Does buying up cheap junk Studebakers and parking them in a field till the day you die do any good?

[SN-60]

To: stupak,------- Someone operating an auto dismantling yard, and buying and selling complete cars and/or parts from those cars, isn't really like someone who has even one old car 'sitting out back'
who can't or wont ever restore it, but at the same time wont sell it (or parts from it) to others. I too miss the old time auto graveyards that are fast disappearing.
(I do 'get' the person who keeps an old car 'sitting out back' as a parts source for a similar model He/She may be operating.)

[StudeRich]

I for one, am very sorry for your loss Bob.

I can't imagine having to lose 45 Cars, I just happen to have that many but they are all Studebakers.

[studeclunker]

I have to agree with both sides of this discussion. Still, hoarding is a form of greed. I'm not talking about people like both of our Bobs here as what they do helps other people and the autos involved. I'm talking about people (for example) like the old man we have here in Redding. He collected literally hundreds of cars and left them to rot. The old fellow also had truck trailers stuffed with parts that likewise were left to rot. Why? Just because he could. The greed enters when these people refuse to sell either cars or parts thereof just because they're theirs, as this fellow did. Whilst these people have the right to behave like this, don't ask me to tolerate, condone, or admire this kind of greed. Waste sickens me in any form. Greedy waste particularly sickens me.

That's my two cents, for what little it's worth.

[Flashback]

I took the attitude (many years ago), that I would letum rust away if I couldn't get a reasonable price for either the car or parts. I too, was one that, on occasion, would just go out and sit in my "junk yard". My Dad opened a salvage yard in 1947. I made my first contribution in 1958, when I was 14. Somewhere around 62, we were "partners". I worked a regular job and part timed the yard til 1980. I took over and ran it til 97.
At that time I decided to close and clean up. I had 488 vehicles at that time. 55 of them were 55 thru 57 Chevies. The oldest one on the yard was a 38 Dodge COE. I had a terrible time letting a lot of them go. Average scrap price was about two hundred dollars then. There were so many fifty dollar offers that I got sick. When the chrusher came, I had to stop selling, and then I was told what a bad person I was. This is the type thing that happens to many people who have two to twenty sitting. Many people "low ball" them on price, and they get to the point they won't even talk. Mine is all cleand up now. But, this morning I sat down in the edge of the woods and looke at an old 53 Chevy hubcap, a Comet deck lid. and a 53 Stude deck lid, that I ptomised myself I would finish digging out and throw in the scrap pile. OR WILL I ? LOL LOL LOL

[31Streetrod]

The only thing this thread has accomplished is to vilify a man who just recently died and who quite possibly had OCD (google it if you don't know what it is) which is a condition that was beyond his control and has also give a forum to one who for the umpteenth time has articulated how he has walked on water. Let it die fellows! A member of his family has been on this forum in another thread.

[Bo Markham]

To; 64V19816,------- Well, the vehicle that's 'rusting away' could have been scrapped years ago and no longer exist...so I see it as a positive thing....But on the other hand, I have seen guys that have restorable cars
that they will not resell on the pretense they'll 'get to them' and never do, because of that attitude, We all get to watch said vehicles rot into the ground.

Well, if watching that particular channel bothers you that much, change channels and watch something else. Pretense, or no. It belongs to them to do with as they please. Would you pass laws to compell people to sell even if they don't want to? What would you do when someone comes to your door and insists that you sell them something of yours that you don't want to sell. Put the shoe on the other foot.

[Bo Markham]

The only thing this thread has accomplished is to vilify a man who just recently died and who quite possibly had OCD (google it if you don't know what it is) which is a condition that was beyond his control and has also give a forum to one who for the umpteenth time has articulated how he has walked on water. Let it die fellows! A member of his family has been on this forum in another thread.

Who ever the gentleman was, I certainly don't think of him as a vilian. OCD, or not, he had the right to own what he wanted and to do so without any outside interference from anyone. I applaud the gentleman for being the unique individual that he was. There is no compelling reason why he, or anyone else has to sell anything to anyone, just because they think they are entitled to something belonging to someone else. This notion that everybody is entilted to what an individual has worked hard all their life for is part of the problem we have today. Not just in the hobby realm, but every where.

[Bo Markham]

To the OP-

I will confess to being one of those for whom you apparently feel disdain.

For many years I collected and stored unloved old cars. Reasons already articulated. One, I had a place to keep them safe from the crusher. To me, that was worthwhile. The other was, I liked having them. I know most don't get that, but it's how I am. So the cars were saved, at least for a while, and one thing you overlooked: it wasn't hurting anyone. Never mind that it was more than most would do.

Whether anyone likes it or not, it's going to have to be good enough.

Bob, What you have articulated above is me in a nut shell. The only difference I can really see between the two of us is that I lost my collection due to greed of another kind! Someone wanted my property to build $200,000.00 houses on and the city wanted the increased tax revenue. My property was condemned, taken and given to a private developer. I had just enough time to give some away, crush some and bring a few with me when I packed up and left Texas. The really sad part of the whole thing, the property had a natural artisan spring on it that kept 1/3 of the property in natural wetland (supposedly protected by EPA against any kind of development). The first thing the developer did was fill the spring with concrete. Today, there are 300 of the nicest homes you could want on the property. The streets and yards of about 1/3 of them flood every time it rains. City over looked any provision for water run off, removal, or retention.

[Andy R.]

Aren't we all dreamers, here?
The only difference is some are living the dream while others (noted in the OP) are content to dream the dream.

It's no different from me accumulating old speed parts (sculpture) with the dream of someday putting them on a C-E Woody I'd love to build someday before I rust away completely.

[SN-60]

To: bomarkham,----OK, let's try another example of what I'm trying to get across to You. An example not related to automobiles. I have a '55 "double strike" Lincoln Penny. This coin is somewhat rare, and I own it.
If I put that penny on an anvil, took a 4LB hammer and smashed it into a small copper blob, would that be allright with You? I know I have the 'right' to smash that coin, but would it really make 'sense'? (no pun)
Not to get 'too deep' here, but are We really OWNERS of or CARETAKERS of the past? Think about it!

[63 R2 Hawk]

My late wife's 80 something year old mother had a 1957 Cadillac El Dorado Brougham, a 1955 Chevy Bel Air "Golden Anniversary" model and a 1964 Impala sitting in her driveway for years in Littleton, Colorado. Hardly a day went by that someone didn't ring the doorbell to try and buy one (or all) of them. Her philosphy was that as long as those cars were there, she *could* get in one and drive one "if she wanted to". None had been started in years and she was on oxygen but she clung to that delusion, I guess it made her feel better.....

[TX Rebel]

To me the purpose of the hobby is the preservation of cars (& other artifacts) that are no longer being produced. That pursuit takes many forms and all can be respected, as long as the object is the preservation of the items, not wanton and wasteful destruction. Few reasonable people respect waste. Hunting for food is very acceptable, but a hunter who hunts purely for the enjoyment of killing is not respected, nor is a fisherman who catches good game fish and discards them in stinking piles on the shore. All they are doing is destroying game that others could be utilizing and polluting the environment..That is comparable to buying a well-preserved and usable historic building or home and demolishing it to make room for a convenience store or gas station. There are some in the car biz who represent this type of mentality and they are not respected as fellow hobbyists. We are into preservation & enjoyment-not destruction & waste. If you die without donating your organs to those who desperately need them, you are in the same category.
I have a large collection of parts & builder cars and they sit year after year not because I enjoy watching them dissolve away in this miserable Gulf coast climate but simply because it is not easy to sell a car that would cost more to build than it will be worth when done. Some of these cars get parted out because that is the only way to avoid completely wasting them. Anyone who resents the idea of a buildable car sitting here in the elements is more than welcome to come and buy it! www.studebakersite.com

[Corvanti]

while i do think every Stude should be used to be rebuilt or used for parts to rebuild another, we still(?) have some private property rights. in this case for the "pursuit of happiness", whatever that may be, including hoarding items that may be wanted by other folks.

are we to point of: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" ?

that's all i better say!

Mods delete if needed...

[StudeMichael]

Perhaps the hoarders have a place if the alternative is those cars would have ended up in the junk yard many years ago. You may not get the cars or parts while they are alive but lets face it, nobody lives for ever and at lease the cars will still be here.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Best reply yet.
I wrote several pithy responses, but tossed them out.
This says it very well.
But having respect for liberty also means respecting one's right to do what you consider to be stupid.
While you might not respect a person for, say, not donating their organs, you cannot compel them to do so.
It is still their right to make that personal decision.
This hobby is to have fun. This is a club to have fun with cars.
Preservationists preserve things.
But... This is still a compelling conversation...
Jeff


noun, plural
1. an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation

To me the purpose of the hobby is the preservation of cars (& other artifacts) that are no longer being produced. That pursuit takes many forms and all can be respected, as long as the object is the preservation of the items, not wanton and wasteful destruction. Few reasonable people respect waste. Hunting for food is very acceptable, but a hunter who hunts purely for the enjoyment of killing is not respected, nor is a fisherman who catches good game fish and discards them in stinking piles on the shore. All they are doing is destroying game that others could be utilizing and polluting the environment..That is comparable to buying a well-preserved and usable historic building or home and demolishing it to make room for a convenience store or gas station. There are some in the car biz who represent this type of mentality and they are not respected as fellow hobbyists. We are into preservation & enjoyment-not destruction & waste. If you die without donating your organs to those who desperately need them, you are in the same category.
I have a large collection of parts & builder cars and they sit year after year not because I enjoy watching them dissolve away in this miserable Gulf coast climate but simply because it is not easy to sell a car that would cost more to build than it will be worth when done. Some of these cars get parted out because that is the only way to avoid completely wasting them. Anyone who resents the idea of a buildable car sitting here in the elements is more than welcome to come and buy it! www.studebakersite.com