vermontboy
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Posts posted by vermontboy
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1 hour ago, Dynaflash8 said:
Who has been feeding these people, NOT IN THE HOBBY, all that crap about barn finds being so valuable? Hobby media sources, that's who? Who can blame them for not wanting to be ripped off.
The problem is older than that. Back in 1961 when I was 12 I was taking my usual two week break (for my parents) and staying in a small Vermont town where my grandfather ran the store and my grandmother was postmistress. I haung around with one of the local farm kids and reslly had the run of the farm. In one of the barns there was an old Model "T" touring that had been there 20 or 30 years. Upholstery gone, rusted, tires rotted, etc. The kid told me the owner of the farm told them that it was worth $3000. You could have bought the farm for $3000 in 1961 !!! I had just bought a running, driving, pretty rusty but interior OK Sport Coupe with perfect rumble seat upholstery for $100. The year before my father picked up a very nice 1933 Pierce-Arrow in Boston for $300 (number 3 condition) that we drove home from Boston to Rochester for $300.
The only hobby media back then was Hemmings which I think was still the old black and white small format. OK - AACA magazine (almost forgot). I remember well the Mercer restored by Ralph Buckley on the cover of one issue. Another had a Stoddard Dayton. Dream cars. Anyway - all the owner of the Model "T" knew was what people had told him it was worth verbally. The next year we chased down a Durant that at the time was probably worth $75 and the old farmer wanted $1500 for it. This was almost 60 years ago so the problem has been around awhile.
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I've got no skin in this game - but perhaps an observation based on a lot of years of listening and reading. I spent almost 20 years with the SBA helping out small businesses (for the most part). Some businesses run inventories, some businesses run -0- inventories,, some business use cash basis, some businesses use what I refer to as "common sense" rules which incorporate various methods. It is hard to fault any of the methods.
Now - you can read about anything related to proper accounting and tax liabilities. You will come up with more than one answer. Expert "A" writes one thing, Expert "B" writes another. Expert "C" says they are both wrong. Just because something is committed to print, or tele-conference, or classroom (live or video) does not make it correct. Experts often disagree - that creates income for both of them and perhaps for some lawyers as well.
The days of being able to take a scholarly appearing op-ed or printed article at face value never really existed. Back shortly after the Civil War my greatgrandtather explained something to my great grandmother and she immediately told him it wasn't true. He said "It's true, I seen it in print".
At the end of the day what makes a difference is what the man auditing your tax return thinks - and he may not be technically correct but it is his territory and he wins by default.
My tax attorney told me she had never lost a case where her client kept his/her mouth shut and didn't try to help.
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10 minutes ago, PreWarQc said:
I don't really care about the money. If I knew they would keep their value (or even lose a bit), I would buy one today! The problem is, and this is why I refuse to buy one now, is that I know buyers will be extremely rare in the next 5 - 10 years and the prices will completely collapse. I mean, I love those cars but I'm not in the position where I can buy something 20-30k and see it reduced to barely nothing. Millennials and x's will not be buying those cars in big enough numbers to keep the prices up... and soon they will be the bulk of the potential buyers.
Sorry to inform you, the sky is not going to fall - honest. When I was first married back in the late 60's, early 70's jobs started to get a little scarce. I went through several periods of unemployment. Every day the sun rose, we ate and raised a family, and life went on. Is a temporary decline possible, sure. Perhaps you don't remember when foreign investors came over and bought up all the 59 Cadillacs and Roadrunners they could find - prices soared ten fold. And then, they came back down.
Prices will not be "reduced to nothing". There are few hobbies where profits are expected. Do you expect golf clubs, cameras, skis, etc to go up in value - no. You accept that there is a cost to doing something you enjoy.
Remember that more people die regretting the things they didn't do than those that they did do.
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What kind of prewar vehicles are you looking for ??? Where are you searching for cars ?
First - the "dreamers" with the $5 to 10K pile of rust have always been there. If you are looking in the "sweet spot" (I classify that as 1932 to 1936 or so) than you will have a tougher time than if you expand your search forward to '37 to '42 or backwards into the nickel era cars which to my way of thinking are underpriced for the quality and design. You do have to deal with modern fuel problems (easily solved with an electric pump) and some metallurgical problems where poor material were used but these aren't beyond the skill set of anyone familiar with old cars. Good driver quality Model "A" Tudors are still in the $10 to $12 range tops and I mean decent ones - not someone's old bondo buggy. Even roadsters are generally around the $20K mark for a nice one (sales, not always asking price)..Model T's are even cheaper if you look at a later one,
Scour Craigslist, Facebook, Ebay, Hemmings, and the other ads. But don't overlook the importance of joining a local region or club. Many of the best buys are never advertised. Go to the Cruise nights and talk to people, go to the local shows and talk to people with cars like those you are interested in - many people only bring one of many cars they own and they may be thinking about parting with one if the right opportunity shows up. I bought a rough Model "A" coupe when I was 11 years old for $50. The meter reader noticed it and got to talking to my mother and told her he had a 1931 Sport Coupe he wanted $100 for. It was in rough but usable shape - it ran, it drove, it passed inspection.. A few days later the milkman knocked on the door and asked my mom if either car was for sale. We sold the coupe for the $50 I had invested. The more people who know you are looking for a car the quicker you will find one. They are out there..
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Showing my age but aren't there any places that will hot tank the block. Back in the late 50's and early 60's (long before the EPA had been thought of) we took the really gnarly stuff (wire wheels with 10 -12 coats of brush enamel, etc) to the local chrome shop. They would wait until their dunk tank got pretty bad and then clean all the junk people had brought in. Who knows what they did with the stuff but I think I know - the EPA would shudder.
On the other hand it was Rochester , NY and Kodak was doing it's own good job of disposing of all sorts of things ...........
Anyway - the block needs to be tanked = you are not going to scrape all that out of it without the patience of Job.
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39 minutes ago, Steve Moskowitz said:
Just my personal perspective but I think the lack of American drivers with big personalities is hurting the sport. Drivers today in all motorsports are just too corporate or plain vanilla. They day and do the right things which I guess is good but give me more Foyts and I will be happy!
Yes indeed. The colorful drivers and owners are mostly gone. NASCAR is now boring - restrictor plate racing is ridiculous. Disqualifying a car because at the end of the race it is a wee bit out of spec is ridiculous. It is now all about corporate greed and money - the drivers have to think carefully to include all in their thanks, to put on all their sponsors hats. Even the owners and pit chiefs have have been muzzled. The attempt to cleanse the sport of fights, hard driving, name calling, etc. is destroying the enjoyment for those of us brought up with the Allison's, the Unsers, AJ, Mario, Yarborough, Roberts, the Petty's and all the others that did everything they could to win races. It now reminds me of the new "Participation Trophies" given to our youngsters because they don't keep track of the score - you can't win or lose.
Sports in general is dying from over zealous self regulation and the new mantra of political correctness. As Ralph Nader said " what you do is to turn people into (having) skins that are blistered by moonbeams".
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2 hours ago, 39BuickEight said:
But is there anyone in your local DMV that would have a clue as to what was real and what was a repro? Of course real is always better, but nobody in my town would know the difference.
Judging by the lack of any shiny, rust free year of manufacture plates on old cars around here I would say the answer is yes. Remember - it is illegal to restore or repaint them - can you tell new paint??
There is little point in creating an adversarial relationship with the DMV (or the local police department) because they can make life very difficult for you.
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1 hour ago, 39BuickEight said:
Exactly. In the locales that allow the old plates, it makes no difference.
NYS allows the use of old plates - they must be approved. They cannot be restored, repainted, etc. They must be originals - not sure about other states but it is a state by state issue.
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One possible problem with LED's on a car you drive everyday is the lack of heat. They replaced the bulbs in the traffic lights around here and there are two drawbacks - the first is the directional aspect of the lights and often when approaching a light NONE of the lights appear on - is ite red/yellow or green ?? Tbe second is in the winter with a lot of wind the lights fill up with snow and the LED's don't burn the snow away so the light is basically worthless and they have to send trucks around and the crews spend their time digging snow out of the lights so people can see them.
I can only imagine driving through slush with no heat to melt the ice - the headlights will become covered with ice. I even had trouble with that happening with my 2004 Impala - once you got off the interstate onto a back road with no lights you couldn't see where you were going until you stopped and chipped the ice off.
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You say the "tags" are missing - does that mean that it does not have a VIN ? Is there a title with the vehicle ? No body tags and no title will have an effect on value. No VIN will be a deal breaker in many cases depending on what state the vehicle is in and what state the prospective buyer is in.
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I have no problems with period modifications or where the original design was inadequate for safety reasons (within reason). Any of these should be able to be converted back to original without difficulty.
Model "A" Fords with any of the accessories offered back in the 30's are interesting to me. An alternator (6V) is OK with me because when I had a Model "A" as a daily driver a lot of my driving was at night - an alternator offers a bit of piece of mind. Using the later Ford wire wheels to utilize 600X16 tires is OK with me too. Easy to switch back. I do draw the line on the hydraulic brake conversion though -properly adjusted a Model "A" will lock all four wheels from 50 mph - even with the larger tires (and I did use 48 Ford rims on the back with snow tires in the winter with spacers)..I like the fail safe design of the original brakes.
Model "T"s are the same except I think if I owned one I would use one of the bolt on disc brake conversions for safety in today's stop and go traffic.
Just my personal thoughts...... I'm old but still enjoy playing with and improving the old cars
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Last post by me here but the personal questions asked for id verification contain far more financial and personal information than appears on this survey and they already know the answers. Multiple choice questions might include things like "When did you make your last payment on your 2004 Impala? What is your current mortgage balance? Which of these phone numbers belonged to you in 2008?". Many respondents fail to be able to answer the questions asked about themselves.
All of that information is available to the companies that specialize in identity verification. Most of that information is available to the general public without much effort. Vastly more information is available if someone wants to pay a couple of bucks. Think back to when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981. Within a few hours the news sources were able to provide complete background information on him. That was close to 40 years ago and before the internet.
No one has to "mine" data on individuals anymore. It has already been done for them and all of that information is available at the click of a mouse. .
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There is nothing in the survey that couldn't be gleaned by spending time reviewing your posts..... and if you were concerned it is easy enough to Google her name and school and bingo - we have a match.....
Sorry - I used to work for the government and believe me it is almost impossible to hide in this day and age. Most people can be found in a matter of minutes these days, some take longer...... it is not rocket science.
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Just completed the survey - as others I would be interested in the results..
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To me as a potential buyer ( and I have been looking for one - tough to find rust free in the NE) it would have been highly desirable in the Grand National 1st configuration - to each his own. Perhaps it will attract more buyers as a resto-mod. And looks like most of the mods are bolt on so could be undone if desired - nice looking car.
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When my Model "A" was my daily driver I took a couple of teeth off low gear (don't ask - I was young). I drove it for the next several months starting in second and in all honesty unless you are on a hill it works just fine - if on a hill you grab a bit of throttle before starting....that 40 pound flywheel (if memory serves) makes it relatively easy..
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Just for the record my "like" is for the early morning April Fool's day joke. Today is my birthday (really) so I have learned after all these decades to take any early morning postings as such .......and there have been many over the years. Yours is one of the best .......
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Where are you not getting spark - at the points or at the spark plugs or both ?? Was the vehicle running before you installed all the new items and hooked them up ?? Did you clean and tighten your ground straps ???
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19 minutes ago, Frantz said:
"Why not get both sides to man up and sit down in a public forum and talk it out like men and women? "
From what I have read that has been done as much as practicable ad infinitum. While I understand your point the issues seem to go substantially beyond the use of the name at this point in time. The club is being told to restrict their activities (display of cars in our own building for example). If I am missing something here jump in and correct me. It appears that the issue goes substantially beyond the name.
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Last post for awhile but I am dismayed that it is apparently OK for Toyota to state:
"The reality is there will be mistakes along the way," he said at a Reuters news event moderated by reporter David Shepardson. "A hundred or 500 or a thousand people could lose their lives in accidents like we’ve seen in Arizona."
So it's OK to kill 500 or a thousand innocent people through mistakes as long as it will eventually save a lot of lives. Sure hope that one of those isn't someone close to you - but they are close to someone. They talk about "collateral damage" in warfare. Now we have "collateral damage" on our streets killing innocent people?
And this is now considered part of the ethos of the 21st century ?
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Or google "Toyota says self driving cars could kill hundreds".
Sorry for the bad link - no idea what USA Today has done ....
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Being a gentleman I cannot adequately express my feelings about the following article. I suppose it is supposed to be OK if one of the "hundreds or perhaps thousands" of those innocent people killed are close to you.
I have no idea what is happening to this link. Please just cut and paste it into the browser. It works fine from email and fine from vword but when put into here as a link it creates an advertisement. Frustrating.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/03/29/self-driving-cars-uber-crash-toyota/468804002/
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The sad part is the death rate is rising. I blame it on the new integrated touch screen controls. I can move heater dials, buttons and levers without ever taking my eyes off the road. I can tune a radios dials and buttons and change the volume and station without taking my eyes off the road.
It is impossible to perform either function without taking your eyes off the road when you have to go to a touch screen, find the screen you want, and search for where to touch the screen. That is especially true here in the Northeast where we wear gloves or mittens on those below zero mornings.
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"uber" for classic/collectible cars ??
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by vermontboy
added note on tax liability (see edit history)
After reviewing the Q/A (all 9) would have a few questions (tip of the iceberg here - I spent less than 5 minutes)
The provided insurance is limited to $1,000,000 TOTAL liability - that is really not a lot of coverage for a commercial enterprise (which an renter just became when they agreed to this).
They will NOT provide a copy of the insurance policy for review
it appears that renter is dealing with "Dreamshare" - not directly with Haggerty - how is Dreamshare tied in with Taggerty?
Does the insurance cover mechanical damage if there was no accident? With or without the ability to prove negligence on the part of the renter. You get your car back and the tranny doesn't work, motor has been over-revved, chassis damage from run flat, pothole, curb damage to tires and wheels, and ll the other things that can happen without hitting another car.
Remember the tax implications - you just became highly visible
And the list goes on ...........