John348 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 1 hour ago, R Walling said: Hasn't anyone here ever thought that the property may have a junkyard license? They sometimes hard to get! I did, and realized if there were a transferrable license in that state it would have been sold already, and this could be the aftermath. Now someone is using that license at another address, and this land now became a site, a possible toxic one at that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Bennett Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 At a time in my life, admittedly occurring decades ago, this would have been a dream came true for a guy like me. But with age, and several hundred views of programs like “Hoarders” and “American Pickers”, I now realize that this is the manifestation of a form of mental illness which is often overlooked as “eccentricity”. In reality, in my case anyway, decades ago just the thought of $400.000.00 being attainable in a lifetime was unimaginable. So, acquiring a single property, even without 300 junk vehicles, was nothing more than a mirage. Now, I could easily sell the home, I already I own, for $500.000.00, buy the property for $400.000.00, buy a hundred gallons of whisky, or beer with the other $100.000.00, and finance the other million or so dollars I would need to spend over the next decades to just clean the place up to a point I could safely visit on free weekends. Or, I could just keep my house, be satisfied with my old cars, finance a new yacht, and spend my weekends cruising Puget Sound or the Pacific Coastline. Jack 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1912Staver Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) Unfortunately this observation is all too true Jack. And even more so here in the wet Pacific North West. Not all of us can live in Arizona or New Mexico. You need the $400,000.00 property plus a $750,000.00 insulated building and heat budget or else all those " cars of our dreams " just turn to iron oxide and compost right before our eyes. I have said it many times before " the cars are very cheap, it is the land and buildings where the real cost comes into play ". Those people that have all the parts of the puzzle in place, land , buildings. You always need at least two, one to work in and a bigger, simpler building to store all the " clutter " that gets in the way of the task at hand. Things like bulky jigs and fixtures, frame rotisseries, engine test stands and lots of other bulky things that you need but really get in the way when you are not using them, parts only good as patterns or samples for reference, etc. Equipment, tools, including a good truck and trailer. Skills and working capital. Lots of working capital ! Those people are the people who actually are functional in this madly expensive hobby. The rest of us are sadly dysfunctional and delusional. At least we keep the producers of "pickers " , "hoarders " etc. supplied with source material. In my case I think it stems back to my childhood / youth years. { 1960's } My great uncle had a farm reasonably close to the city { Winnipeg Manitoba } where I lived with my family. We would often visit when the snow had cleared. My great uncle was always known as the mechanic of the family, and since anyone in the family first had a car they would be retired into my great uncles side yard beside his machine shed. Brass era Model T's on up to mid 1950's cars. Lots of Model A's and old farm trucks, about 35 or 40 of them , plus a bunch of old tractors and misc. farm equipment. It was to me the best playground on the planet. I guess I have been unconsciously been trying to reproduce that yard all my adult life. Edited February 15 by 1912Staver (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Bennett Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) 1 hour ago, 1912Staver said: Unfortunately this observation is all too true Jack. And even more so here in the wet Pacific North West. Not all of us can live in Arizona or New Mexico. You need the $400,000.00 property plus a $750,000.00 insulated building and heat budget or else all those " cars of our dreams " just turn to iron oxide and compost right before our eyes. I have said it many times before " the cars are very cheap, it is the land and buildings where the real cost comes into play ". Those people that have all the parts of the puzzle in place, land , buildings. You always need at least two, one to work in and a bigger, simpler building to store all the " clutter " that gets in the way of the task at hand. Things like bulky jigs and fixtures, frame rotisseries, engine test stands and lots of other bulky things that you need but really get in the way when you are not using them, parts only good as patterns or samples for reference, etc. Equipment, tools, including a good truck and trailer. Skills and working capital. Lots of working capital ! Those people are the people who actually are functional in this madly expensive hobby. The rest of us are sadly dysfunctional and delusional. At least we keep the producers of "pickers " , "hoarders " etc. supplied with source material. In my case I think it stems back to my childhood / youth years. { 1960's } My great uncle had a farm reasonably close to the city { Winnipeg Manitoba } where I lived with my family. We would often visit when the snow had cleared. My great uncle was always known as the mechanic of the family, and since anyone in the family first had a car they would be retired into my great uncles side yard beside his machine shed. Brass era Model T's on up to mid 1950's cars. Lots of Model A's and old farm trucks, about 35 or 40 of them , plus a bunch of old tractors and misc. farm equipment. It was to me the best playground on the planet. I guess I have been unconsciously been trying to reproduce that yard all my adult life. Hi 1912Staver. Let me begin with saying that I do appreciate your venture into my own psychosis by responding to my wandering post. But, I must continue by saying that I think, while 99.9% of what you’re saying may be true, I have a lot of difficulty believing the other .01%. It sounds like you came from a pre-interstate Highway, pre-cyber, pre-computer and pre-connected at the cranium society as I have. I call a “unconscious” activity the culmination of a successful “subliminal”, and perhaps a bit confusing, suggestion, and I assure you that your great-uncle was neither a psychotic or a hoarder. Rather, I would say he was a “friend”, a “neighbor”, in the truest sense, as he was willing, and able, to devote his abilities and energies as a mechanic to making the lives of those he cared for a bit more livable. This is true if you remember that, during a time he would be working on a Model “T” or a mid 1950’s car, there was no internet, no Rock Auto, eBay or Amazon.com from which to order repair parts. This made the assemblage of a parts donor bank both feasible and practical. No “hoarding” or “psychosis” involved here. Just a good sense of humanity, prior planning, and something we all need to be. As I said, in the period of time my between my nonage and dotage, I would have relished the idea of owning such a place, and would have covered myself with scrap metal to the point of suffocation. And then, I would relook at my weekend drives along a coastal road in my Willys, or a nice drive through a local cemetery in my old Dodge, and console myself to the idea that not committing myself to such a mess was such a bad idea. Jack Edited February 15 by Jack Bennett (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLynskey Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/1/2024 at 10:24 AM, drhach said: Are there a lot of rich junkyard owners out there? Thousands of lives in the Chattanooga area, particularly children have been enriched by the several medical and mental facilities of the Siskin Foundation -- founded by brothers Mose and Garrison Siskin, who made their fortune in the scrap metal business. Our History and Founding | Siskin Children's Institute Siskin Children's Institute Siskin Early Learning Center Siskin Hospital for Physical Therapy Siskin Behavioral Health Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation Siskin Hospital for Lymphedema Several other facilities including other Tennessee and Geogia locations. Don 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drhach Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I would suspect those people are in the minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John348 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 2/17/2024 at 12:49 AM, DLynskey said: Thousands of lives in the Chattanooga area, particularly children have been enriched by the several medical and mental facilities of the Siskin Foundation -- founded by brothers Mose and Garrison Siskin, who made their fortune in the scrap metal business. Our History and Founding | Siskin Children's Institute Siskin Children's Institute Siskin Early Learning Center Siskin Hospital for Physical Therapy Siskin Behavioral Health Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation Siskin Hospital for Lymphedema Several other facilities including other Tennessee and Geogia locations. Don No doubt, there is big money in scrap metal business. but those businesses are a far cry from a field with 300 rusty picked over cars laying about. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm63 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Spotted this article today: The Full Story of That House With 300 Classic Cars Is a Sad One (msn.com) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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