Rambling thoughts (long and boring)

[ACobra289]

I was wondering if any of you had ever passed on the opportunity to buy something or had something and sold it and later regretted it.

In 1985 I was a year out of high school working at my first job making very little. One day while driving, I passed a car sitting on the side of the road for sale. It was a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T with a 440 magnum with an automatic transmission. It was in fantastic condition. I spoke with the owner who said he was selling it for his son. He said he son was asking $4000 for it, but he had told him he would sell it quicker if he took $3500. I took that as a hint that if I offered $3500 I could have the car. I knew these types of cars were becoming more collectable so I thought I would try to get the cash. My family wasn’t poor, but none of them had $3500 lying around, so I knew that wasn’t an option. I called my boss and asked if there was some way I could get a loan from the credit union where I worked. He said he doubted they would give any loan on an old car like that. Well, I obviously couldn’t get the car. As most of you probably know, the prices for those old muscle cars really shot up in the late 80’s and 90’s. The peak price for that car was probably around $50K. Even today, it would probably sell very quickly at $35K and could probably get $40K for it. So while it wasn’t my choice to not get the car, I am obviously disappointed I missed out on a potential profit like that. Actually, I blame my boss. He should have loaned me the money!!


Fast forward to 1993. I was still interested in purchasing an older car as a hobby. This time I was able to get a loan and put the money in the bank while I searched. I answered an ad for a 1969 SS 396/325HP Camaro with a 4 speed. The car was solid as a rock, I couldn’t find any rust on it. It did need a paint job, but overall it was in good condition. The owner was asking $6K, which was about $1K more than I had. I asked him if he had thought about what the least amount he would take, and he said $5500. I told him I would get back to him. I know I could have got the extra $500 together and got the car, but I kept dragging my feet. I finally called him back to offer him $5200 and he had already sold the car. A car like that in very good condition topped out at about $40K. Today they probably go for around $30K to $35K. So once again I missed out on something, but this time I only had myself to blame.

Oh yea, and to top everything off. I did finally buy a “muscle” car. A new 1995 Trans Am. I paid approximately $23k for it. (over 5 years of course.) Today, I would be lucky to get $4000 for it.

[DavidF]

And that, as they say, "is life" Sucks sometimes doesn't it?

[Mike Davis]

I really wanted to buy Apple stock in 1995 when it was $12 a share. It has split 3 or 4 times since then and is somewhere around $175 now.

[Bryan S]

Thats when they put some serious meat under the hood. I wanted a Challenger or Charger or Roadrunner or a Cuda with a hemi of course.

I was once into the old muscle cars but never did pull the trigger and would still like to have one. I did buy a 55 Ford F100 shortbed in the early 80's and spent a fair amount of time and $ working on it but never got it to what I wanted it to be. Had to sell it when I was laid off in 1990 and took a beating of course. While I would like to have kept it I really don't regret selling it. I now look at it as something I don't have to keep up or worry with.

What would that Challenger be worth today with the collectors? I saw one of those muscle car auctions on tv a while back and a 70 Cuda hard top with the 440 brought $350,000 as top bid but the seller held onto it because it did not meet the reserve

[Steve W]

Bill, I was just thinking about this recently, as I just saw that fairly new ad on TV with Robert Wagner and he's standing in front of a '49 Ford convertible. I had a chance at a '49 woodie in 1980 for $1000 and passed it up.

I'm only about 10 years older than you, but had my chances at and actually owned some interesting rides that I regret not having now:

1938 LaSalle with factory sunroof -- coulda had for $600 in 1976;
1957 Bel Air convertible -- owned, needed frame work, sold for $330 in '77 (ouch!)
1940 Pontiac 4-door -- owned and drove for a couple of years. Trashed the engine and never rebuilt it.
1966 Buick Skylark convertible. Solid body and engine, tranny was trash. Sold it for $50. This car is actually rarer than the '57 Bel Air Conv, if memory serves. Not priced more, though.
Oh, yeah, a '69 R/T (green) for $900. I passed on it. Arrgggghhhh.

I could retire on what the '57 would have been worth today, had I restored it.

Oh, well. Spilt milk.

Steve

[Bryan S]

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

I really wanted to buy Apple stock in 1995 when it was $12 a share. It has split 3 or 4 times since then and is somewhere around $175 now.

Or 1 share of Walmart in bought 1980 wold be worth about 65 grand now.

[ACobra289]

Originally Posted by Mike Davis

I really wanted to buy Apple stock in 1995 when it was $12 a share. It has split 3 or 4 times since then and is somewhere around $175 now.

Well, that puts things in perspective... you missed out on a LOT more money than I did. I feel better now! j/k

[ACobra289]

Originally Posted by Steve W

Bill, I was just thinking about this recently, as I just saw that fairly new ad on TV with Robert Wagner and he's standing in front of a '49 Ford convertible. I had a chance at a '49 woodie in 1980 for $1000 and passed it up.

I'm only about 10 years older than you, but had my chances at and actually owned some interesting rides that I regret not having now:

1938 LaSalle with factory sunroof -- coulda had for $600 in 1976;
1957 Bel Air convertible -- owned, needed frame work, sold for $330 in '77 (ouch!)
1940 Pontiac 4-door -- owned and drove for a couple of years. Trashed the engine and never rebuilt it.
1966 Buick Skylark convertible. Solid body and engine, tranny was trash. Sold it for $50. This car is actually rarer than the '57 Bel Air Conv, if memory serves. Not priced more, though.
Oh, yeah, a '69 R/T (green) for $900. I passed on it. Arrgggghhhh.

I could retire on what the '57 would have been worth today, had I restored it.

Oh, well. Spilt milk.

Steve

Wow, those are some nice rides! I can only imagine what the Bel Air conv would be worth.

[ACobra289]

Originally Posted by Bryan S

What would that Challenger be worth today with the collectors? I saw one of those muscle car auctions on tv a while back and a 70 Cuda hard top with the 440 brought $350,000 as top bid but the seller held onto it because it did not meet the reserve

Wow, that's a lot for a hard top 440 Cuda. It must have been a 6 pack car. Even so, I wouldn't think it would have been worth that much. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a Hemi sell for that much.

Collector cars have dropped a little the past couple years, but I'm pretty sure that Challenger I saw would sell pretty quick at $35K. And if you took it to an auction, you could probably get more. (assuming it's in great condition.) I'm just glad it wasn't a hemi, 6 pack or T/A as I would probably get sick thinking about missing out on it.

Have you seen the new Challenger? It looks pretty good. Also the new camaro is pretty sharp looking. But I think Dodge and Chevrolet are a little late to the game with their responses to the Mustang. Not the best time to be selling gas guzzlers.

[Trent Mason]

I just want a car that's paid for.

Two more years.

[ACobra289]

Originally Posted by Trent Mason

I just want a car that's paid for.

Two more years.

There is certainly something to be said for not having a car payment! We are getting close to having to get my wife another car. Her 95 Maxima has about 180K miles and it's starting to get pretty ragged. But she hates the thought of having a car payment right now, especially since I lost my job last year and have yet to find something. But I have a follow up interview with a company next week, so hopefully that will work out! It's a tough time to be looking for work. Seems almost weekly I hear about a local company laying people off.

Edit: I wanted to mention I wasn't fired. I was laid off when they closed the plant to consolidate work into our Nashville TN plant. I had worked there for over 20 years. Typical corporate America.

[AndyBarnhart]

When I was a teenager, I tried to be a rock star for a little while and had an electric guitar and amp that were nothing special. After I decided the career wasn't going to work out, I took them to a music store and asked about a trade for an acoustic; I wasn't very good but enjoyed playing enough that I still wanted a guitar around. They offered a new Takamine that had great action and a good sound. It was from the "Lawsuit Series" - a Martin D28 clone. I told them I would think about it and check with someone I knew and get back to them. I ended up getting it and it was a nice guitar; I had it for 30 years and it appreciated from about $300 to $400. So what, right? Well the guy I checked with before I went back was a friend of my moms. He said that it was a decent guitar, but he had a line on one he wanted me to look at and I did. The action wasn't as good and because it had a smaller body, it wasn't near as loud. It also showed its age a little; it was in fine shape for a used guitar but obviously used. So I passed on a vintage Gibson parlor guitar for $250.

My worst story wasn't a buying opportunity but something entirely different. Now you never know how these things work out; I would not necessarily had everything you might think work out had I followed up, but... In the early 80's, I was pretty green in my field - software development. I went to work for a market research service bureau in Atlanta as a FORTRAN programmer. They figured out I seemed to really understand how to make computers work and decided to let me try to build a full survey system for them based on CP/M microcomputers (the predecessor to PCs; IBM wasn't in the micro market yet). CP/M was a single user terminal based system that only had 64K of RAM, but you could add cards for more terminals and RAM - there was just no support for them in the OS. You had to add that yourself. So I figured out how to swap memory in and out and change which terminal was active on the fly and supported 8 users. Because it asked survey questions and operators used it to ask them over the phone, I was able to get away with that on low powered computers because they only rarely did anything but have people refuse to answer the questions and hang up. Even when it switched screens, you can spit out characters way faster than anyone can read them aloud. Anyway, the weird stuff I was doing with multiple users and memory was causing some problems with the FORTRAN compiler I was using and I had long support calls with the vendor to resolve them. One day I get a call from the vendor out of the blue. They were looking for people who had the skills to do OS level work on microcomputers because they were writing an OS. I told them that CP/M had the whole market; I didn't understand how they thought they could compete with Digital Research. they said Digital Research believed that also and got too cocky with a major company that was about to enter the market so they were contacted to make an OS for it. But they could not tell me who because of an NDA. I did the big eye roll - "no thanks, not interested". Besides, they wanted me to fly out to Redmond WA to interview and move there if I took the job...

[Bryan S]

Originally Posted by ACobra289

Wow, that's a lot for a hard top 440 Cuda. It must have been a 6 pack car. Even so, I wouldn't think it would have been worth that much. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a Hemi sell for that much.

Collector cars have dropped a little the past couple years, but I'm pretty sure that Challenger I saw would sell pretty quick at $35K. And if you took it to an auction, you could probably get more. (assuming it's in great condition.) I'm just glad it wasn't a hemi, 6 pack or T/A as I would probably get sick thinking about missing out on it.

Have you seen the new Challenger? It looks pretty good. Also the new camaro is pretty sharp looking. But I think Dodge and Chevrolet are a little late to the game with their responses to the Mustang. Not the best time to be selling gas guzzlers.

Bill if I remember right it did have the 6 pack. It was all original and all the numbers matched. The commentators did mention a couple of times about it not having the hemi as the bids kept going up. The more i think about it it may have been a convertible. The memory is not what it was with CRS disease and all .

Being that the Mopars of that day are my favorites of the muscle car era I did pay more attention to that car than I normally do.

One of these days I'll run across my dream car. I 'll be driving down the road and see a Plymouth Superbird being sold that they lady will say was her late husbands and it's such an old car it cant be worth more than a couple of hundred dollars.... I said it was a dream.

[ACobra289]

Originally Posted by AndyBarnhart

- "no thanks, not interested". Besides, they wanted me to fly out to Redmond WA to interview and move there if I took the job...

Ding ding ding.. I think we have a winner. Although not sure winner is the correct word.

You're right though, you never know how things like that would have turned out.

[AndyBarnhart]

Originally Posted by ACobra289

Ding ding ding.. I think we have a winner. Although not sure winner is the correct word.

You're right though, you never know how things like that would have turned out.

It runs in my family. My dad is an avian disease specialist in the poultry industry. When I was a kid my dad was working for Vantress Farms in Duluth GA developing vaccines and supplements to help them create what was at the time one of the top producing breeds of chickens which they sold to other chicken farms. This one chicken farmer got the idea of buying up a bunch of other farms and going corporate and had enough farm that he decided to bring Vantress in as his own inernal supplier, taking them off the market and giving him a competitive advantage. They would be executives with stock in the bigger company. My dad came home all excited about it but we (the kids) blew a gasket when he talked about moving to Arkansas. He gave in and found another job. The farmer? Frank Tyson...