It was better equipped than any Miata you can buy this year, it had $4k worth of genuinely unique wheels with bespoke engraving, and it only came one way (besides choice of roof) so everybody knows you have the bad boy. It's the '96 Grand Sport of NDs... and that $40k number is the floor, there are other results at $43-46k.
your comment on the "144 a month lambo bolian" and everything else on that show man. That really sent my down the baruth rabbithole.As a side note, that was the pinnacle of TST for me. Now it's become whatever this jerkoff is:
Matt used to be fun. Now he's just an NPC talking about how we should all drive hybrids. As someone who lives in India with middle class parents, I can tell you that when they asked me what they should buy to replace our venerable innova(basically a hilux with a mpv body on it), and they said the word hybrid, I lost my collective mind. Three of my friends have parents that own ev's and hybrid's(lol ev adoption everywhere except california is about 0.000004 %, tell that to mr. "I live in california and I have a job where I sit at home and write for a website so why dont we all just cycle to our nearest grocery store and school and buy two cars one fun and one ev why dont we all do that"). When you dont have a 9 figure trust fund from daddy "tiffany coo", sometimes your parents with government jobs dontt have the money to pay insurance on two cars and then fund their son's college in the US.
Lol. I mean nothing I read or watch is any interesting to google and tbh, it is pretty convinient lmao(this is a cry for help, they have me locked up in their basement). Does your onlyfans have feet streams?
Second, I'm with you. For something like a car, I want to crawl all over and under it before considering a purchase.
Agree with the article comment about car collecting, and hence auction sites catering to it, to fade. There are a couple young gearheads at my place of work, but otherwise I think the interest in cars in general is dropping off in the coming generations
I think that is blissfully wrong. As someone who's young and around young people, I assure you we acknowledge ev's but we dont give any more of a shit about them than a 60 year old from good ol' lubbock texas would. In fact, most of my friends swear by z's, gtr's and hellcats. The rest take an uber. That's it. Car culture will be alive. What's killing it is morons on car twitter telling me how I should live my life and how I should have an ev and a fun car and how a demon 170 is "dumb" and shit on it(probably because it doesn't matter to their narrative: https://jackbaruth.com/?p=20187) but somehow having a classic car and an ev is acceptable, but if I like a trx and a 2020 stick shift redeye with a henessey tune, I'm a "environmental heathen".
I got similar messages when i sold the truck I had in high school. The truck was semi broken half the time cause I was 16 and a crappy mechanic. Half my facebook dm's were some form of "wasn't this the truck you were always working on". Yes it was, but it was as fixed as an 80's Dodge product could be when I sold it.
Most everyone under the age of a million who likes cars has an IG. Now that you mention it, I'm surprised they haven't tried to be a place for people to sell cars. It wouldn't take too much for the guys who are already on there with a following for their car to try to sell their car to one of the people who've already been looking at their car on the shitter for years.
Facebook must have decided there's not enough money in it or something.
Also. I'm surprised that's what 30th anniversary miata's are going for. I might be remembering wrong, but I thought they were cheaper last summer. I remember REALLY wanting one but couldn't justify spending new car $$ on a used car that was gonna cost more to finance
I consider my ignorance/avoidance of social media (and its attendant acronym “language”) a badge of honor. (Maybe taking part here could be considered involvement in “social media”? Antisocial media?)
This got me thinking (dangerous). The lion’s share of my communication is via text message; yet I still don’t know most of that acronym stuff that presumably proliferated there. Those that I engage with using text messaging use actual words. Even my 21 year old great niece. It pays to know your audience. Well, I do have a 30-something friend that must explain at least one acronym each time we have a text discussion. Not sure which of us finds that more frustrating.
And now I just learned what FAFO is. From someone older than me! I wonder how many folks that use that shorthand constantly know what FUBAR and SNAFU stand for? Both more widely descriptive now than when they came into use.
YouTube exists for me only as a means to listen to music, watch old racing highlights, find pertinent clips from old movies/TV shows, etc. And not that often, frankly. One time I looked for a “how to” video; after listening to five minutes of inane blabber from the meathead on camera (before any real instruction commenced)— I was done.
Good how to videos are there and can be lifesavers. Unfortunately you often have to wade through 5-10 "unboxing" videos or "influencer" nonsense to find them.
Your thoughts on better consumer protection make me think of sites such as KEH and Adorama. They buy the camera gear, inspect it, rate it, and resell. I predict the original seller gets substantially less than if they sold direct Craigslist-style. As an end user I've never had an issue and what arrives in the mail is exactly as described in their rating systems. As a result I rarely buy new camera gear.
The contrary argument would be that few buyers would likely bid on a old VW coming thru Mecum, so you might get a deal .... if you knew it was legit ...?
Sportster/Nightster twins are on my to test ride (if the truck comes somewhere nearby for a demo day) list along with the Pan-Am even though I think the Pan America is ugly as sin.
I don't call it entertainment myself, but I know what you mean. I sold a '98 BMW 540 6-speed with almost 200k miles to someone who seemed burdened by the cost of the bridge toll and fuel to get it home (30 miles away).
There is no new rover. I do quite like a SD1 tho. With the buick V8. Squint hard enough, it looks like a daytona. Hot up that buick V8 with some cams, probably goes like a daytona.
I've never purchased from Carmax, but I sold to them on one occasion. The experience was great. I move around a lot, and sometimes on short notice. So, the ability to off load a car quickly and as late as possible before moving internationally was more than worth the grand or two I might have made had I sold it myself.
The best thing about buying from Carmax is the 30 day/1,500 mile return. Bought a Elantra last year and after 3 days realized I hated it. 3 weeks later it took an hour to return the Elantra. The next owner also returned it.
If you want to following the Elantra's merry journey here's the link. It's been to Austin - Plano - Freeport - Katy - Austin - Independence, MO and soon to Kansas City https://www.carmax.com/car/22790419
Absolutely. I bought a lot of used gear from Adorama and it always exceeded my expectations.
I have a Nikon D90 I no longer need and am thinking of selling it to them. I don't want the money so much as knowing it's being used by someone who wants it.
Anyone on this list looking for a starter DSLR, please message me.
“The industry perception, from what I heard during my time in said industry, is that BaT is operated and directed by complete idiots.”
Sounds like sour grapes to me, although I’d happily be called a complete idiot if I had $200 million in the bank (ok, maybe half that since he had to split it with Gentry) and was still working for the company for a non-zero annual salary.
I still like BaT because I don’t buy anything on there and I’ve followed it since the early days when it was just a few comments about 2-3 cars every day. That was a lot more fun.
I have enjoyed the various upstarts trying to cash in on their success. Hagerty seems to have just a few cars on auction at one time. Cars and Bids has probably done the best. AutoHunter does ok but probably not as well as B-J had hoped. Hemmings has never really gotten their effort off the ground.
I’ve made a few friends from BaT. Made a little $$ here and there writing for them and learned a lot about various cars too. They’ve gotten about 10 years of free copy-editing from too 😀. A lot of their auction “specialists” don’t seem to know much about the vehicles they’re writing up.
"Hold on, it gets better still. You might think that you’d be better off putting your Porsche 993 on Cars and Bids, since BaT already has five 993s on the site, but you’d be wrong — because the presence of your car will increase interest in the others, and vice versa. Every time an auction closes on a car like yours, you basically inherit all the bidders but the top one."
A couple of miles from where I'm sitting is the site of the Northland Mall, opened the year I was born, 1954, regarded as the country's first regional shopping mall. Now being redeveloped, it was originally built by the J.L. Hudson company, Detroit's version of Macy's, but even with the region's most prominent retailer as an anchor they had trouble at first renting out the other space. Operators of shoe stores would say, "Why should I locate there, you already have a shoe store." They didn't realize that if there was a bunch of shoe stores in one general location, that's where people would go to buy shoes.
It may be apocryphal, but I've heard that is the same strategy for fast food. Wendy's or Burger King would site a restaurant near a McDonald's to grab some of that potential customer traffic
I believe Jack did an article about these "chicken corners." Maybe he could post an archived version of it so that the host doesn't receive any additional clicks. It was a good one as I recall.
I’ve bought and sold on both sites you mentioned. A couple thoughts.
1) the C&B “community” is largely half as intelligent and informed as BaT. A lot are dick riders of noted grifter and champagne socialist Doug Demuro. You can go look for yourself; there are E46 M3 auctions on that site that come and go with no mentions of VANOS or rod bearings. Any attempt to pick too many nits will invariably be met with a chorus of “where’s your bid?!?” Or “looks like EAG showed up”.
2) C&B bidders seem to not care if they get banned, or at least care much less, because most know this is a second rate platform. One of the cars I sold on that platform, I had the high bidder show up fully prepared to not take the car. I had to let him inspect and drive it before he would hand over the cash (and had I not gotten a sweet price for a quick and ethical flip I would have told him to fuck off). On BaT, you don’t want to get banned, or at least will care more, as who knows if YOUR HOLY GRAIL, your any $ amount car, might show up there. This incentivizes some higher level of seller confidence for sure on BaT.
3) I’ve had more normal interactions and sales off Craigslist than C&B. All my buyers have been freaks in some way. Craigslist might be a little “rural” and boomer, but tends to be more honest of a transaction IMO with people knowing what they got themselves into.
Also side note I noticed you didn’t mention CL. That’s still my go to for stuff I want to drive versus collect (or accumulate)
4) For some reason foreigners love C&B. No clue. I’ve been asked to ship out of country more there than selling Knick knacks on FB marketplace. It’s weird.
5) the UX on C&B I have to admit is slightly better for selling. Other than the retina searing colors, that is. BaT you tend to be needing to look for something “specific” and search or use the alert function. C&B you can entice someone to buy something they’ve never heard of or cared about previously with some nice pics and good customer service.
Ultimately as a platform for running an auction, C&B is better to me, but I’d never run a no reserve C&B auction on a car I cared about or had a high cost basis on. If I wipe out on flipping a Sentra SE-R, whatever, but on a GT R? Never.
Lastly cause this is getting long- I like buying in this format because 1) no fucking car sales people 2) no one is going to snipe or come in and steal my prospect I’m doing my due diligence 3) dealer can’t play “oh I have another buyer” games 4) I can request documents, videos, specific pictures etc and if I don’t like them or I don’t like the answer I can pass knowing another is gonna come out in a matter of months and 5) I have SOME form of recourse if something is fucked. IME it’s much better than going back to some dealer. Did I mention I hate dealers and car salesmen?
Hate the process. Luckily I don’t desire almost a single new car and I’ll never have to buy one again if I don’t want. Tried on the CTR, cancelled my G80 order, just miserable.
I called like 20+ honda dealers for an FL5, minimum ADM was $5k (which im OK with paying with), and those move fast, but most wanted like $55-65k, and many of them seemed dismissive to even mention the car in the first place
Thankfully my experience at Acura for an Integra was much better and the process was smoothed out
And I almost forgot. despite all of the above, I have been warned by the C&B moderation team more than once for being too “abrasive” or “mean” about people’s cars (aka people trying to pass off junk). They run that shit like a Facebook community standards pool party. And before anyone says “well you can unhide comments on it!” I have had my comments straight up deleted by their dedicated jannies, I mean mod team, many times.
This is fair. I was reminded this morning that several Baruth Substackers (and Wordpressers, before that) have reached out to me via email and LinkedIn. It's rare to be be in a, ugh, *community* that expands beyond silly usernames and profile pictures on a comment feed. And some of the people here ARE danged intelligent and seem full of wisdom, which I respect.
Hey, at least your honest. Unfortunately, you would spend your newly found Youtube wealth on broads, booze and racecars, stop making new videos and have to take a job as a Motor Trend writer to pay your legal fees or at least I hope you would. If I have to watch you on Youtube I need Supernova growth followed by failure that is incomprehensible.
Part of the problem of being me is that most of my readers are successful and proud people in their own right, and more likely to challenge me than affirm me. Doug plays to a different audience.
I’ll be honest, I can’t see “detesting” Doug. What are his sins? Wearing two tshirts and being overly exuberant while geeking out over car minutiae? He’s mostly just annoying, so as a result I don’t watch his stuff, but I don’t hate the man for it. Seems like he built a nice life for himself doing something he loves. More than most of us can say. Sure I understand he started out with some insurance settlement or something, but who cares?
The best reason to despise him is that he is a calculating and entirely inauthentic person who has noticeably lowered the quality of every field in which he participates. There's nothing personal about that, but there was also nothing personal about any of the people who closed factories and sent them overseas.
I think he was pretty brave to deride meghan markle. Shouldn't have apologised for it. She deserved all that and more. Even though I fully support tate's arrest, and dont agree with the redpill bullshit to an extent that I'm willing to support a sex offender, he had a great take on the markle drama: https://youtu.be/Hg3pI-FnpPs?t=742
1) if the primary accusation is is being “dick riders”... have you ever spent 90k on a beat ass RS2 because Jack owned it? You ever buy a shirt with something jack says in one of his YouTube videos? You ever buy a car based on a fake “take” provided by jack at the top of an auction website? Doug’s schtick would be easily imitable by anyone with Porsche lawsuit money and a punchable face. I doubt there’s a many people with the capability to reproduce content you see here; I’m paying an artisan for his services. I support a lot of small artists and near homeless people in my personal life, this one just writes about cars
2) if the primary accusation is Jack being a grifter.... he’s doing a really bad job of it (no offense Jack). I see no insta pics with MAGNUM CONDOM WALKER Porsches or big titted press ladies. If I’m missing those lmk
3) if the primary accusation is champagne socialist... cmon now
"You ever buy a shirt with something jack says in one of his YouTube videos?"
In 1997, a BMX team sold a shirt with something I wrote on it. Thankfully, it was a complete and utter failure -- worse yet, I think my first wife threw away MY shirt!
Go look at the “previously owned by doug demuro” RS2 he sold. Beat as fuck. Unfortunately Hoover who for all intents and purposes seems more genuine than doug has jumped on the bandwagon too.
I'm not really that surprised by anything you've written. In much the same way that readers of this site tend to be prickly and a bit intellectual, I would imagine that any site primarily populated by DeMuro fans would be notable for idiocy and ethical lapses.
Given how 7-Eleven does a pretty good job pandering to the IG community (I will admit i do love free slurpees and their shirts) , they could make a killing if they were to tie in IG car auctions as you previously mentioned in the article with some product promo or something of the like
I shudder at your comment about needing to interact with every commenter on BaT. I’d be OK with legit questions, but all the stupid questions and comments from the peanut gallery would tire me out, and it appears to be bad form to verbally eviscerate them even if you are right. Would be great if they had different comment areas for the real bidders, another for legit experts, and a third for the vapid morons (“glwta!,” “brought my popcorn for this one, hurr durr durrr,” etc).
it really irritates me that experts comment on BaT for free and the seller and Hurst profit from their knowledge. I guess it’s just the sign of the times where expertise is valued at zero or expert value is Hoover-ed up by lizards. I am somewhat of an expert on 105/115 series Alfas and limit sharing my expertise either in person or on Alfa forums. I learned my stuff from the Alfisti old timers in the 80’s and now I’m one of those old timers. I need to pass that knowledge on, but damned if I will do it to help Hurst or Doug DeMoron.
I had an internal job pitched to me a couple of years ago. Exposure was offered in reply to my request of a higher grade and more money. It was all I could do to not laugh in his face.
I want to know the smart way to BUY a classic car. I've been driving company cars for the last 25 years (a great perk, but I don't get a lot of options) but am finally closing in on the time when I can get an old Chevy or Ford from the 60s with a V8 and a stick shift. My pockets aren't real deep, but I can see spending $30-60K for something fun to own and drive, take to cars & coffee, drive in the Independence Day parade...you get the idea. But how to go about it without getting screwed?
Go to local car shows. You can usually find several for sale there.
Decide what you want. Join the local and national car club for the year. Tell them you are looking, somebody will have one for sale. I think there are 5-10 for sale in my Falcon club right now, plus when someone is trying to rid of one, they often contact the club Get to know the club expert, he often knows the cars from the local area and can tell you their history
My dad's best friend is selling a '68 Mercury Cougar. 351, stick shift with slightly larger than stock tires in the back. He's been a mechanic for decades and the car is clean enough to eat off of but it's also not crazy rare or high performance. Might be good for your use case.
You should look into this Cougar. Like the Falcon it shares parts with the Mustang, which makes upkeep much easier. It is nice to go to NAPA and they have your part. Just the process of looking at a high quality car teaches you a lot. Heck I would be interested if I was not working on a Bobcat right now
That sounds great. The best thing about it— it would stand out in a sea of Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs, et al. Actually the best thing is the manual transmission.
I'm not in a position to buy a classic car yet, but I've long thought a Cougar would be my leading choice for all the reasons mentioned in this thread.
The Cougar is such a cool car. I vividly remember buying that car as one of my first purchases in Gran Turismo 2 when I was...maybe 7 or 8 and racing it for a long time.
My fiance's father was showing me some old photos recently and had a photo of him as a kid in the driveway of his house when he was a kid in the 60s. Mom had a sweet 67 or 68 XR7 with an exceedingly classy landau roof as her daily driver. She had great taste in cars apparently - and this was BEFORE she remarried to someone who raced at Le Mans 10 times and distributed Cobras for Shelby.
I got Amazon prime just about as soon as it came out. I dumped it a year or so ago partly out of pique with Bezos and mostly because I didn’t see the value in it any longer.
I got burned on counterfeit items twice and now use Amazon only to fill my kindle.
I never used their music at all and their movies only rarely. It’s starting to give me a Facebook 2019 feel, though I’m aware that sounds completely ridiculous.
I’m definitely a mid-stage curmudgeon, but the commerce internet is swirling around the same toilet as the information superhighway internet as far as I can see.
Walmart has a prime competitor that's 90% of the way there and includes free grocery delivery. Never have to worry about fakes anymore and grocery delivery is way more valuable to me than streaming.
I have a theory as to why Amazon never got quite the level of hate Walmart did (deservedly, IMHO, because I saw it kill the downtowns of many small towns in Texas in the 1990s):
All the same people who railed against Walmart can't live without Amazon.
Here in McPherson, KS I was on the city planning commission when the Hell-Mart Stooper Center was under construction in the early 2000s. It was troubling that; at the time of opening, only 8 of the 400 or so employees of the store would have been able to afford a house in our zip code. Granted, we're fairly expensive for Kansas, but come on.
Since then, it abundantly clear that they systemically treat the staff like shit. Also, after running one of the two local competing grocery stores out of business, began raising prices and much less aggressively stocking the shelves.
Our little town is far from "eviscerated" by Wal-Mart. Its actually not that hard to rarely darken their door. This is good, because I don't believe that they deserve my business.
Their inventory system isn't very good. They're often out of stock on things they say they have, and in a limited sample size I've had two delivery screwups with Walmart compared to years of Amazon deliveries. You also need to get to $35 for free delivery when you pay for Wal Mart, which isn't competitive with Amazon. Not ready for prime time.
Almost all of my consumables come from Amazon, most of them on a schedule. I get shitter paper once a month, Tide once a month, paper towels and Cascade pellets and dish soap 3-packs once a quarter, etc etc. I’m sure it costs a little bit more but it automated all the shit I have to buy anyways, I’m never out, and I never have to think about it.
Two of my boys do internet marketing. Some of that is on Amazon. They say it's a cesspool of counterfeit items and the one boy says he'd never put anything into his body that came from Amazon
I am banned from commenting on Cars and Bids. Pointed out the hilarity of flippers claiming "the car wasn't right for me 🥺👉👈" when asked why they were selling.
Oh, and my comment about selling a car with 10 year old tires being moronic got flagged as well.
The 360 with which he failed to attract even a single woman?(Apart from his wife, if I haven't gotten my timeline botched up. )And any lady attracted to a guy with a 20 year old ferrari that a spec miata could probably cream around any track strikes me as being, uhm...., difficult.
Yahoo auctions was by far the best place to pick up old ColecoVision and Atari 2600 carts back in the day. Standard price at the time was $1.50 per cart with free shipping. eBay sellers seemed to frown on anything less than 10x that.
Jacks is probably going to kick me off the site, but I bought a car off of BAT earlier this year, a 1975 Mercury Bobcat (Ford Pinto). The auction went well, and I paid a little less than I expected.
Downsides
The car is not as represented. Since I bought it, I have had to put a new exhaust system on it, rebuilt the front end and need to go through the brakes. It also needs tires. I would expect this with any old car that I buy, but I would have been happier had the seller mentioned these things. All they could talk about was the oil change and the new air filter.
I love the car. I have low expections of old cars when I drag them home.
Going to take it on a vintage car rally in May here in Colorado. Should look great next to the 911's, Panteras and Ferrari's.
It is a hatch. The only wagon I wanted has the 2 portholes for the rear windows. Pintos have vanished, this is the first one in decent shape I found in Colorado after several months of desultory looking.
My buddy had one of those pinto wagons with the portholes back in the day. His had been wrecked and repainted so the groovy stripes were gone, but it was a fun little shitbox.
This is a 3 day driving rally. We are starting in Grand Junction this year and driving all over southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. We will drive about 800 miles in 3 days. This is a rally for people who know how to work on cars. There is no mechanical support, except for each other. We have a couple of guys who drag something out of a field and drive it every year. They did a Jaguar head gasket on the side of the road one year.
Not sure where you are in the Front Range, but over in SE Aurora (Hampden and Tower), there is a nice impromptu car show every Friday evening at the Sonic there. There is usually a decent variety of cars.
Red on red on red. I'll bet it even had the pillow tufted seats. Too bad the manufacturers don't put hat kind of effort into their small cars these days...
I’ve never payed any attention to BaT; but I do have a friend that sends me some listings from time to time. That’s certainly where I would go to sell something; seeing the absurd prices.
I have bought two motorcycles that I consider collectible on eBay. One is more a piece of historical memorabilia, so I just went for it. The other is usable and an ‘02. Paid a local dealer to go over it; put a sales agreement in place with the seller (I think he was more nervous about the transaction than me) and pulled the trigger. Both turned out just as I hoped. Not sure I would do it again; definitely less likely with a car. Rather nerve wracking.
I've SOLD two Buells and a '78 Honda GL1000 on eBay, though 2010 was the most recent. Other than assuming sale prices might have been higher if I had been patient enough for ads and phone calls, all were good experiences.
It was better equipped than any Miata you can buy this year, it had $4k worth of genuinely unique wheels with bespoke engraving, and it only came one way (besides choice of roof) so everybody knows you have the bad boy. It's the '96 Grand Sport of NDs... and that $40k number is the floor, there are other results at $43-46k.
Imagine being so old you use duckduckgo holy shit is jacks readership age skewed
And to think I used to actively manipulate Excite! listings for a living, twenty years ago!
I think I might be your youngest listener. 17 lol. I was going through the TST podcast archives and came across this gem: https://open.spotify.com/episode/78lcQ0PRfywc3VfmSN9hsC?si=1f3234a821ed4527
your comment on the "144 a month lambo bolian" and everything else on that show man. That really sent my down the baruth rabbithole.As a side note, that was the pinnacle of TST for me. Now it's become whatever this jerkoff is:
https://twitter.com/TheSmokingTire/status/1644360727900356609?s=20
Matt used to be fun. Now he's just an NPC talking about how we should all drive hybrids. As someone who lives in India with middle class parents, I can tell you that when they asked me what they should buy to replace our venerable innova(basically a hilux with a mpv body on it), and they said the word hybrid, I lost my collective mind. Three of my friends have parents that own ev's and hybrid's(lol ev adoption everywhere except california is about 0.000004 %, tell that to mr. "I live in california and I have a job where I sit at home and write for a website so why dont we all just cycle to our nearest grocery store and school and buy two cars one fun and one ev why dont we all do that"). When you dont have a 9 figure trust fund from daddy "tiffany coo", sometimes your parents with government jobs dontt have the money to pay insurance on two cars and then fund their son's college in the US.
Lol. I mean nothing I read or watch is any interesting to google and tbh, it is pretty convinient lmao(this is a cry for help, they have me locked up in their basement). Does your onlyfans have feet streams?
I don't use goolag or DDG but am curious as to what the young hep cats use these days.
I am reminded of this gem: https://stonetoss.com/comic/e-girls/
I didn't understand a word of what you said but that comic is kinda funny bixby is the goofiest ass assistant
Get one. It may be the last real one of the breed. You won't regret it.
First, nice Vacation reference.
Second, I'm with you. For something like a car, I want to crawl all over and under it before considering a purchase.
Agree with the article comment about car collecting, and hence auction sites catering to it, to fade. There are a couple young gearheads at my place of work, but otherwise I think the interest in cars in general is dropping off in the coming generations
I think that is blissfully wrong. As someone who's young and around young people, I assure you we acknowledge ev's but we dont give any more of a shit about them than a 60 year old from good ol' lubbock texas would. In fact, most of my friends swear by z's, gtr's and hellcats. The rest take an uber. That's it. Car culture will be alive. What's killing it is morons on car twitter telling me how I should live my life and how I should have an ev and a fun car and how a demon 170 is "dumb" and shit on it(probably because it doesn't matter to their narrative: https://jackbaruth.com/?p=20187) but somehow having a classic car and an ev is acceptable, but if I like a trx and a 2020 stick shift redeye with a henessey tune, I'm a "environmental heathen".
"Where's my old car?"
This comment has been flagged as non-constructive
I got that treatment when I pointed out the very public previous mechanical failure of a race car being sold on BaT!
Lol, many such cases!
I got similar messages when i sold the truck I had in high school. The truck was semi broken half the time cause I was 16 and a crappy mechanic. Half my facebook dm's were some form of "wasn't this the truck you were always working on". Yes it was, but it was as fixed as an 80's Dodge product could be when I sold it.
The father of a friend always said, "You can't fix an old Mopar. you can only work on it."
Ha
Too funny.
I'm a day late and a $ short. All I see of a comment with 26 likes is "This comment has been flagged as non-constructive"
That's the joke -- BaT is highly eager to flag comments as non-constructive.
Substack doesn't even have a mechanism for that.
(but you should've seen it before it was flagged!)
Most everyone under the age of a million who likes cars has an IG. Now that you mention it, I'm surprised they haven't tried to be a place for people to sell cars. It wouldn't take too much for the guys who are already on there with a following for their car to try to sell their car to one of the people who've already been looking at their car on the shitter for years.
Facebook must have decided there's not enough money in it or something.
Also. I'm surprised that's what 30th anniversary miata's are going for. I might be remembering wrong, but I thought they were cheaper last summer. I remember REALLY wanting one but couldn't justify spending new car $$ on a used car that was gonna cost more to finance
Love it, I’m under a million years old (62), like cars (& motorcycles) and I don’t “have an IG”. I assume that means Instagram account.
Yeah that's what it means, but IDK if you can claim to not be a million if you didn't know that parlance ;)
I’m under a million, like cars, and don’t have an insta because I am ancient in spirit.
I consider my ignorance/avoidance of social media (and its attendant acronym “language”) a badge of honor. (Maybe taking part here could be considered involvement in “social media”? Antisocial media?)
This got me thinking (dangerous). The lion’s share of my communication is via text message; yet I still don’t know most of that acronym stuff that presumably proliferated there. Those that I engage with using text messaging use actual words. Even my 21 year old great niece. It pays to know your audience. Well, I do have a 30-something friend that must explain at least one acronym each time we have a text discussion. Not sure which of us finds that more frustrating.
"A Youtuber that does "Prank" videos took one or two to the stomach and liver. The stuff online is cringe and harassment."
If this happened often enough, it could significantly reduce public support for gun control.
And now I just learned what FAFO is. From someone older than me! I wonder how many folks that use that shorthand constantly know what FUBAR and SNAFU stand for? Both more widely descriptive now than when they came into use.
YouTube exists for me only as a means to listen to music, watch old racing highlights, find pertinent clips from old movies/TV shows, etc. And not that often, frankly. One time I looked for a “how to” video; after listening to five minutes of inane blabber from the meathead on camera (before any real instruction commenced)— I was done.
Hard to feel bad for that asshole that got shot.
Good how to videos are there and can be lifesavers. Unfortunately you often have to wade through 5-10 "unboxing" videos or "influencer" nonsense to find them.
Your thoughts on better consumer protection make me think of sites such as KEH and Adorama. They buy the camera gear, inspect it, rate it, and resell. I predict the original seller gets substantially less than if they sold direct Craigslist-style. As an end user I've never had an issue and what arrives in the mail is exactly as described in their rating systems. As a result I rarely buy new camera gear.
The contrary argument would be that few buyers would likely bid on a old VW coming thru Mecum, so you might get a deal .... if you knew it was legit ...?
I suspect they will seamlessly shift to pickup trucks and more recent domestics, which are both raising steam as we speak.
As I have said before, if there was some market where it was possible to short muscle car futures I would put my life savings in it.
Sportster/Nightster twins are on my to test ride (if the truck comes somewhere nearby for a demo day) list along with the Pan-Am even though I think the Pan America is ugly as sin.
New Sportster is really nice.
That’s what I thought about Lugers and WWII surplus arms. Has not proven to be the case thus far.
That's because they have appeal beyond a given generation in a way that a lot of Boomer favorites don't. IMO.
I don't call it entertainment myself, but I know what you mean. I sold a '98 BMW 540 6-speed with almost 200k miles to someone who seemed burdened by the cost of the bridge toll and fuel to get it home (30 miles away).
When are people going to understand there's no prestige in driving a 15-year-old Mercedes?
When there isn't, which depending on the community involved is not yet the case.
Wait, are you telling me there’s prestige to be had in driving a car?!
The 30 year old ones are better than the new ones. The 15 year old ones are close to the low point, which would be around 1998-2000, I guess.
When they understand there's no prestige in driving any Mercedes
You didn't have to call me out directly like that.
I wouldn't mind having another Jag or P38. The new Rovers leave me cold.
There is no new rover. I do quite like a SD1 tho. With the buick V8. Squint hard enough, it looks like a daytona. Hot up that buick V8 with some cams, probably goes like a daytona.
I've read economics papers that suggested consistent markers of poverty are:
- Not finishing high school
- Single parenthood
I would add borrowing money on a 15 year old high end luxury car to the list.
I've never purchased from Carmax, but I sold to them on one occasion. The experience was great. I move around a lot, and sometimes on short notice. So, the ability to off load a car quickly and as late as possible before moving internationally was more than worth the grand or two I might have made had I sold it myself.
I used them to dump a leased BMW 328 M Sport Touring. Worked great for that situation
The best thing about buying from Carmax is the 30 day/1,500 mile return. Bought a Elantra last year and after 3 days realized I hated it. 3 weeks later it took an hour to return the Elantra. The next owner also returned it.
If you want to following the Elantra's merry journey here's the link. It's been to Austin - Plano - Freeport - Katy - Austin - Independence, MO and soon to Kansas City https://www.carmax.com/car/22790419
I think Johnny Cash wrote a song about that! 😂
can't say, never used it or looked into it.
In a nation of middlemen, there's an example of when it's genuinely useful!
Absolutely. I bought a lot of used gear from Adorama and it always exceeded my expectations.
I have a Nikon D90 I no longer need and am thinking of selling it to them. I don't want the money so much as knowing it's being used by someone who wants it.
Anyone on this list looking for a starter DSLR, please message me.
“The industry perception, from what I heard during my time in said industry, is that BaT is operated and directed by complete idiots.”
Sounds like sour grapes to me, although I’d happily be called a complete idiot if I had $200 million in the bank (ok, maybe half that since he had to split it with Gentry) and was still working for the company for a non-zero annual salary.
I still like BaT because I don’t buy anything on there and I’ve followed it since the early days when it was just a few comments about 2-3 cars every day. That was a lot more fun.
I have enjoyed the various upstarts trying to cash in on their success. Hagerty seems to have just a few cars on auction at one time. Cars and Bids has probably done the best. AutoHunter does ok but probably not as well as B-J had hoped. Hemmings has never really gotten their effort off the ground.
I’ve made a few friends from BaT. Made a little $$ here and there writing for them and learned a lot about various cars too. They’ve gotten about 10 years of free copy-editing from too 😀. A lot of their auction “specialists” don’t seem to know much about the vehicles they’re writing up.
“Copy-editing from me too 😀.
I wish I would’ve bought a 997 on C&B when it had its debut. They were selling for like 35k in good condition.
The first 996 they sold went for like $10k too.
$9k too much!
Ouch
They've had some sell for under $20k recently! Nature is healing.
"Hold on, it gets better still. You might think that you’d be better off putting your Porsche 993 on Cars and Bids, since BaT already has five 993s on the site, but you’d be wrong — because the presence of your car will increase interest in the others, and vice versa. Every time an auction closes on a car like yours, you basically inherit all the bidders but the top one."
A couple of miles from where I'm sitting is the site of the Northland Mall, opened the year I was born, 1954, regarded as the country's first regional shopping mall. Now being redeveloped, it was originally built by the J.L. Hudson company, Detroit's version of Macy's, but even with the region's most prominent retailer as an anchor they had trouble at first renting out the other space. Operators of shoe stores would say, "Why should I locate there, you already have a shoe store." They didn't realize that if there was a bunch of shoe stores in one general location, that's where people would go to buy shoes.
It may be apocryphal, but I've heard that is the same strategy for fast food. Wendy's or Burger King would site a restaurant near a McDonald's to grab some of that potential customer traffic
There's a Home Depot and a Lowe's next to each other not that far from here.
I believe Jack did an article about these "chicken corners." Maybe he could post an archived version of it so that the host doesn't receive any additional clicks. It was a good one as I recall.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230124171046/https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/avoidable-contact/avoidable-contact-142-using-the-chicken-corner-strategy-to-save-new-car-enthusiasm/
There it is! Thanks!
I’ve bought and sold on both sites you mentioned. A couple thoughts.
1) the C&B “community” is largely half as intelligent and informed as BaT. A lot are dick riders of noted grifter and champagne socialist Doug Demuro. You can go look for yourself; there are E46 M3 auctions on that site that come and go with no mentions of VANOS or rod bearings. Any attempt to pick too many nits will invariably be met with a chorus of “where’s your bid?!?” Or “looks like EAG showed up”.
2) C&B bidders seem to not care if they get banned, or at least care much less, because most know this is a second rate platform. One of the cars I sold on that platform, I had the high bidder show up fully prepared to not take the car. I had to let him inspect and drive it before he would hand over the cash (and had I not gotten a sweet price for a quick and ethical flip I would have told him to fuck off). On BaT, you don’t want to get banned, or at least will care more, as who knows if YOUR HOLY GRAIL, your any $ amount car, might show up there. This incentivizes some higher level of seller confidence for sure on BaT.
3) I’ve had more normal interactions and sales off Craigslist than C&B. All my buyers have been freaks in some way. Craigslist might be a little “rural” and boomer, but tends to be more honest of a transaction IMO with people knowing what they got themselves into.
Also side note I noticed you didn’t mention CL. That’s still my go to for stuff I want to drive versus collect (or accumulate)
4) For some reason foreigners love C&B. No clue. I’ve been asked to ship out of country more there than selling Knick knacks on FB marketplace. It’s weird.
5) the UX on C&B I have to admit is slightly better for selling. Other than the retina searing colors, that is. BaT you tend to be needing to look for something “specific” and search or use the alert function. C&B you can entice someone to buy something they’ve never heard of or cared about previously with some nice pics and good customer service.
Ultimately as a platform for running an auction, C&B is better to me, but I’d never run a no reserve C&B auction on a car I cared about or had a high cost basis on. If I wipe out on flipping a Sentra SE-R, whatever, but on a GT R? Never.
Lastly cause this is getting long- I like buying in this format because 1) no fucking car sales people 2) no one is going to snipe or come in and steal my prospect I’m doing my due diligence 3) dealer can’t play “oh I have another buyer” games 4) I can request documents, videos, specific pictures etc and if I don’t like them or I don’t like the answer I can pass knowing another is gonna come out in a matter of months and 5) I have SOME form of recourse if something is fucked. IME it’s much better than going back to some dealer. Did I mention I hate dealers and car salesmen?
"Did I tell you about my new ride? It's a ~Telluride~".
^ Can't put a price on that!
Sorry; that wasn't meant as a slam.
First, congratulations on being a father and needing a kid-hauler.
I was kind of struggling to get up to date with the fact that a Kia CUV is the new hotness, and just having some dad-joke fun with the name.
Is it perhaps a crappy 242 bertone?
The major auto groups forecast at least 18 more months of it.
We live in Soviet Russia now, basically.
They had the people’s children fulfill the same role
Hate the process. Luckily I don’t desire almost a single new car and I’ll never have to buy one again if I don’t want. Tried on the CTR, cancelled my G80 order, just miserable.
I called like 20+ honda dealers for an FL5, minimum ADM was $5k (which im OK with paying with), and those move fast, but most wanted like $55-65k, and many of them seemed dismissive to even mention the car in the first place
Thankfully my experience at Acura for an Integra was much better and the process was smoothed out
An Integra type s? I was curious if those would be easier or harder than CTR.
And yes I was offered to cut the line for a championship white CTR... for 25k ADM 😂
I know someone selling a new one...
Email me the particulars if he doesn’t want a mind bending price for it
Fuck dealers.
And I almost forgot. despite all of the above, I have been warned by the C&B moderation team more than once for being too “abrasive” or “mean” about people’s cars (aka people trying to pass off junk). They run that shit like a Facebook community standards pool party. And before anyone says “well you can unhide comments on it!” I have had my comments straight up deleted by their dedicated jannies, I mean mod team, many times.
Too "abrasive" and "mean?"
I like the cut of your jib!
Fuck jannies in every capacity.
And how.
What’s a jannie?
Forum moderators, short for 'janitors'. Think of a hall monitor or HOA president with anonymity.
THEY DO IT FOR FREE!
> A lot are dick riders of noted grifter and champagne socialist Doug Demuro
Uh... SBO? We *paid money* to read this blog. What does that make us?
A group of patrons providing patronage.
a group of patrons patronizing while providing patronage!
A group of patrons being paternal to the paterfamilias!
This is fair. I was reminded this morning that several Baruth Substackers (and Wordpressers, before that) have reached out to me via email and LinkedIn. It's rare to be be in a, ugh, *community* that expands beyond silly usernames and profile pictures on a comment feed. And some of the people here ARE danged intelligent and seem full of wisdom, which I respect.
I would trade all of you assholes for ten million loyal YouTube cucks!
Hey, at least your honest. Unfortunately, you would spend your newly found Youtube wealth on broads, booze and racecars, stop making new videos and have to take a job as a Motor Trend writer to pay your legal fees or at least I hope you would. If I have to watch you on Youtube I need Supernova growth followed by failure that is incomprehensible.
Wise and respectable men, obviously.
Part of the problem of being me is that most of my readers are successful and proud people in their own right, and more likely to challenge me than affirm me. Doug plays to a different audience.
He does play a character in his public persona; if I didn’t know him personally, I would detest him.
Clarkson now plays a caricature of himself, as well.
"He does play a character in his public persona"
I'll take your word for that, but I still detest him.
I’ll be honest, I can’t see “detesting” Doug. What are his sins? Wearing two tshirts and being overly exuberant while geeking out over car minutiae? He’s mostly just annoying, so as a result I don’t watch his stuff, but I don’t hate the man for it. Seems like he built a nice life for himself doing something he loves. More than most of us can say. Sure I understand he started out with some insurance settlement or something, but who cares?
The best reason to despise him is that he is a calculating and entirely inauthentic person who has noticeably lowered the quality of every field in which he participates. There's nothing personal about that, but there was also nothing personal about any of the people who closed factories and sent them overseas.
He hides a sharp mind behind a constructed veneer of affable buffoonery.
That's more than enough reason.
I think he was pretty brave to deride meghan markle. Shouldn't have apologised for it. She deserved all that and more. Even though I fully support tate's arrest, and dont agree with the redpill bullshit to an extent that I'm willing to support a sex offender, he had a great take on the markle drama: https://youtu.be/Hg3pI-FnpPs?t=742
I’d like that comment but will not give you the affirmation
He HAS to.
1) if the primary accusation is is being “dick riders”... have you ever spent 90k on a beat ass RS2 because Jack owned it? You ever buy a shirt with something jack says in one of his YouTube videos? You ever buy a car based on a fake “take” provided by jack at the top of an auction website? Doug’s schtick would be easily imitable by anyone with Porsche lawsuit money and a punchable face. I doubt there’s a many people with the capability to reproduce content you see here; I’m paying an artisan for his services. I support a lot of small artists and near homeless people in my personal life, this one just writes about cars
2) if the primary accusation is Jack being a grifter.... he’s doing a really bad job of it (no offense Jack). I see no insta pics with MAGNUM CONDOM WALKER Porsches or big titted press ladies. If I’m missing those lmk
3) if the primary accusation is champagne socialist... cmon now
"You ever buy a shirt with something jack says in one of his YouTube videos?"
In 1997, a BMX team sold a shirt with something I wrote on it. Thankfully, it was a complete and utter failure -- worse yet, I think my first wife threw away MY shirt!
“ZOMG check out my new cars n coffee shirt!!! It says THEEEESSSE buttcheeks only open for DOUG!!!!”
Can't see him as a "top" tbh
Way too much gesticulating to be a top
It was indeed #1. Reading your screed has given me renewed hope that I am not one of those creatures. You paint a bleak picture of his fanbase.
Go look at the “previously owned by doug demuro” RS2 he sold. Beat as fuck. Unfortunately Hoover who for all intents and purposes seems more genuine than doug has jumped on the bandwagon too.
Further, if I ever catch Jack flexing his $5M Nantucket house, I’m reversing the hell out of all my substack charges!
Substack paid for the concrete floor in my barn, which is infinitely more valuable to me than a Nantucket home...
Imagine what you would be able to pay for if you offered mErcH here
FWIW, I bought a DTTS shirt from Jack several years ago.
A bargain at twice the price!
Frat Bros?
I'm not really that surprised by anything you've written. In much the same way that readers of this site tend to be prickly and a bit intellectual, I would imagine that any site primarily populated by DeMuro fans would be notable for idiocy and ethical lapses.
Did you just call us pseudo intellectuals? How dare you! #sarcasm
Sold a car on Craigslist and it was a great experience. Can’t say much for auctions, don’t trust ‘em
CL is my jam.
Given how 7-Eleven does a pretty good job pandering to the IG community (I will admit i do love free slurpees and their shirts) , they could make a killing if they were to tie in IG car auctions as you previously mentioned in the article with some product promo or something of the like
You're not wrong!
I shudder at your comment about needing to interact with every commenter on BaT. I’d be OK with legit questions, but all the stupid questions and comments from the peanut gallery would tire me out, and it appears to be bad form to verbally eviscerate them even if you are right. Would be great if they had different comment areas for the real bidders, another for legit experts, and a third for the vapid morons (“glwta!,” “brought my popcorn for this one, hurr durr durrr,” etc).
Yes...I'd combine Categories I&II.
it really irritates me that experts comment on BaT for free and the seller and Hurst profit from their knowledge. I guess it’s just the sign of the times where expertise is valued at zero or expert value is Hoover-ed up by lizards. I am somewhat of an expert on 105/115 series Alfas and limit sharing my expertise either in person or on Alfa forums. I learned my stuff from the Alfisti old timers in the 80’s and now I’m one of those old timers. I need to pass that knowledge on, but damned if I will do it to help Hurst or Doug DeMoron.
The BaT experts get paid in internet esteem.
The only currency that matters is updoots
Can I buy a hot dog with all this EXPOSURE?
fuck no
I had an internal job pitched to me a couple of years ago. Exposure was offered in reply to my request of a higher grade and more money. It was all I could do to not laugh in his face.
For certain businesses it makes sense. Demonstrating some expertise for a specific model probably can drive you some new customers.
Plastic timing chain tensioner on a Jaguar 4.0 v-8? Its so low miles they don't need to be changed! Also, easy fix!
I want to know the smart way to BUY a classic car. I've been driving company cars for the last 25 years (a great perk, but I don't get a lot of options) but am finally closing in on the time when I can get an old Chevy or Ford from the 60s with a V8 and a stick shift. My pockets aren't real deep, but I can see spending $30-60K for something fun to own and drive, take to cars & coffee, drive in the Independence Day parade...you get the idea. But how to go about it without getting screwed?
Go to local car shows. You can usually find several for sale there.
Decide what you want. Join the local and national car club for the year. Tell them you are looking, somebody will have one for sale. I think there are 5-10 for sale in my Falcon club right now, plus when someone is trying to rid of one, they often contact the club Get to know the club expert, he often knows the cars from the local area and can tell you their history
--Stephen
My dad's best friend is selling a '68 Mercury Cougar. 351, stick shift with slightly larger than stock tires in the back. He's been a mechanic for decades and the car is clean enough to eat off of but it's also not crazy rare or high performance. Might be good for your use case.
Soiut_numbert_4,
You should look into this Cougar. Like the Falcon it shares parts with the Mustang, which makes upkeep much easier. It is nice to go to NAPA and they have your part. Just the process of looking at a high quality car teaches you a lot. Heck I would be interested if I was not working on a Bobcat right now
That sounds great. The best thing about it— it would stand out in a sea of Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs, et al. Actually the best thing is the manual transmission.
It's the best of both worlds. It's clearly different looking than the standard muscle car but 90% of the parts are mustang parts
I'm not in a position to buy a classic car yet, but I've long thought a Cougar would be my leading choice for all the reasons mentioned in this thread.
The Cougar is such a cool car. I vividly remember buying that car as one of my first purchases in Gran Turismo 2 when I was...maybe 7 or 8 and racing it for a long time.
My fiance's father was showing me some old photos recently and had a photo of him as a kid in the driveway of his house when he was a kid in the 60s. Mom had a sweet 67 or 68 XR7 with an exceedingly classy landau roof as her daily driver. She had great taste in cars apparently - and this was BEFORE she remarried to someone who raced at Le Mans 10 times and distributed Cobras for Shelby.
Adam on “Rare Classic Cars” on YouTube has a formula down: most of his museum pieces are from CL or FB Marketplace, and rarely buys through dealers.
I got Amazon prime just about as soon as it came out. I dumped it a year or so ago partly out of pique with Bezos and mostly because I didn’t see the value in it any longer.
I got burned on counterfeit items twice and now use Amazon only to fill my kindle.
I never used their music at all and their movies only rarely. It’s starting to give me a Facebook 2019 feel, though I’m aware that sounds completely ridiculous.
I’m definitely a mid-stage curmudgeon, but the commerce internet is swirling around the same toilet as the information superhighway internet as far as I can see.
What a shame, it could have been great.
The move is to keep prime and buy one-time use tools (sold and shopped by Amazon, of course) and return them afterwards. Allegedly.
Idk man returning used condoms sounds sketch af
Surprised no one has made a "those aren't one use!" counter-joke.
SLACKERS.
Well not with that attitude.
Only sailors wear condoms.
Walmart has a prime competitor that's 90% of the way there and includes free grocery delivery. Never have to worry about fakes anymore and grocery delivery is way more valuable to me than streaming.
Full circle, I guess?
I have a theory as to why Amazon never got quite the level of hate Walmart did (deservedly, IMHO, because I saw it kill the downtowns of many small towns in Texas in the 1990s):
All the same people who railed against Walmart can't live without Amazon.
five years later:
Walmart: Thanks for your business, folks. We're shutting this store and opening a Walmart SuperCenter 10 miles down the road.
Town: Wait. What? But you've decimated our retail sector and we have nowhere else to shop.
Walmart: It's just 10 miles. And there's always a Dollar General looking to move in.
Town: Yeah, but what about this big retail box building you're vacating?
Walmart: Not our problem.
SPIRIT HALLOWEEN: COMING SOON
They did that very thing to Chicago. But Chicago deserved it.
There are two kinds of people who hate Walmart:
0) people whose small towns were eviscerated by Walmart;
1) people who hate the kind of people who live in small towns
2) people who hate interacting with employees of Walmart who can't speak English
Here in McPherson, KS I was on the city planning commission when the Hell-Mart Stooper Center was under construction in the early 2000s. It was troubling that; at the time of opening, only 8 of the 400 or so employees of the store would have been able to afford a house in our zip code. Granted, we're fairly expensive for Kansas, but come on.
Since then, it abundantly clear that they systemically treat the staff like shit. Also, after running one of the two local competing grocery stores out of business, began raising prices and much less aggressively stocking the shelves.
Our little town is far from "eviscerated" by Wal-Mart. Its actually not that hard to rarely darken their door. This is good, because I don't believe that they deserve my business.
Or people like me who, rightly or wrongly, pin the proliferation of cheap Chinese junk to Wal-Mart!
I have not been in a Wal-Mart since 2011; my hometown was so small that there was no local Wal-Mart until 2013!
I’d like to extend my streak to 20 years, or more.
Truer words were never spoken. All Trump has to do is publicly praise Amazon and it’ll be on to the next big thing.
Yes, I’ve actually used that. I tend to buy directly from whatever company produces what I need now. No question as to authenticity of goods then.
Thanks for the tip!
Their inventory system isn't very good. They're often out of stock on things they say they have, and in a limited sample size I've had two delivery screwups with Walmart compared to years of Amazon deliveries. You also need to get to $35 for free delivery when you pay for Wal Mart, which isn't competitive with Amazon. Not ready for prime time.
Almost all of my consumables come from Amazon, most of them on a schedule. I get shitter paper once a month, Tide once a month, paper towels and Cascade pellets and dish soap 3-packs once a quarter, etc etc. I’m sure it costs a little bit more but it automated all the shit I have to buy anyways, I’m never out, and I never have to think about it.
Two of my boys do internet marketing. Some of that is on Amazon. They say it's a cesspool of counterfeit items and the one boy says he'd never put anything into his body that came from Amazon
I am banned from commenting on Cars and Bids. Pointed out the hilarity of flippers claiming "the car wasn't right for me 🥺👉👈" when asked why they were selling.
Oh, and my comment about selling a car with 10 year old tires being moronic got flagged as well.
"It's fully restored. It sat under a tree for 15 years until the property was sold, and it had to be relocated to a garage. Hence, re-stored."
Ironic, since a car with ten year old tires made Doug famous.
Damnit JACK! just came to say pretty much exactly this! haha
Great minds, sir!
The 360 with which he failed to attract even a single woman?(Apart from his wife, if I haven't gotten my timeline botched up. )And any lady attracted to a guy with a 20 year old ferrari that a spec miata could probably cream around any track strikes me as being, uhm...., difficult.
Ha. I am sure I am close to being banned as well. Good riddance
I remember all of those online bidding places and so many more. Some of them I miss because you got way better deals and service than you do on ebay.
But such is the way of the Inter-webs. Change is the name of the game. It may be slowing down, but don't ever expect it to stop.
Yahoo auctions was by far the best place to pick up old ColecoVision and Atari 2600 carts back in the day. Standard price at the time was $1.50 per cart with free shipping. eBay sellers seemed to frown on anything less than 10x that.
Jacks is probably going to kick me off the site, but I bought a car off of BAT earlier this year, a 1975 Mercury Bobcat (Ford Pinto). The auction went well, and I paid a little less than I expected.
Downsides
The car is not as represented. Since I bought it, I have had to put a new exhaust system on it, rebuilt the front end and need to go through the brakes. It also needs tires. I would expect this with any old car that I buy, but I would have been happier had the seller mentioned these things. All they could talk about was the oil change and the new air filter.
I love the car. I have low expections of old cars when I drag them home.
Going to take it on a vintage car rally in May here in Colorado. Should look great next to the 911's, Panteras and Ferrari's.
--Stephen
It is a hatch. The only wagon I wanted has the 2 portholes for the rear windows. Pintos have vanished, this is the first one in decent shape I found in Colorado after several months of desultory looking.
My buddy had one of those pinto wagons with the portholes back in the day. His had been wrecked and repainted so the groovy stripes were gone, but it was a fun little shitbox.
"Jacks is probably going to kick me off the site, but I bought a car off of BAT earlier this year, a 1975 Mercury Bobcat (Ford Pinto)"
Sir, and I say this with all respect
ARE YOU FUCKIN HIGH RIGHT NOW
Owning a Mercury Bobcat qualifies you for "ACF Gold" Status!
So what gets you Platinum?
The Foghat tour bus?
The Slap Shot tour bus.
I'm just here to commend you for name-dropping Foghat. But the proper answer would of course have been the Steely Dan tour bus. It is Jack, after all.
Only a fool would say that!
The "not as represented" and "needs additional repairs" appears to be why BaT is such a hot marketplace for Citroen DS/SMs
Link to the rally? Might take the kid
https://classiccaradventures.com/colorado-events/hagerty-silver-summit/ss-event-info-and-registration/
This is a 3 day driving rally. We are starting in Grand Junction this year and driving all over southwest Colorado and southeast Utah. We will drive about 800 miles in 3 days. This is a rally for people who know how to work on cars. There is no mechanical support, except for each other. We have a couple of guys who drag something out of a field and drive it every year. They did a Jaguar head gasket on the side of the road one year.
Not sure where you are in the Front Range, but over in SE Aurora (Hampden and Tower), there is a nice impromptu car show every Friday evening at the Sonic there. There is usually a decent variety of cars.
Nice! When I was 16 one of my Dad’s lease cars was a 1976 triple red Bobcat with a stick. Loved that little car.
Red on red on red. I'll bet it even had the pillow tufted seats. Too bad the manufacturers don't put hat kind of effort into their small cars these days...
Fiat did with the 500! Sooo many exterior colors and interior variants.
They really did. That car deserved more success than it had.
I’ve never payed any attention to BaT; but I do have a friend that sends me some listings from time to time. That’s certainly where I would go to sell something; seeing the absurd prices.
I have bought two motorcycles that I consider collectible on eBay. One is more a piece of historical memorabilia, so I just went for it. The other is usable and an ‘02. Paid a local dealer to go over it; put a sales agreement in place with the seller (I think he was more nervous about the transaction than me) and pulled the trigger. Both turned out just as I hoped. Not sure I would do it again; definitely less likely with a car. Rather nerve wracking.
Sometimes you want your risk taking with a side of risk taking!
Every one of my used purchases has been long-distance, but I never wired money ahead.
I've SOLD two Buells and a '78 Honda GL1000 on eBay, though 2010 was the most recent. Other than assuming sale prices might have been higher if I had been patient enough for ads and phone calls, all were good experiences.