer to as a hobby......Hobbies are collecting stamps, coins, or Danbury and Franklin models and such.......Owners of Vettes that don't move or rarely could fall into that classification ..... My subjective opinion only

Mark_Milner

I guess I qualify.



I'm sure glad to find out vettebuyer's status as a hobbyist finally. I was always puzzled if he was or not.

lonebull

I built mid to high end street rods for myself & others. What started as a hobby became a second job but it remained- to this day- my hobby. It often feels like an albatross around my neck as I strive for perfection. I bought a 79 Vette 10 yrs. ago- a beautiful low mileage car- but it got away from me. This past summer I bought another low mileage 78. I don't collect cars but now I have 3. I need to sell 1 but I don't have the talent that vettebuyer has- even if selling a car for a profit was the only talent he had it is a valuable talent. His other talents lie in detailing corvettes & that is one hell of a talent. Men like vettebuyer use their talents to keep cars circulating. He also makes it possible for others to make a living by farming out a lot of the work. The additional money I made working for others helped me bring my dreams to fruition. I own my vette from money earned working for other enthusiasts. Vettebuyer is lucky to have been born with the talent to wheel & deal. Sometimes some of us who don't have that talent hold it against him but we are wrongminded to do so. He has earned his spot in this hobby just like I have. If you can take a $6000 vette- pay someone to build a motor for it - buy some needed parts -detail the hell out of the motor,engine bay, & interior- then turn around & make a good profit on it then you have one helluva talent! And if he is doing all the other things he is doing then he is definite a p big part of this hobby. If you can buy a vette- drive a vette- pay to have someone work on your vette- do detail work on your vette- then sell the vette for a profit- then you are one lucky Corvette enthusiast! We should all be so lucky-yes- I am aware that it takes more than luck. You don't have to like everyone in this hobby- you don't even have to like the role they play in this hobby- it's just not our place to pass judgement one way or the other. Like someone said earlier- there's plenty of room for all of us in this hobby. Aslong as each of us enjoys our own role in this hobby we should go to bed happy & wake up looking forward to a day on the road or a day under the hood. It's all about the peace you find in your life through your role in this (or any) hobby. Happy buying- happy wrenching- happy cruising- & happy selling!!! lonebull

jesse10886

Well said

BBCorv70

I don't think people object to VetteBuyer's success (I don't). I'll speculate the problem is probably more with his delivery, comes across as rather arrogant, intolerant of others who don't share the same POV.

lonebull

There are some arrogant/intoleranfolks on every forum- that's for sure. I don't know the man so I should have maybe not posted. I've been ripped pretty good a time or two & it made me maddern than hell but I concluded I wasn't as smart as I thought I was & if I expected any help with my problems- be it vette or marital related- I had best shrug it off & try to get along. It's hard sometimes cause I've been called arrogant & worse but I'm trying hard to stay in line because the information on this forum is like a pot of gold. These Corvettes have so many problems that are Corvette specific &often even year specific. If I get too cocky no one will answer my questons! It's kind of like kindergarten- if you're not nice no one will play with you!!!! I appreciate you folks. lonebull

BBCorv70

Absolutely! The vast majority of people on this board are very helpful, only reason I visit from time to time, offering any help I can or asking for some if needed.

My point is a poster may have some expertise to share in some area related to Corvettes. In this case the person has apparently done well speculating, following what collectors will pay for, flipping, etc. Unfortunately the poster also injects a great deal of personal opinion with the facts, passing judgement on cars which don't meet his standards. One can simply state a modification, non original engine, etc, will devalue the car by some amount, state the facts. This is helpful to newbies. Declaring the car a POS, hideous, or any other form of bashing is more a personal attack.

Getting back to the original topic of this thread, this forum is pretty divided between the purists and hot rodders. Each bought a Corvette for different reasons. I do admire original Corvettes though I don't get too hung up on whether the engine block is original, an exact replacement, correct, is fine with me (acknowledge it DOES devalue the car in the eyes of a collector), but I also find some well done restomods to be rather interesting as well. I personally see the hobby being the act of working on these cars, realizing we all have limits of what we can do for lack of expertise or tools. I can't see calling it a hobby if the primary interest is making money. I don't call investing a hobby.

69 Chevy

Thank you for your insight, BBCorv70.

The crux of my question, that most responders have sidestepped is, is there a dividing line between simply owning a C3 Vette and actually being a hobbyist? That's how I should have worded my very first post but I foolishly used vettebuyer as an example, and most seem fixated on that unfortunate sidebar instead.

First, I'll state my unequivocal opinion that merely inhaling and exhaling while sitting in a C3's driver seat does not a hobbyist make. At some point you had to get your hands dirty. Let's take Rick Hendrick for instance. ( OMG, I hope he doesn't come after me with fire in his eyes like the last person who thought I besmirched their name.) He's one of the biggest Chevy hobbyists around even though he is also a businessman. All he needs to do nowadays is write the big check. Cause car collecting is his hobby. But he started out restoring the '31 Chevy that was his first car and presented it to his father. Look at the way his hobby has grown since then.

And that's where my second point comes in. There has to be potential for growth. To the member who claimed golf was a hobby I say where is the growth potential? To me, golf is a sport. If you are good enough to master it, you turn from an amateur to a pro which becomes your livelihood. And since when is making money considered a hobby?

Jay Leno likes anything that rolls, explodes and makes noise, and his Big Dog Garage offers proof. Its 17,000 square feet are packed with rolling, exploding and noisy things -- most of them four-wheeled, rare and expensive. If he isn't the consummate car hobbyist, I don't know who is. With a reported $25M annual salary, all he has to do these days is write big checks. If you think he doesn't get his hands dirty, check out his video where he gets his eyebrows and forearm hair singed when lighting off one of his steam powered car's gasoline burner. He still had a smile and ready quip. He seems to know about everything there is to know about all his 200 vehicle collection. I'd call him a car hobbyist extraordinaire.

OK, your turn. Next?

lonebull

The rest of tou can keep going with thi topic but this is it for me . Webster defines "hobby" as "something that a person likes to do in his spare time". It sounds like Vettebuyer fits the def. but many of you want to amend the def. to include "& enjoys getting his hands dirty". There is nothing about "potential for growth" in the def. Many of us want to write our own def. but we can't do that because we are members of an OPEN forum. If yhis was a club or a closed forum we could say "to be a member you have to be a true corvette hobbyist & our def. of that is 1. you have to own a corvette 2. you have to work on the car yourself 3. you have to prove to us that you do by showing us your bloody knuckles, your bloody wrenches, & provide video. This question you pose is little different than " who should be the President of the U.S.?" 50% feel one way & 50% feel the other. It is that way in almost every aspect of our lives. As citizens of the U.S. we aew evenly split on almost every conceivable topic or issue. And as forum members we are split as well. BB says its not a hobby if the primary interest is making money but I disagree because his secondary interest seems to be a whole lot about other aspects of the corvette experience. While I am wrenching away this guy is teaching classes pertaining to the corvette experience or detailing a corvette or whatever. Now if BB is right & this guy calls my car a POS then I agree wholeheartedly that is WRONG & I'd want to whip his ***. But I don't have the power or authority to claim he is not a vette hobbyist. The "oil" thread is another example. It proposed a set of standards that had to be met one of which was a certain level of ZDDP. Yet every time the topic comes uo there are a few members who swear by their own particular favorite oil which might have zinc levels far below the defined minimum. truth is we never agreed 100% on the defined minimum. There are some topics we will be forever split on. The topic of corvette hobbyist is one of those. So to answer your original question there is NO dividing line between simply owning a vette & actually being a vette hobbyist. The guy who inhales & exhales while driving his vette has just as much right to the title vette bobbyist as the doctor who can't operate because he was up all night working on his c3 & his knuckles are bruised & bloody. If we allow certain topics to fracture us as a forum we will split & have 2 forums. Then we will find something else to disagree on vehemently & we will have 4 forums. Each time what we once had becomes less & in the end we have nothing. Bottom line- I say he is & you say he ain't & he might could care what either one of us thinks. Each one of us has to decide for ourselves. So who are you backing for President? Maybe we can find some common ground. lonebull- Corvette hobbyist with the tore up knuckles to prove it- just did a motor swap

Raphiki

Hobby is defined as " a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation". That's it. Nothing more. Doesn't say anything about growth or dirty hands. Doesn't care how much money you make or lose. So I guess if you find relaxation sitting in a C3 and inhaling and exhaling, you're a hobbyist. Doesn't even have to be your vette! So, unless this is how you make your living, all of us are hobbyists.

The13Bats

Well well...what fun,
Gotta toss my 2.5 cents in,
A hobby can be almost anything, growing roses, wrenching on cars, grooming poodles or even flipping cars....the way I see it I am in the hobby of car crafting, I wrench on cars, I flip cars and so on, it's for fun, it's not how I earn a living,
I have seen people call something they fail at a hobby just to save face, but I know vette buyer, he is good people and I believe he does car stuff in general as a hobby...so whats the big deal?