Not corvettes, but i used to shot shotguns in competition, my last Perazzi, which was not overly engraved or any thing, just a off the shelf gun, that i bought was over $12,000.

A lot of shotguns were MUCH more than that.

Trust me, there were a lot of wives that had no idea how much there husbands paid for there guns.

 

I have never seen the episode but have heard folks talking about it for the last year or two.

 

It's awfully presumptuous of you to shoot down these stories w/ no first hand information of the events. Instead of calling BS, perhaps you should have just asked the questions. I'll answer them for you.
1. She didn't have an interest in the sports cars, and didn't control the money when he bought it.

2. Their law firm handled the sale, and as I recall, one of the minions dispatched to gather information on the items mis-identified the car as a Fiat, with a value of $5000.

3. One of the children knew what it was, but lived out of state and did not follow the intricate details of the sale. They knew it was for sale, and just assumed that the law firm was competent in that it would establish a fair value for the car. The child was not involved or consulted in the details of the inventory or the newspaper ad. No neighbors were mentioned.

4. As stated above, she knew it was an Italian sports car, wasn't sure kind. I'm guessing it must have been stored off site because she said it normally wasn't around, but was brought to their house for the sale, along with a motorcycle and another car.

It is pure speculation on my part that he could have also owned a fiat and that the person who inventoried the items got information on the wrong car if they didn't know any better.

If you don't believe it Larry, fine, but don't call people a liar if you have no proof or first hand information to support your accusation.

 

This episode always generates a response here!

 

Yes..I have seen a red Early C4 vette in there parking lot on the show.....Perhaps that his car then.

 

the car, no matter how many miles didnt deserve to have 2 dead pigs put in it. it was the twin of my car, a silver 84. that episode made me so mad.

 

I heard all these stories groing up, only the nameplate changes ( Cadillac, Vette, Lincoln, etc)

 

Don't know if you have ever heard of it, but there is a website that specializes in "urban legends" or "myths"....called www.snopes.com

Check this out:

http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/deadson.asp

Sounds familiar huh?

 

Here's the dead body one....

http://www.snopes.com/autos/cursed/deathcar.asp

 

I heard the same story, but this time the car was a `70 Boss 429 Mustang, & the wife sold it to some guy for $400, & sent him half

 

I have no problem with keeping my vehicles clean, no garbage or rotting corpses in there. But I actually know someone who bought an old car for dirt cheap because the old lady didnt know how much the car was worth, so yes it does happen. It was an old light blue 1976 Ford Maverick for $300 with only like 30K miles and it was in nice condition. All it needed was a new distributor cap. Not quite a sports car but it did have a Straight 6.

 

In 1987 we got a 1965 Galaxie 500 LTD 2 door w/ a 390 and air for $500. Had 58k miles. All original, original owner (deceased). Bought it from her son along with the house.

 

They didnt die IN the house did they? lol i'm just messin, but speaking of mythbusters, its coming on right now....

 

 

I've heard the same stories probably half a dozen times, just the type of car changes.

A friend I went to high school with did buy a '49 Ford 2 door sedan from his elderly neighbor who was told by his doctor not to drive anymore. Paid $600 for it back in '74-'75. It was a nice car, needed cleaning up. It had a 6 cylinder, 3 speed on the column. All he did to it was put a set of Cragars on it, drove it for several years during the Summers. Just a good old car.

 

Ironically, I started this thread and have a bit of a "Corvette good deal" story myself.

In November of 2003 my beloved pet of 9 years, a large male Rottweiler who grew up with my Son and was like a second Son to me had a heart attack and died. This sadness sent me in search of something to fill the void. I decided I wanted another race car.

A next door neighbor of mine had a nice balanced 383 stroker on a stand that I had helped build and it was to go into his 71 Nova. Long story short he wrecked the Nova and was selling the motor and offered it to me fairly cheap.

I started looking for a good body to drop the stroker in and my search led me to ebay. I was looking at old Camaros and what not and I just decided to look at Corvettes again. I had owned an 84 before so I started looking at C4's. I was looking for a fixer upper with either a bad motor or no motor. Three days before Christmas I ran across the 90 thats now in my garage. It was a three day, no reserve auction on a Florida car and it looked beautiful in the pics. It was owned by a seller with great ebay feedback and it was advertised as " Only 76,000 original pampered miles, been in storage, divorce forces sale, possibly a bad motor as it leaked antifreeze like crazy from the engine block when taken out of storage". The auction was at $1200 when I came across it and I watched it for three days and it only went up to $1850. It was Christmas eve and the last couple of hours it only went up to $2500 and stopped so I got excited and decided to bid. Being a seasoned ebayer I set my stopwatch and sniped the auction with 22 seconds left and bid $3001.01 and to my amazement I was the winner! The next highest bidder had bid $3000.00.So I basically won the auction by $1.01.

Wait, the story gets better...

I made contact with the seller and made arrangements for shipping to Texas to my driveway for $500. A week later a huge auto transport truck pulled up to my house and honked it's horn. I was delighted to see what looked to be a pristine C4 on the truck. I was all set with my garage ready and was all expecting to have to push the car into the garage and start my project. Then to my utter surprise, the truck driver let down his ramps and unhooked the chains and jumps up in the car and starts it up and backs it off the ramps. I was like WTF??

He gets out and smiles and says "Sounds good huh??" I was like "Yeah but I'm shocked, it's supposed to have a bad motor, what gives?" He says "well I did notice the low coolant light was on so you better check that". I was all smiles as I pulled this wonderful car into the garage to start my inspection. It seemed to have mad power and I was like WOO HOOO!

I did notice a trickle of antifreeze in the garage and was like "oh well" but on further inspection I found the water pump to be cracked and leaking. I replaced the water pump and did a once over on the car and freshened up the belt and hoses and some seals and such and it was ready to go.

The car had a book value of $9520 at the time and I've been offered $12,000 for it but Im not selling. I'd say I got a pretty good "Corvette story deal". I still consider it a Christmas present from God. I had been praying for God to lead me to a good car body for the motor. He just decided to do me one better than that I guess. It was the best Christmas ever.

Needless to say, I didn't need my neighbors 383 after all. I should have bought it as a spare but I didn't. Oh well, I haven't needed it yet.

This is a bonafied TRUE story and the car in my garage and my family and friends are my witness. So it proves that good deals happen.

The pics in my sig are from like 6 mos. or so after I got the car and it still looks that good and runs great. All I've done is mod it a little and drive it.

 

Heres another true story sorry as I am to tell it. I worked with a guy who was a motorcycle guy. One night he wanted to go out and get drunk soo bad he offered me his childhood motorcycle for $50.00. He said it was kept in a dry basement for the last 15 or so years and the wheels still shined like new but the carb was off it and needed a kit. I bought the thing sight unseen thinking he would realize what he had done the next day. Well a couple days later he brought it over and I found out it was a 1965 Honda Breeze, I did'nt have a clue what that was so I pushed it into the shed and sold it for $50 to a guy who said he "Wanted it to teach his wife how to ride" so a few weeks later I talked to one of his friends and found out that guy sold the bike on E-Bay for $1800 to a Honda collector :o

 

You know, I'm not sure where she died. Probably in the car .

I do know that they had parked it as she was too out of it to drive anymore. We had to tune it up a bit, battery and everything, but it fired up and ran fine. Turquoise w/ a white top, original paint.

 

The story I was talking about earlier about the 57 Vette was also supposed to be turquoise w/ a white top, original paint. Funny how so many different variations of these stories emerge yet somehow maintain so many simularities. The elderly lady, the dead son, $400 and an offer to give more by the buyer, different makes and models though. Crazy!

 

And sadly the folks that will basically call you a liar to your face . I guess the common theme is that someone croaks, and the person left to deal with it sometimes doesn't have the attention to detail that maybe they should. In our '65 story. The car had been parked in the garage, and when she died, the son was in the process of selling the house, and hadn't made arrangements for the car yet. We worked out a deal for an extra 500 bucks for the car too, and he went for it. Either he didn't want to deal with it, or he didn't know the value, I don't know. Still have it too .