You guys are all sick. I don't have any such urge to collect all kinds of
cars. I have a very reasonable number of them now that I've gotten rid of
five or six. I think it's seven, well maybe eight. Oh, wait, nine.
Motorcycles are a different story--you can never have too many of those
since you can fit three or four where a single car would go. I actually sold
a couple, and regretted one of them (my Ducati 916) immediately. What am I
going to do with the money? The bike I could have looked at. I won't make
that mistake again. How many do I have? ...not sure. Let's just say "some".
I met a guy who paints all his cars powder blue before he brings them home.
Pretty clever.
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net [mailto:owner-fot@Autox.Team.Net] On Behalf
Of Mark J. Bradakis
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:46 AM
To: fot@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Collections and such
For some time, when folks would ask me "How many cars do you have?" I would
reply with the "Define car" response, or simply say "Less than a dozen."
Usually that was true. At the moment I think 9 is a pretty good guess, with
2 of those "cars" scheduled to get rendered down to salvagble parts and
dumpster filler.
For a time there it seemed like I was on a mission to singlehandedly salvage
each and every unloved Triumph still gracing the planet. A few of you may
recall my comment at a VTR convention a decade or so back, where I
proclaimed something like "I don't think I can make much money just *buying*
Triumphs."
I'm over that phase now, sort of, as my efforts to save all the cars takes
the form of the energy I put into the various Team.Net resources, as well as
some work with local clubs. So with the mailing lists, the web pages, parts
sales and such I do have a part, a very small part, in the restoration,
maintainence and enjoyment of many cars around the globe.
But I do still have tons of stuff. I'm probably sitting on, oh, $5,000 to
$50,000 worth of cars and used, NOS and new parts in inventory. Perhaps I
should phrase that as "I've got over 5,000 parts that might be worth a
dollar or two or ten." Sometimes I do wonder just how much stuff I have on
hand at the shop, or the shed, or the one storage unit, or the other, or in
the basement or the garage at home. I wonder if I could sell *everything*
to some rosy-eyed optimist someday. But then what would I do ;-)
I am trying to get into the habit of offering parts on Ebay on a regular
basis [1], I need to quit wasting all the monthly storage fees I shell out.
Having a nice big barn on my own property would certainly be a nice option,
but that ain't gonna happen soon. Maybe when I retire, right, that's the
ticket. A goal I keep in the back of my mind is to have all my tools, cars,
parts and such in one place. Easy to do if one has no tools, cars, parts
and such.
What fun would that be?
mjb.
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1.
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&useri
d=teamfat&rd=1
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