I don’t understand some people!

[BadGoat]

anyone remember the "nickel ads" ??    I had seen an ad for a 1948 Pontiac coupe that had been running for about 6 months and you could tell in the various changes in the ad that the seller was "done" with the tire kickers and mindless walkers, and the car as the ad's progressed with more work being done on the car with less asking price every week.  The final ad as the seller stated was "final chance or I will cut this damn car up and scrap it".  This was still a time when you had to call and actually talk to a person, so I did.  Boy Howdy he was a joy to talk to and spent 30 minutes telling me about all the dumb ass's that he has been dealing with before we even talked about the car.  we arranged that I would come out on that Friday afternoon because if I did not, he was cutting the car up with his neighbor Saturday morning. And if I did not show he might just cut it up Friday night.  did I mention that he was a nice guy to talk to?  

 

  I showed up at 3:00 sharp after driving 2 hours and parked in front of his house with my truck and trailer.  Walking up to the door he was already on the porch with a beer and either his neighbors or the county militia, however he greeted me with a smile and said you must be serious "cuss you dem-der" brought you a trailer. (tell me you read that with the twang I meant it in).   We all walked to the back of the house to one of the most beautifully built and equipped home garages I have ever seen and not the "old shed" that he said it was in. (clean floors, lifts, welders, tools) As I walked around the car more parts were on the car then the ad said and there was now an engine in the car?  I looked inside the car to see what shape that was in and was surprised that there were new floors when the original ad said that it needed floors, however there was a fresh cut to the driver rocker and about 10" into the floor.  I was also surprised to see a concrete saw with the 20" blade sitting inside the car next to the cut.  I looked at Frank holding the saw and he said he was not joking around and started to cut it after the last guy pulled his chain.

 

  Frank said that he kept working on it as it made him happy and kept him busy, but he was done and moving and needed it gone today.  I said I had to think it over and I thought he was going to grab the saw and re-enact Texas chain saw massacre and I had to tell him quickly that I was joking and that I wanted the car.  Frank was asking $2500.00 for the car and various parts in the original ad, that went down to $1500.00, so in my smart-ass wisdom ask what is the lowest he would take just to mess with him as I was ready to pay the $1500.00. He looked at me and grinned then looked at me dead in the eyes and said "5"....???   I said $5000.????  he said No ya dumb ass $500.00 cuss I like ya. Surprised me as I was not expecting that at all, even more of a surprise when I was going to pull the truck to winch it on the trailer Frank reached in and fired it up and said drive up, ya dumb ass.....  he then proceeded to have his minion load up the bed of my truck with the original engine, transmission and 69 Nova front clip and 12 bolt rear end and parts of cars I have no idea what they came off of. (easier to have me haul it away) .

 

  so, the moral of this long-winded story is..... sometimes the old curmudgeons are serious and if you are in the right place at the right time, you get lucky.  Still have Clyde with the Nova clip and suspension installed and the 472 Cadillac motor that Frank tossed in.

 

[Larry Schramm]

I had a small utility trailer that I had full of miscellaneous car parts and car related stuff that I had cleaned out the garage and other storage areas.  After a couple of swap meets I marked almost everything between $1-$5.00. 

 

After selling only one item at the last swap meet I took the trailer home and with a friend sorted the trailer into four piles.  The first pile consisted of the 2 or 3 items that I kept.  The next pile was stuff that I gave to my friend that sells on ebay that he thought he might be able to sell.  The next two piles was the scrap metal pile and the other pile went to trash.  

I figured that if I could not sell it at $1, it was not worth much or there was a lot of that item out there and my time was worth more than that.

 

I now had the use of my trailer back.

[3macboys]

7 hours ago, kramaton said:

There is always a few people that have their stuff way over priced because they probably dont want to sell it anyway. When I see them year after year I don't even stop to look at their stuff.

I like those guys - their estate ends up having the best auction sales!  

[kramaton]

36 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

I like those guys - their estate ends up having the best auction sales!  

Yep, All Cars, Motorcycles and parts always outlive their owners.

[Tonz]

I've been in that scenario a few times.

When buying, selling and moving house we had to do massive de-clutters by way of garage sales (yard sales). With looming deadlines and removalist etc, unwanted stuff just has to go!

So the Saturday morning garage sale had stuff you just wanted gone, and stuff you will sell but only at your price.

The classic was a 16' boat hull for "free", please take it ... So no takers.

Then I put $20 on it, and straight away had three blokes trying to snap it up.

Go figure🤔

[Fordy]

4 hours ago, Tonz said:

The classic was a 16' boat hull for "free", please take it ... So no takers.

Then I put $20 on it, and straight away had three blokes trying to snap it up.

The human brain at its best and FOMO in action (fear of missing out).

[TerryKott]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:38 PM, CarNucopia said:

The problem with offering things for free is people commit to taking it and then never show up.

We had some Foxhounds interbreed at the Hunt Club I was working at. They offered the pups for free and no one even called. I said "You do not place a value on them so no one else will." They put $25 bucks apiece on them and they all sold in one day.

[pmhowe]

A friend of mine had a very nice couch that he and his wife wanted to get rid of. They put it outside in a protected area and offered it for free. A week later, and no takers. He put a $100 price tag on it and it was stolen the next day. 

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, pmhowe said:

A friend of mine had a very nice couch that he and his wife wanted to get rid of. They put it outside in a protected area and offered it for free. A week later, and no takers. He put a $100 price tag on it and it was stolen the next day. 

I don't think that idea would have worked for these couches seen in the back alley in our city's 'bad' neighborhood.   Someone here made more than that selling photographs of them made into a calendar for a number of years:

[TTR]

"I don’t understand some people!"

 

Well, I think you're much better off than me since I fail to understand most people, strange things they do or why they do them ?

 

[theconvertibleguy]

I found when i was decluttering that the easiest way to sell stuff was just have it auctioned off. Couldn't get a nibble on the usual suspects, threw it over to the auction house, sold in two weeks. Didn't get much, but better then paying a hundred bucks a month  for storage for stuff I'll never be able to enjoy due to not affording a proper house.

[Rod P]

Thanks Yachtflame for starting this thread, and for everyone's contributions. 

 

Didn't know whether it would spiral into "I've put rocks in the sack and will add the puppies if you don't take them" type discussion but thankfully not. I found I could relate to most peoples pros and cons of their experiences. And had a chuckle or too at having to educate bad customers. 

 

I used to buy at auctions and sell at markets for many years, so seen most of it. The 'cultural' haggling, ridiculous to the point of having to start way too high, so you could discount to the price you wanted originally. They were happy. They just want to haggle. I just wanted a quick sale. 

 

Once when selling LP records, usual $10, Customer $1 or whatever. When he came back for 5th time, I just Frisbeed the records at him and he raced around trying to catch them as they shattered. "Would have bought them," he cried. "Well, you had your chance."

 

But other times, like once gave a young girl an 8 track and a box of tapes that no one else wanted, and she thought her Dad might, but didn't have any much money. Made her day, and an easy gesture to give someone a good experience and that not everyone is trying to rip them off. And saves bringing stuff home again.

Unfortunately, things are often only worth what you can get for them on the day, regardless of new or replacement cost, or what they cost 20 years ago. And we can't save everything. 

[Jack Bennett]

I find it strange that someone would accumulate acres and acres of old buses, semi truck trailers, and barns full of trash, and then haggle about a few dollars difference in their asking price to sell it, and the offered price to buy it.

It seems to me to be a contradiction that a person is complimented on spending thousands of dollars, and many years collecting junk, as having a good eye, and then pressing for another $.50 to sell one of their old toys.
personally, my days of providing the Learjet for the CEO of goodwill, or the Bahamas vacation for the executives in Saint Vincent. De Paul are over. Sure, I still need to get rid of my excess parts, and no longer needed stuff, but I sure won’t donate it to a local charity anymore. I do run advertisements on craigslist and Facebook marketing to free myself of extraneous junk, but it is advertised as free, curbside pick up, first come first serve. 

I can’t even remember how long ago it’s been since I sold some thing, and perhaps the reason for that is, I probably never have, and probably never will.

This is a hobby and it may be the single thing that keeps your son from prowling the neighborhood, and committing a crime, or your brother from committing suicide, because they have no purpose in life. Just maybe, my gift of some old doors or a 70 year old transmission will be the single thing that allows them to stay engaged in the old car restoration hobby, and, just maybe, be the one facet of their life which makes it worth living.

Jack

 

Edited May 21 by Jack Bennett (see edit history)

[Bhigdog]

Haggle. Don't haggle. Get pissed off. Get the other guy pissed off. Donate it to charity. Break it in front of someone just for spite. Seems everyone has the answer to selling or buying.

Actually there is no one best answer. Every day and every deal is different.

I've paid top price and I've low balled. I've not haggled over a $40, 000 deal and I once spent 20 minutes haggling over a $5.00 POS just because we both were enjoying it and it was fun. I got it for $3.75.

If you find either buying or selling is an aggravation you're doing it wrong...............Bob

 

[Jack Bennett]

On 5/11/2024 at 3:19 AM, Tonz said:

I've been in that scenario a few times.

When buying, selling and moving house we had to do massive de-clutters by way of garage sales (yard sales). With looming deadlines and removalist etc, unwanted stuff just has to go!

So the Saturday morning garage sale had stuff you just wanted gone, and stuff you will sell but only at your price.

The classic was a 16' boat hull for "free", please take it ... So no takers.

Then I put $20 on it, and straight away had three blokes trying to snap it up.

Go figure🤔

In a life filled with some really bad things, “giving” another a “free” boat rates right up there with the worse.

A boat, should it be brand spanking new, or a decrepit octogenarian, can never be a “good deal”, and giving one to another puts a rip in their wallet that can hemorrhage their bank account down to a minus balance in a very short while.

And, as do our old car projects, may move a couple of times a year, and the rest of the time serve as receptacles into which we throw all our extra money.

 

[Jack Bennett]

4 minutes ago, Bhigdog said:

Haggle. Don't haggle. Get pissed off. Get the other guy pissed off. Donate it to charity. Break it in front of someone just for spite. Seems everyone has the answer to selling or buying.

Actually there is no one best answer. Every day and every deal is different.

I've paid top price and I've low balled. I've not haggled over a $40, 000 deal and I once spent 20 minutes haggling over a $5.00 POS just because we both were enjoying it and it was fun. I got it for $3.75.

If you find either buying or selling is an aggravation you're doing it wrong...............Bob

 

And, it is Tuesday morning, and here I set trolling the antique car and tractor web sites to give my aging brain something to keep it from going addled.

In 1982 I retired from the military and went to work on a prison island.

Until that time “owning” something was just ridiculous because in another year a set of permanent change of station (PCS) orders would be issued, and anything I, or my wife and immediate family, had to be discarded in 72 hours or less.

Then, when people, speaking here of soldiers and their families, were real human beings, rather than a cyber Caricature generated by some artificial intelligence television gang, there was lending closets, where cook ware, dishes, baby clothing and sanitary needs was dropped off. It was then made available (free of charge) to arriving soldiers and their families who needed the items to establish a new home.
And there were “thrift shops” at which I could still get some fishing gear, or maybe a tent and sleeping roll to do some camping, even though I lived in the barracks, or government quarters and had no place to store them indefinitely. You could donate items to the thrift shop, and they could place things, such as throw rugs, drapes, vacuum cleaners, and surplus cleaning supplies in a area where anyone needing it could have it for the taking.

Should I have found it necessary to “sell” something at the thrift shop, a price was affixed to it which was intended to reimburse the government the cost of operating the facility, which was essentially the utilities used, since all those involved in operation of the thrift shop were volunteers.

”Selling” is not a aggravation, and I have given my entire youth to a profession which guarantees that, as “freeborn Americans”, we are granted blanket permission to own, possess and sell our belongings, and to do so is only fulfillment of the American dream.

I just have difficulties in following in the ruts left by others because it is the status quo. Rather, I take some pleasure when I unburden myself from extraneous stuff, would rather not acquire unneeded and equally extraneous stuff simply because it better fills my ball hammock.

Jack