Wish I hadn't sold that so cheap

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

I am sure everyone has something they wish they had never sold so cheap. Someone gave Dad a old air plane engine, it was a aluminum water cooled V8. He was going to scrap it. I convinced him we should keep it. I found out the engine was made by the Haspano Suiza engine co. this engine was used in WW1 air planes. Someone from a air craft museum offered us 200.00 for it. We sold it. This was in the 70's. Probably worth a lot more. Stan

 

L

LenND

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Just think, now maybe a lot of people will get to see it. It sounds like it would be worth a lot more now but who knows.

 

B

buickanddeere

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Yes, no and maybe.
We all hear extreme stories about the little old lady asking $500.00 for her deceased husbands old chev that's been in the garage for 25 years.Turns out to be a Corvette or something.
Then we all see a decent original vehicle or tractor worth $500-$5000 parked in the yard, cow pasture or in a falling down barn. It's gradually rotting into $100 of scrap metal and the owners won't sell or they want the 100% of the restoration value for a rough machine. And they still worry you are ripping them off.

 

OP

OP

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

depends on the scarcety of the engine,and shape its in and what plane. but definitly more maybe 50%-100% more. just like these old tractors, couldnt give em away and now they are up in the thousands.

 

R

rustyj14

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Many years ago, an old eccentric fellow had a 1930 era Austin (U.S.) coupe stuffed away in an old barn. He wouldn't sell it, and eventually the old barn rotted away and fell down on the car! I offered to buy it, as i felt it could be salvaged, but no sale--going to fix 'er up soon!
He also had a 1930 Packard sedan, and an old cable lift hi-lift, and it all went to the scrap yard after he died!
Several years after i returned from the Army, i bought a 1948 M.G. TC Roadster. Neat little car-right hand drive, 4 cylinder, 21 inch tires! Held two people. After i got married and the first baby came along--that car shrank in size.
So, i sold it for $500! That was the going value back then. How much do you think that car is worth now? HMMM?? The high 5 figures is about the price area!

 

J

JDemaris

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

I'd hate to go to NAPA and find parts for that engine. I read it about years back. One of the first aluminum/cast-iron sleeved blocks ever built.

I'd rather have the Buick aluminum V8 that came out in 1961 - 215 c.i. Some were offered with turbo options by GM until they gave it up and sold the whole mess to British companies.

I put one into a MGB years ago. The Buick V8 weighed less than the little cast-iron four-cylinder I pulled out.

 

Goose

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

15 to 18 years ago, a late '80's Chevy conversion van was sitting by a fellow's garage. It had had a minor engine fire. When I tried to buy it, the guy refused, saying he was going to fix it himself.

I drove past the place the other day and it was still sitting there.

 

V

vapet

Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Something that we need to remember, I like a bargain as much as the next. But my tractors or what ever, are mine to do with as I see fit. If that is to sit and rust down in the ground so be it. Don't get me wrong I hate to see something that could be brought back to life rotting away. Just got to remember who owns has control.

 

S

Spook

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

I tried to buy some equipment off a neighbor. He wanted way too much. I bought it at his auction for 1/3 of what he was asking. He was really ------, but ???? He had to pay the auctioneer $3000 + 10% of the sale. He would have been better off calling the scrap man.

 

OP

OP

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Look at the bright side. You got rid of something that was useless to you and didn't have to store it 30 years. True, it might be worth something, but it might not have been either. At the cost of storage it had better be worth something just to recoup the storage costs.

 

B

barn E

Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Appraise everything you buy and sell, even if you appraise it yourself. Look at sales, prices, et cetera. Easy to slip up. Gotta do this every time and all the time. Keep in mind, your selling may slow down when you have correct prices. Several times, I have told people they could get more than their asking price, some appreciated that and some said "I don't care, just want to get rid of it." Clear consicience is worth more than a lot of money. Dave

 

M

M Nut

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Know that feeling. I have tried several times to buy a Massey Harris 44 widefront that was sitting in an abondond yard. Motor was stuck and tires shot. Metal was good though. My Uncle knew the owner, so he would ask from time to time if it was for sale. First off was no. Then it turned to $1000. They started cleaning all the other items out of the yard last week, and by Monday the tractor was smashed down with an excavator to the size of a few small bales of hay. Bet he didn't get more than $100 for it in scrap. Kinda felt bad.

 

M

Mike (WA)

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Every hot rodder worth his salt has a couple of rigs stashed away for 30 years or so, and is always "going to get to them" any day now. Most issues of Rod and Custom have a story or two about a famous old rod or custom from the 40's or 50's that was squirreled away 40 years ago, and finally got sold to someone who would actually restore it. No reason tractors should be any different- except for the unfortunate fact that they're more often kept outside, and eventually deteriorat into junk.

 

T

T_Bone

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

38yrs ago we took a trip to see my wifes grandma in the nursing home. Grandpa had passed on several years before. Both had farmed 400a of prime Kansas bottom land that was homestead by Great Pa & Ma. All had gone thru the depression and didn't believe in Banks and trusted the house walls more than the bank.

We were advised to take anything we wanted from the homestead as Grandma was in terrible shape and the family was going to sell the farm to the neighbor for $$100a when she died. That just didn't set right with either of us as it was still Grandma's and she couldn't give it away too us because of her health.

There was 3 old steam tractors, several horse drawn wagons and field equipment and 5 sets of brand new harness hanging in the barn along with several older sets.

Now that's just what I remember from 38yrs ago and it being the first time I had ever been to the farm.

The neighbor bull dozed the house and barn into a on site pit when he bought the place looking for the bank rolls.

Gee's do I ever kick myself now.

T_Bone

 

OP

OP

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

Not a story about me but interesting anyhow, Before Christmas about Nov? a storage place here in Mich obtained the right to sell a lot left behind in a storage unit. They put an old car body, rolling chassis-no motor or trans, on Ebay. It was a 63 Pontiac Lemans/tempest. It has different front clip and rear axle was change to conventional driven axle, etc. After very intense discussion on Ebay it was determined by Pontiac Fans that it was one of six Factory Hand assembled Drag cars built right at the factory. It sold for something like $236,000! The storage unit owners had prepared to take it to scrap yard and then the prices plummeted so they figured it was easier to sell it than haul it away. I don't know how to research old ebay sales and something may be on Google but the questions and resulting discussion during the sale were quite interesting even to a tractor guy.

 

MarkB_MI

Well-known Member

Location

Motown USA

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

The Hispano-Suiza (literally "Spanish-Swiss") was probably the best aircraft engine available in the first World War and powered several of the top fighters, including the legendary SPAD. It had an excellent power-to-weight ratio, even by today's standards. Most of its contemporaries were rotary engines, similar the radial engines of later days except that the engine rotated around the crankshaft. As a result, the H-S had a huge advantage over its rivals, both in performance and in handling. (Rotary-powered aircraft could roll fast in only one direction.)

Here in Michigan, a team of volunteers at the Selfridge (ANG) Air Museum is constructing a replica SPAD. They are making do with a wooden mockup of the engine because a real Hispano is out of their budget.

At least you can be happy om knowing that your engine is preserved in a museum. Hopefully a lot of people will get the opportunity to see this piece of history thanks to you.

 

C

chvet73

Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

In '66 just before I got my drivers license my brother sold his '59 Corvette for $1200. A few years later he bought a a Shelby Hertz Mustang with a bad trans. Never drove it. Sold that for $800. We both threw our baseball cards away which ran from 1940's to 1960's.
At this point we all we do is laugh about it.

 

OP

OP

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 9, 2009

• #1

I didn't do it, but when we bought our place, there was a 7.5 ton wagon that dumped left or right. I was parked in the barn and when full of manure from the stalls could be pulled out and dumped on a farmers field. Wife's clumsy a$$ horse scratched his side on it and she got upset. I was away a couple of months later and she sold it to a neighbor for 150 bucks. Those things sell for 2-4 thousand. The neighbor avoids me like the plague because he knows he's a cheat and thinks I'll hurt him or something.
No harm done on my side but he's sure been miserable.

Dave

 

2

2x4

Well-known Member

• Jan 10, 2009

• #1

I had one of those, believe it was in a Skylark. They were bad to plug the radiators solid & over heat the engines because the aluminum corroded. Had the radiator rodded & cored for $40, later sold it for $60 in running condition.