The Ever Changing Behaviors

[Flying Zombie]

You ever been in a deal before. You see something you gotta have. That one bike.. part, even a car and someone else notices how much attention it's getting. Sees the value and the cool. Comes in and offers the seller ten times what you're already in a handshake on for the previous figure..

A Silverking 50th came up on the pages today. Rare. Unusual. But $100!!!
I was first to bid and had the time and location mapped. I had the deal cinched, first on location, seller said Looking forward to seeing you Saturday..
I've never been able to afford one. I've never had that kind of scratch to put on a bike. Always liked them and this one was in a price range that was unbelievable but also for the first time at a price I could swing in addition to the cost to go get it from Iowa, 5.5hrs away.

Someone jumped into their messages after the deal was done. Lady selling said someone offered crazy money. 8 to 1000 for it but you were first and I'm gonna honor that. I was overjoyed she was sticking to our deal until they upped their bid another 500 and it was like talking to concrete.

Those folks are now selling to a major city to someone looking to resell for immediate profits in Milwaukee. Backed out completely. Gave me some two liner about how it's on their dads property and they have to honor that to how it's what they're husband was saying to anything to close the deal. Now, poor on the seller to taking back on a deal they agreed on with knowledge it was worth more., poor on the upper class hobbyists who couldn't let Just One go through without pulling the plug and taking it for themselves.

Thanks as well to the couple members here that literally pay up top dollar on whatever they like who bagged on me for the situation as if I'm not worth owning such a bike.
Classist behavior is ruining this hobby and I see now why all the familiar faces went to hiding. Nothing is safe anymore,.
What became a rare opportunity for someone who couldn't usually get something like that now just became another average deal among the highball guys,. Buy for half, sell for a 3rd more to someone in the circle. It's not about timing or right place anymore. It's about who you know who might see it too and I won't take part in that,.especially of guys here I can't believe did me dirty that way.

Friendly reminder:
Can't take it all with you to the grave,. Even the spoils of your ripped off gains. Let the next generation finally have a Crack without it having to be at an Estate Sale through a less educated family member selling it all off.

 

[Captain Awesome]

IMHO you are always better looking within the hobby than outside. Far too easy for that item to simply be a profit piece. True and genuine hobbyists”should” want that item to go to a place it will get used, loved, and carried on. I’d rather lose out on some money and know that it will carry on in good hands. I’ve had plenty of bikes that I could have sold for any/more profit but made sure that they end up in safe hands instead


Less than honorable = you’re dead to me


Look no further than the old school bmx market to see how deep pockets can obliterate a hobby and how fast honor goes out the window when the sun is blocked out by someone’s giant wallet or line of credit

Aggravating but don’t lose hope

 

[Flying Zombie]

IMHO you are always better looking within the hobby than outside. Far too easy for that item to simply be a profit piece. True and genuine hobbyists”should” want that item to go to a place it will get used, loved, and carried on. I’d rather lose out on some money and know that it will carry on in good hands. I’ve had plenty of bikes that I could have sold for any/more profit but made sure that they end up in safe hands instead


Less than honorable = you’re dead to me


Look no further than the old school bmx market to see how deep pockets can obliterate a hobby and how fast honor goes out the window when the sun is blocked out by someone’s giant wallet or line of credit

Aggravating but don’t lose hope

First real human words on the matter since.
You're right,. It's hard but as the saying goes, you simply cannot save them all.

I had a '36 Jeweltank Autocycle some years back. Got it whole out of a garage here in Wisconsin for a hundred bucks and a case of beer. Not even Good beer.. two months later I got to closer inspecting the elements of it, found it needed a braze,. The bumb tray and speedo cable with cog for the cross brace.. the guts in the tank.. so NEARLY whole. All the important stuff was there. I sold it and Kept it whole to someone who paid well worth it, but there was a chance he could have blown in apart for double the profit.
I still know that guy and he still has that bike, now complete and finished.

He only ever piped up publicly that one time to do that sale I ever saw but he kept his word on it.
I never let a bike go knowing a single original piece was being removed for a profit, even if it wasn't whole or in the best shape.

Theres honor and then there's personal gain. I was going to personally gain a very cool bike to learn about first hand at home,. Someone else decided to gain profit from an otherwise clean and done deal.,
I've talked to a number of sellers who aren't in the hobby who don't really deal with Hobbyists anymore because it becomes a pissing match over a sale,. What's right, what's not,. Being haggled down to nothing. A lot of it is feeling the temperature of the room, and usually I do okay., this would have made an already hard couple years just a glimmer better,. Especially coming back to the hobby the last two months.

I'm sorry to see some of the veterans going that same angle, thrashing to stay above water and make that last few deals any way they can before the Obituary gets writ as if the total count is gonna get noted in more than years lived.

 

[metalchewy]

I agree, Its all about being an honorable person.

There used to be a guy that would go to our weekly car guy get together that had amassed quite a lot of old car parts, memorabilia and more.

I had bought a few things from him, gas cap, window cranks etc, nothing big.

One time he showed up with some '65 Nevada plates wanted 50 for the pair. I told him I was going to go get the cash from an ATM in the bar across the parking lot.

Came back and the price was now $200 because his friend saw them and wanted them, didn't even he a '65 car to put them on. He offered $100 more than what we had struck the deal for. I couldn't take that extra $150 out of the budget.

I told the guy to take a f'n leap and 'advertized' for him every time I saw him after that, about what happened. Funny, he still had the plates.in his trunk for sal after that....

He ended up not coming back after a few months. I wasn't the only one he had screwed on a deal for greed. His friend neither. Looking back, i still think, what a bunch of morons.