The idea that many of the things I enjoy may disappear within my lifetime makes my head hurt. When I was a kid, I would lie awake in the dark when I should have been sleeping, wondering if the world’s crude oil supplies would dry up before I’d done all the driving I wanted to do. Today, I’m still worried about that, but you can also add machine shops and antique stores to the endangered list. Antique stores occasionally evince a flea market ancestry, but they sometimes sell things you couldn’t find anywhere but an estate sale, such as the “Owner Protection Plan” for a 1965 Buick, complete with the original owner’s name, address, and just about anything you’d need to know about his new car. Let’s examine a random guy’s new Electra, purchased one midsummer day in Michigan.
My lovely bride often buys antique store finds for me, knowing that by the time my birthday or Christmas comes around, I will have forgotten all about it, and that was the case with this booklet. It’s a triple threat as far as literature is concerned: It covers my favorite model year, it covers Buicks, and it pictures GM’s “Futurama” pavilion from the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair, which is probably the first place I’d go if I had a time machine.
On the inside cover is the original owner’s name and address, along with the date of purchase. I wish I had documentation like this for all my cars, but I only have it for one – my ’65 Mustang that has been in the family since 1968. I know the names of every owner of that car and where they lived. On a side note, I’ve always hated seeing family pictures in an antique store, and finding a person’s personal information is almost as sad (although I understand the hypocrisy of my talking about it on the internet). That’s why I rarely attend estate sales; reducing someone’s life to some dollar store price tags and bulk auctioneering doesn’t lend any dignity to the party for which the entertainment is given.
Back to the booklet: Did you know that Buicks had two year warranties in 1965? I didn’t, and I own a ’65 Skylark. Of course, I bought it in 2003, long after the warranty was out.
There are plenty of service coupons inside the Owner Protection Plan Booklet, but significantly, “charges will be made where applicable.”
Maybe that’s why the only coupon that has been removed from this booklet is the one for the “1000 Mile Service Credit.” That one appears to have been “on the house.”
This is the Protect-O-Plate itself. It is literally a metal plate with a bunch of seemingly random letters and numbers punched into it; if you look around long enough on the internet, however, you can figure out what most of it means.
The Protect-O-Plate was “inked” and transferred to another page for the sake of legibility. It wasn’t done well; therefore, I often had to refer back to the plate itself and read it backward. Here’s what we’re looking at:
17-025: Selling dealer (I couldn’t find this, but I like the little tri-shield in the corner)
7-29-5: Date of sale (this is one day later than the cover date for some reason)
5H323029: Partial serial number – 5 means “1965,” H stands for Flint Assembly, and 323029 is the car’s sequence number
W 592 (obscured beneath the address): Turbo 400 with 3.07 axle
BN 528: 425 cubic-inch engine with a single four-barrel
Over on the right side of the page is the full VIN, mentioned above; however, the first five numbers are important.
4: Buick
8439: Electra Custom four-door hardtop
I gave up on B 278388. That might be a Fisher Body code, but since this isn’t my car, I didn’t spend the extra time figuring it out.
Back on the left side of the page:
VV2: Shell Beige upper and lower colors, with (I believe) a black vinyl top
698: Black Vinyl interior
S: Month of build, which I gave up finding (I imagine it’s May or June.)
The option codes are at the bottom.
C60: Air conditioning
A31: Power windows
K30: Cruise control
U69: AM/FM radio
Power steering and brakes were standard on the Electra.
This photo from Wikimedia Commons is roughly what our gentleman’s new Electra looked like (although this is a sedan and not a hardtop). Shell beige would not be my first choice, but I think we need to understand the context behind the probable buyer. Midland, Michigan, is the longtime home of Dow Chemical, which is, to say the least, a financially successful enterprise that employs a lot of people. An expensive, highly optioned yet conservative Electra Custom would be exactly the type of car that would go over well in Midland among Dow’s executives, managers, and engineers.
If I were alive in 1965 and had any of that sweet, sweet Dow money jangling in my pockets, this Riviera is the Buick I’d buy. On the other hand, the Skylark GS had been recently introduced, and I obviously appreciate them as well. I am, however, a notoriously impractical person, so I can’t be surprised when others don’t share my tastes.
The Electra Custom four-door hardtop was quite successful in 1965, selling 29,932 copies, making it easily the most popular Electra by production volume, so the original owner was in good company. I wonder if his car is still floating around out there somewhere. Michigan salt is hard on cars and always has been, but who knows? Regardless of the status of the Electra’s existence, there is a lot of history to be learned at the antique stores, and this isn’t the only time I’ve decoded someone’s long gone new car. If you’re bored some rainy day, do your part to keep an antique store in business. Maybe there’s a Protect-O-Plate out there with your name on it.
Further reading for code readers: Mystery Monday: Getting to Know Your New Junker – VIN and Fender Tag Decoding
There’s nothing wrong with decoding such information at all. A little sleuthing is always fun. I may have even been guilty of doing this a time or three.
Reducing one’s life to antique and flea market finds is indeed an undesirable outcome. However, I will offer a different perspective…quite recently, a family member died at age 100. In addition to being a borderline hoarder, the few nice things this person had acquired during their life were not taken care of and the vast majority of their worldy possessions found their fate in a dumpster.
I only offer this to make the few dollars generated from one’s life via a flea market look preferable. 🙂
Other than the color, this was (is?) a very nice Buick.
I concur with the conundrum of what to do with a deceased loved one’s possessions. It’s just too difficult to keep all their stuff, much of which has little intrinsic value (and older people have more of it and tend to be hoarders, especially if they lived through tough times in their youth). I would imagine most people keep a few of the most sentimental items, sell off or auction the things that actually have real value, and the rest end up in either the dumpster or Goodwill donation box.
As to the feature car, thanks for the explanation of the Protect-O-Plate program. For all these years, I thought it was nothing more than one of those plastic plates that went over the license plates and could never figure out what the big deal was when it was mentioned in car ads! With this new knowledge, I can now see why it might be a desirable feature on a used car; a vehicle with a Protect-O-Plate might indicate extra care in maintaining its longevity.
Yeah, that is hard. Especially when you know something was special to a relative. If you know the story behind something you can pass it on to the next generation, if they care (my kids do). My mother had been going to tell my wife the stories behind her ‘treasures’, but died before she could. Some I knew; some of her things I’d never seen before. Things were kept for ‘best’, but the right occasion for using them never seemed to happen. Things were kept “in case the Queen comes to visit”. as they used to say.
Sometimes you get pleasantly surprised by who wants something – my parents had the once-common flying ducks for the wall – Dad wanted them up, but Mother hated them so they stayed in the box. We had been going to donate them, but my son wouldn’t let us; he loves them. My parents had a Shelley tea set for best (never used); my daughter-in-law wanted that.
When my 96 year old aunt died and left me everything, we kept most of the kitchen things, TV, and washing machine so the kids would have the basics when they left home (one still hasn’t; her share is still in my shed). We kept what jewellery she had, and all the photos, but the clothes went to the op shop (Goodwill, I think you call it). I divided the furniture with a cousin. We got a small skip in for the junk. There wasn’t much. Merle always lived simply.
If you don’t have a potential use for things, offering them to charity seems better than them just going to landfill as so often seems to happen. But then, look how many potentially usable cars get dumped. And look how much stuff in charity shops never seems to move.
Aren’t we a wasteful lot?
I’ll add another perspective to Jason’s. My parents were hoarders in quantity of items kept but things were in good condition. When they passed away I had to empty their home. It would have taken literal years to sort, catalogue and sell everything.
I was working long hours and after dealing with both their illnesses was not emotionally equipped to deal with that. Everything was boxed up and sent to an auction house. I probably could have made a lot more money elsewhere but it was fast, reasonably painless and most important I kept my sanity.
25 years later do I have regrets? A few, but I still know at the time it was the right decision after 6+ years of 2 ill parents, hospitals, doctors and watching the two people who raised me slowly crumble away.
I understand perfectly, Jason. When you’re cut up inside over somebody’s death is not the time to be making decisions. When you’re wrung out from caring for them it would be even worse.
I hope I didn’t come across too harshly on estate auctions or those who have to make that decision – that was certainly not my intention. It just makes me uncomfortable to see it happening in person, and I especially don’t like when pictures and other really personal effects are floating around out there for non-family members to buy.
One of the reasons that old family pictures end up in such situations is that the person who owns them knows who is in them, where, when and for what occasion but they don’t label them with this information. With a sudden stroke or death of the owner that information is lost and who wants to keep a box of pictures that nobody knows or remembers? The moral of the story is Label Your Pictures!
That is so true. I have two Victorian-era photo albums full of ‘Ancestors’. Some are labelled, Some of the older ones aren’t, especially the ones taken in Germany – are they my great-great grandparents before they migrated? Are they some of the relatives left behind? My grandmother knew most of them, but she died in 1969. Her daughters either didn’t know or couldn’t agree who some of them were.
But we can see the family resemblance. And the womens’ costumes!
Hard Boiled . . .
VERY WELL PUT!
I’ve been in the antiques business for decades, and I have bought probably over 100 estates, large & small. I tell everyone to please take a few hours and write any info you can remember on the back of photos, but please don’t use a ball pen, use a #2 pencil, and don’t push down too hard.
I’ve bought thousands of “instant relatives”, and for many years I kept the more unusual photos on display in the hallway. I would come up with wacky comments for each person/photo, and would keep people guessing until they finally realized I was pulling their chain!
Also, If you want to give specific items to certain family or friends, Please include the list in your will.
On my mom’s passing, the attorney was instructed to hand each family member a set of vinyl stickers, each person got a different color set. If there was something we wanted, and it wasn’t mentioned in her will, then we were instructed to put our colored sticker on that item. If more than one person wanted an item, we would negotiate, or we would flip a coin as to who got what item.
You didn’t come across harshly at all. I just offered it up as a contrast; the having belongings end up in antique stores or flea markets isn’t overly desirable but it sure beats having it all tossed out.
For what it’s worth, the relative who recently died had the vast majority of their stuff end up in a 30 yard dumpster. There is a certain degree of sadness (futility?) in that.
I share your love of GM’s Futurama and of all things 1964-5 NY World’s Fair. I’d go back like a shot if I could. Being eight years old then and a science nut, in the early years of the space age, and seeing all the new or coming technology on display at that Fair. . . the future looked like one endless, ever-greater adventure, fueled by science and with the early Beatles as its soundtrack.
Sadly, that decade turned a bit (!) sour, and while advances came, there was more often than not, offsetting turbulence that showed that the road to the future would be bumpy indeed.
I wasn’t born yet when the NY World’s Fair took place, but I did see one of the more interesting artifacts in person without yet knowing about it. Decades ago I stayed at a Poconos resort called Penn Hills, which my date for that weekend had scored discounted rates for through some connections. The place turned out to be in awful condition (it apparently closed about 10 years ago and I’m amazed it lasted even that long), but I absolutely loved their colorful exterior lighting, each lamp a different shape. The square ones looked like Rubik’s Cubes while most others looked like Tetris pieces, neither which existed yet when they were built. After learning the resort was closed, I thought “someone, please save those lamps!” Turns out, it wasn’t just me. They actually were designed specifically for the 1964-65 World’s Fair and after it ended, the lamps were moved to a few other locations, including the resort we stayed at. And yes, someone did grab those lights. I see one cube is up for sale here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/authentic-fully-restored-ny-worlds-1801274258 (can’t tell if it’s already sold). And there’s loads of info online about their manufacturer and design.
aah that “someone” link above didn’t work – here it is: https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20150425/news/150429595
Wow, that would be a big job just to find a place for all those things. I’m glad someone saved them…I wonder what ever happened to them.
Great article! Really interesting. Like Rudiger above, I’ve never been totally clear on what exactly a protect-o-plate is despite hearing it referred to lots of times over the years. Looks like it’s not just a colloquialism, GM actually used that term. Was it a GM-only practice? When did it end?
I love it when cars come with all the original dealer documentation and service history. Nothing engenders confidence and comfort in a used car like evidence of careful ownership. I’ve decoded the SPID tags on my GM cars. IIRC, K30 was still the code for cruise control in the 80’s and 90’s.
Aaron65, this resonates from the point of view of family/relatives, thrift-store finds, and then all the information from the past sitting online somewhere.
I won’t try to identify the owner, but “West Saint Andrews” (the Google tells me) is right there near the country club, and it’s easy to sample the homes, which show lots of prosperous sprawling 1950s-60s ranches and some architect-special “MCM” kinds of things.
Protect-O-Plate: I’m a Ford guy, so only heard the phrase here and there. I have no idea how early it came into being at GM (and whether all divisions did it at the same time), but here’s April 1960, Olds, and some language that seems to originate in a GM press release:
You’re right, George! This area of Midland has some great mid-century architecture (often by Alden B. Dow), and is still a very swanky area. I did look up our featured gentleman, and without giving too much away, he was a private business owner who seemed to live a good, long life.
Aaron65: I thought about Mr. Owner while doing the morning’s errands, and am pleased to hear the comforting report–sounds like GM’s target for a nice Buick (not that they wouldn’t want to upsell him to a Cadillac someday). BTW, I’m more of a Riviera guy (maybe it was my “Model Motoring” in the mid-1960s), but that Electra is a very snazzy ride!
Earliest publicity I could find is January 1960, but says it’s Olds’s feature starting the 1960 model year. (And, I’m old enough to remember the embossed “Charga-Plate” things for credit purchases: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=2045)
A Protect-O-Plate is like dogtags for your car, it will help identify the car-cass for the salvage division. Be sure to put it in the air cleaner throat before it’s hauled away!
Macabre jokes aside, I wish the previous owners of the GM products I’d owned had kept theirs. When did GM phase them out? When we started seeing the bigger VIN sticker on the door?
Well, the ’65 models had a VIN plate on the A-pillar (at least my Skylark does). My ’74 Firebird has a VIN sticker on the door, but it still has a Fisher Body tag. So sometime in between there…
EDIT: A quick Google search says Protect-O-Plates lasted from ’65-’72.
Edit #2: See George’s post above – Oldsmobile had it back in ’60.
I am guilty of keeping the owners manuals of a couple of the new cars I purchased.
Or a set of keys. Guess it’s a keepsake thing.
But mostly I’ve left in the car, in the glove box, when they went off to their new owners.
When I’ve purchased a used car, the manuals were just about always missing.
Out of 60 some cars, maybe a dozen or less had one.
Probably because most people never look at them and throw them out.
They take up too much valuable space, I suppose.
Considering the complexity of new car systems and the owner’s manual to explain them that is, quite literally, a book, well, I can certainly see the logic in removing them to free up space. It’s quite a contrast to the old, thin owner’s manuals tossed into a glove compartment.
Speaking of which, it seems like the publishers of the manuals would work in conjunction with the interior designers to ensure that a manual actually fits properly into the glove compartment. To this day, it seems like a manual unnecessarily wastes space by laying awkwardly in the place where it’s supposed to be kept.
I bought a new Honda 4 years ago. The printed manual in the car now is quite abbreviated. Now they come with a DVD and a link to a website for more complete instructions.
I remember the Protecto-O-Plate in my folks 1st new car, a ’66 Olds wagon. They are a neat piece of history, but as stated above (and true of my folks’ car) At some point they are discarded.
Now so much is stored on computer software. I was a little creeped out when I bought our 2017 Honda. In late 1988 I bought a new Civic. Sold it in 2002. Have not owned a Honda since. When I bought my last Honda I received a card from Honda saying “welcome back to the Honda family”. They still have a record of me with my previous Honda!
Boy have I found a home here..
You guys don’t want to see all I’ve saved. Just the tip of the iceberg.
How’s this for “hoarding” still hoping to find one in like new condition but it’s always less than ideal.
BTW this ’68 Wildcat wikipic was mine…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Wildcat#/media/File:03-1968_Wildcat_Custom_-_Frt_3-Qtr_View.jpg
My pic attachments are not uploading anyone know if there is file size limit?
There is a file size limit when uploading…you might try reducing the size of the picture.
Can’t believe I’ve kept this for more than 50 years along too many other docs from all our cars.
This started out as an upgrade from our ’61 Impala and eventually became my first car. I have theory about first cars, no matter how banal or inconsequential they always take on significance when you’re young.
It’s amusing really sort of like imprinting with geese that bond with the first thing they see…
Ever wonder about the significance of first cars. No matter how banal or inconsequential they take on deep significance the older you become.
Can’t believe its well over 50 years now and I have so many docs that will inevitably become dumpster fodder…
That may be true, but if you enjoy them, that’s all that matters. Cool car!
Did anyone in history actually go to a dealer who would meticulously clip all of the coupons or fill in all the little spaces in the back of the owners manual? My own mother was very much a believer in excellent record-keeping, but not even she went to the effort to fill everything out in the back of her owners’ manuals (which always stayed right where they belonged in the glove box).
Likely goes for other GM models too, but Cadillac ’56 had an underhood located removable owner ID card.
Probably most appreciated by auto thieves who might need to answer pointed roadside questions about ownership. Lol
Chrysler called their similar ’65-’68 item the Certicard, and it was used to keep track of the car’s 5-year/50,000-mile warranty (now what was it Buick were saying about providing “the best”…?).
Well, the 5-year/50,000 mile warranty was a bit of a win/win situation for Lynn Townsend. Chrysler build quality had recently been the subject of some…ahem…scrutiny, but their drivelines were notoriously durable. It was quite a marketing coup for the guys at Chrysler. Daniel, have you done or seen any research on whether their extended warranty actually increased the overall cost of claims?
I know nothing on that subject. I do know the 5/50 warranty went on hiatus sometime in the ’70s before returning in the ’80s and being extended to 7/70 and expanded in the scope of its coverage.
Poor Chrysler… Chrysler engineering would routinely develop some great breakthrough, only to have it bungled by some detail in its execution.
Some use “Deadly Sin” to describe another make’s goofs. Chrysler deserves a similar term to describe regularly blowing some detail in the execution of its would-be great breakthroughs. Bumbling Sins?
Somewhere I remember that Chrysler had an internal estimate of $300 average extra liability per car for the 5/50 warranty. Grandpa cashed in with two rear axle repairs on his ’65 Belvedere due to a bad batch of Chrysler (Detroit Axle?) bearings.
It is sad that old photos are discarded but if they are saved by an antique seller at least some good comes from it. I second the notion that it is important to identify people in family photos while you still can! I just went through that with my MIL, with her passing family members were gathering and old photos were produced. A round of questioning would eventually ID all the participants in the photos.
Members of the past generations were apt to save many items, in working shape of not, because they grew up with less affluence. They valued the items more. Yes, this does sometimes morph into a hoarder philosophy, and I know how hard it can be to get an older relative to part with some of their “treasured possessions!”
I’ve bought two cars from estate sales and never felt bad about it. At least the car has a chance of survival with me. If it’s donated to some charity it’s likely it will end up being scrapped. I know the offbeat junk that I like will probably end up that way!
I´ve managed to put names and dates on my photo collection since 1989. It´s been tedious but worth it. Digital photography seems to have decreased the number of photos printed – people are happy to leave them on the device. When the device dies few can get the data off.
It took me 40 hours to transfer 3 years of photos from an iPhone to another medium. Exporting the images lost the meta data so I had to name and date each random numbered image in the destination file. I don´t think many people want to do this kind of thing. And so our collective memory is lost.
I see the hoarder mentality as becoming even more prevalent, especially in younger generations. The ease of on-line buying and having the products delivered to your door is irresistible to some. The houses are much larger than 70 yrs. ago, 3 car garages are common, there is a storage shed in the back yard and there is usually a huge storage unit complex nearby, if you need more space.
And still people I know are running out of room!
Nobody’s going to want my stuff when I croak, and even if they did they wouldn’t have room for it.
I don’t know that many of today’s younger generations can afford large houses with 3-car garages and back yards big enough to have a storage shed…
Age is course, relative. People in their 30’s to 50’s belong to a younger generation than me. And that makes up the majority of people where I live.
And living in the mid-west, a 2,200 sq ft house, 3 car garage, .4 to .5 acre lot
built in 1995, in my area, $250,000 to $280,000. Those are pre-covid prices.
And in the older section of the allotment, If you wanted a smaller house, 1,200 sq ft and a 2 car garage built in 1965 on the same size lot, one just sold for $157,500.
A “who knew?” oddity, 1951:
Is that just a sacrificial anode?
Aaron65: I have no idea–and didn’t intend to threadjack–but maybe this product (1953, also Popular Mechanics) is the same sort of thing—war surplus?
No worries on threadjacking…the directions the discussions sometimes take are the best parts of contributing.
I’m at a bit of a loss regarding the Protecto-Rod!
Maybe for a radiator? I own an RV with a water heater. It has a sacrificial anode rod inside. They are still used.
I have a little different perspective as far as deceased people’s belongings, estate sales, and so on. It seems to me that it is each of our personal responsibility to live a life that has more significance than the things we own: personally, spiritually, relationally, positive impact on the world and those in our life, etc.
If I encounter identifiable information on the possessions of a deceased person I didn’t know, I assume the best about that person and that he or she led a good life and is fondly remembered by his or her loved ones. The objects are just that, objects, and were not the most important thing about him or her. They are just evidence of a life lived.
In fact, I personally would show the whole name of the person in an article like this (though I agree with blocking the address number in case he or his relatives still own the house). Robert was probably in his 40’s or 50’s when purchasing this Electra, so more than likely he and the car are long gone. It seems to me that having his name seen and read by thousands of people years after he is gone actually honors him in a way. Like when they read all the names of those lost on 9/11 every September 11. Like he’s gone but not forgotten, in a small way
Well said. Although I will propose some items are a terrific reflection of the person, allowing their talents to live on.
When we bought our house in St. Joseph, MO, in 2001, the owner was a widowed lady in her early 90s. She was going to assisted living and her items were auctioned. Sadly, we didn’t get her 1996 Park Avenue with 5,000 miles.
We attended the auction and obtained some really good things that had belonged to her and Mr. Barker. The family was thrilled it was all staying with the house. The items reflected Mr. Barker’s talents and ingenuity, which is how we perceive him despite our never having met him. Whenever we put anything in the cedar cabinet he built, we thank Mr. Barker. Whenever I put tools on the shelf he made from old Pepsi crates, I think of Mr. Barker. Anytime I need wood screws, I thank Mr. Barker and admire the screw boxes which are likely 50 years old.
It’s exactly as you said – gone, but not forgotten and we still admire a man we never knew.
I still wear a couple of my grandpa’s old watches – a 1940s Elgin and a Gruen from the ’60s or ’70s. Unfortunately, he passed away when I was only 18, so wearing them helps me remember him regularly. I still have my uncle’s “Ted Williams/Free Spirit” bike that he bought new in the ’70s for the same reason.
Appreciating what people have left behind is one of the best ways to appreciate them. (Even better when it’s something that someone has built, as in Jason’s case.)
Great thread. When my mother passed away, we had a houseful of stuff, most of which was donated or thrown in a dumpster. We all had a chance to go through and take items we wanted first, but that was very hard, as somethings have sentimental value but you know you just don’t need to keep them. I will say that’s how I have my mother’s wedding album, which I couldn’t throw in the trash.
We had one item, a chestnut/walnut dining room set my grandfather built that none of us needed, but we were able to talk a cousin into taking it for his house, (I suspect mostly, like us, he couldn’t bear to see it sold off).
As someone who is still in the estate business, I tell people NEVER throw anything away that isn’t dangerous, spoiled, or illegal. Call a local auction company whatever the size of your things that need to disappear. They will usually come box it all up, take it to their auction location, and host a live [in person] auction, an online auction, or both. At a typical auction, everything sells. Someone will want whatever you have.
My biggest estate for pure $ value was from an elderly man who collected all types of adult paperwork from late 1800s to about 1970, including nudist magazines, fetish photos, basically anything related to sex & nudity. I spent years selling it off, and a lot of the older pieces were bought by museums. Sex sells!
The biggest hoard was a series of warehouses and storage buildings totaling over 15,000 square feet, it had been a country hardware, farm & marine store that closed in the mid 1960s. If something didn’t sell it got put in a back room. The man also bought surplus US Army items. I made an agreement with the man’s son to sell it off over time, and it took about 5 years.
Highlites from this stash included:
Seven WW2 crates, each contained one complete Indian Scout motorcycle engine.
Two unopened boxes, each contained one Motobecane moped bike, unassembled.
Over 400 cases of various Nicholson brand files, unused.
One 16 foot long Bastian-Blessing brand 1940s complete ice cream and soda fountain.
Over 300 gasoline stationary and/or marine motors, from one cylinder 3hp Wisconsin to a big air cooled single cylinder upright diesel by Bernard of France.
One item I’ve kept is a 1950s Schramm-Ford air compressor, on a trailer, never sold or used. The Schramm Bros made these by the thousands, using military surplus Ford flathead V8 engines, reconfigured to run on 4 cylinders, the other 4 cylinders became the air compressor.
“I tell people NEVER throw anything away that isn’t dangerous, spoiled, or illegal. Call a local auction company whatever the size of your things that need to disappear. They will usually come box it all up, take it to their auction location, and host a live [in person] auction, an online auction, or both. At a typical auction, everything sells. Someone will want whatever you have.”
Let’s be frank and mention the possibility of ending up with break-even or negative returns.
It cost A LOT to transport/store/prepare/organize/market a hoard. Auctioneers can’t do that for free or even for a modest percentage. There may be somebody for everything, but with common old ” junk” (excuse me) it may cost more to market to that “somebody” then they’re willing to pay for the item.
Sure, everything sells, but sometimes the auctioneer has to bundle a multitude of items to get any bid at all. Usually it’s no-bid items linked to items showing interest, done just to move the lesser items. Such bundling may end up reducing bid price on the actually saleable item, because, buyers may not want to deal with the “chaff” and so they bid accordingly. The reality is that some items have a negative value.
I agree, but in the long run, things tend to even out, and the consigner gets some money rather than paying to landfill what they didn’t want.
Right. Mostly I’m saying that it’s unrealistic for an heir to imagine that they’re going to stop their life, fly home to liquidate Uncle Hoarder’s place, and realize top eBay-level returns with the snap of a finger.
Their are plenty of folks who don’t consider the other’s side at all.
All that stuff Bill has… he practically stole it. Didn’t cost him any time nor money to hunt it, buy it, move it, store it…
Oh, and remember the times he scored zero after a long costly hunt? That doesn’t count.
Anyway, it seems like the best sale for a seller is when lots of desirable like-kind items are well sorted; brings out the “specialists” to fight over ’em.
It seems like the best sale for a buyer is when unlike kind (though some desirable) items are in a mix; the specialists seem less apt to want to waste a day with a chance at just one item in his category of interest.
Your mileage may vary. Lol
Going back to the 1950’s, the standard warranty was 90 days or 4000 miles, with lots of weasel words that implied the selling dealer was stuck with the labor and only parts were covered by GM. But, the 1000 mile service policy was in effect.
I just watched the video ad for “Chevy runs Deep-My Dad’s Car” on Youtube, probably for the zillionth time lol!
During a brief moment in the ad he shows the Protecto-Plate with his name on it.