Missed it by that much.....(long story)

[jaak]

Sitting around bored, thought I'd share a story I never told on this site.....

Back around 1997-98, I had been searching for a '69 charger for a couple of years (passed up a couple of mopars, I kick myself in the ass about, but thats another story). I live in NW Alabama, not far from the TN stateline. A friend of mine had a Swap-n-Shop classified paper from TN, and he told me there was a Charger listed in there...It read "1969 Charger, 318, Auto $3500". Well the paper was 3-4 weeks old, so I rode up to the stateline to get a new paper to see if it was still listed, Sure enough it was only now the price was $2800.

Back then I worked night shift at a tool & die shop, so during the day, I would look around and search for a Charger. I called the guy, he told me it was a solid pretty complete car, said the engine would run, but needed a timing chain, so I set up a time to meet him to look at it (He was near Nashville TN, about a 2 1/2 hr drive away from me). So a couple of Days later, Me and my Pops head up there to look at it. When we arrived there the guy (a young 18-19 year old with a pregnant girlfriend) meets us as we are getting out of the car, he says look, I need cash I will take $2000 today. I said cool, let us take a look at it.

There it was a 1969 Dodge Charger, nearly complete solid car. It was painted like the General Lee (not my cup of tea, but did have a pretty nice paint job) Going by memory, the only things missing was the front buckets, and the rear 1/4 glasses, but everything else was still there. It was a good looking car. We probably stayed an hour looking the Charger over, but had to get started back home, so I could get to work. Before I left, he said he'd take $1800.
I told him, I'd think about it (I knew I wanted it, but didn't have cash with me) and left. All I could think about that night was finally getting me a Charger.

The next day (this was a Thursday) I called to tell him I wanted the car, but before I could say anything he said "Look I need money bad.....will you give me $1400 for it", I said "its sold!" I told him I had to work Friday night but will be there around 10 a.m. on Saturday morning to buy it and pick it up. I hired a local guy with a roll-back to haul it home for me. Saturday morning comes and I meet the roll-back driver around 7 a.m. and we take off for Nashville, man I felt like a kid a Christmas, and that ride seemed like forever. Well we finally make it up there and the car was gone. I went up to the door and began banging on it and an Old man comes to the door. I asked "where is the orange Charger that was sitting out here?" He says "Two guys loaded it up on a trailor and hauled it off last night". Needless to say I was PISSED. I was so disappointed and started my journey back home empty handed, and out like 150 bucks for the roll-back.

Monday, to my suprise I got a call from the seller. Here's what he told me, and I think it's the truth, because why would he even bother calling me. He told me that after my Dad and I left, him and his Mom got into an aurgument (he lived with his Mom). Seems she was wanting some of the Money if he sold the car, but he didn't seem to think so because his Dad had given him the car. He did not know that in Alabama, cars built prior to 1975 does not have a title, nor will Alabama issue a title for a 75/older model. After I had called him on Thursday, Friday him and his girlfriend went to his Dads house in Kentucky to get the title from him. While he was gone, he said his Mom called a scrap yard, and they came, picked up the Charger, and paid her scrap price for it. He comes home, and the car was gone.

Like I said don't know if his story was 100% true, but that was a car I missed out on . It sucked but a couple of years later I ended up with a RT and a nice parts car later. If anyone else has similar stories they'd like to share, I'd like to hear them.

Jason

[The70RT]

Sorry you missed it. Too bad you didn't get there sooner.

[68charger383]

Similar story, but I gave the guy a $300.00 deposit on a Tuesday. I wasn't smart enough to get the pink slip.

I came back to get the car on Friday, payday, only to find the car was gone.

The guy's mother told me that he was at work and his father didn't know I had already bought the car, so he sold it to someone else and they already took the car.

What really happended was I think someone came by to see the car, found out the price I was going to pay and offered the guy a $100 or $200 more, so he sold it to them.

I got back my $300.00 and learned my lesson, next time take it right then and there.

[Silver R/T]

they scrapped a nearly complete Charger, they must've been typical inbreds.

[jaak]

they scrapped a nearly complete Charger, they must've been typical inbreds.

Yeah thats what they said. But you know these guys at scrap yards, know old cars, they save em and make money on them, I know a local scrap yard has old cars come in every now and then, if they are worth saving they put em to the side and sell em or sometimes keep em. I know here lately they had a pretty decent 71-72 Dart and a 67-68 mustang, they kept them over to the side, they didn't get crushed.



Jason

[MoparManJim]

Yep. I know the feeling you had, I had the same things kinda around the same time frame also. 

I was saving money up to get a charger at the time. I put the word out with afew friends of mine that knew I was looking for a changer. I had afew leads. But each one was gone before I got there. Well my aunt has afew kids that is parents and they had kids. Anyways, my aunt talk's to her one son (my cousin) to see if he knew anyone that had one. Sure enought his wife has 2 of them for sale! A 1969 and a 1970! My aunt ask how much and she was 2500.00 for both of them as it was a package deal. 
Well, she told my parents about it (my dad her brother), well ask her to talk to them to see if they could maybe just let one go. She talk to them and got back "nope" they wouldn't do it. But she also told my dad what the shape the cars was in also and we knew they would be repairs to be made and the cars would need fixing up and that was no big deal with us. 

Well seeing on how much money I had saved I knew I would need a loan to get them if I wanted one. The cars had nice opinions also. Well I told my dad to tell her to tell them that I wanted them but would have the money saturday night though. Well the word was past along and they said that was no problem. Well Friday night comes, my dad calls her up to let them know we got the money for the two cars. Well my aunt told my dad, that day duaghter in law had a flat bed come by and get the two cars and get them out of there and take them to the scrapt yard  . Well my dad was alittle ouchy about that, I was piss  . 

    Well what they got from the scrapt yard, they about flip when my aunt told them we had the money for the two cars like we said we would have. They got screwed. they would have made more money if they had only waited 20 more hours but they jump the gun and went back on there word.

My dad took a load of scrapt in to get red of the stuff and ran into the same two chargers, by this time the roofs was already crushed on them  , and the yard wouldn't sell anything off the cars either  . 

After that time my cousin and I didn't get along so good. Then he even tryed to sell me a extra trunk lid that his wife had for one of the two cars and I told him thanks but no thanks that I would find a trunk lid (at the time I was looking for one) from someone else. I just didn't trust his or her word anymore.

[Cooter]

It was around 1994 or so, and a friend of mine was going to look at a set of cars. Had to buy both to get one. He went to look at them and one was a 1964 Plymouth, 2dr post, factory 426 Wedge, 4-speed car. Missing the top end of the engine, but the 18 spline Hemi 4-speed and Dana 60 was still there. The other was a 1972 Dodge Charger, 318 car. He told the owner (who was asking $2500 for BOTH cars), that he was headed to the bank to get the money. We have this guy here that has been selling/buying Mopars forever, and everybody THINKS he's the "Mopar Go To Guy". Anyway, by the time we got back to pick up the cars, there he was pulling out of the driveway with BOTH cars on his roll back. I saw my buddy cry for the first time ever. He was pissed to say the least...I mean, he made up cuss words for this guy.. Well, fast forward about 10 years. There was a certain green '68 Charger that had frame rust issues that this "Mopar guy" was after. My buddy found out about it and went to see it, bought it on the spot for $250.00 RUNNING, with a 318 and auto. As we were pulling of the driveway, Who did we see? YEP! Dude was pulling in to get it and My buddy just simply smiled and waved..One of this guys sons wanted the car and knew full and well what my buddy had paid for it. Asked if it was for sale.....
my buddy, simply said.. "Yeah, it's for sale......You got a '64 Savoy, 2dr sedan, factory big block 426 Wedge car?"...Sure nuff, he said "Yeah, it's Still down there in the yard, dad won't let anybody sell anything off of it"..He replied "I'll Trade 'ya?" By the end of all this, he ended up with the car he was gonna pay $2500 to get for $250.00.....Karma has a nasty way of coming back around and biting one in ones rear in this case.....

[jaak]

It was around 1994 or so, and a friend of mine was going to look at a set of cars. Had to buy both to get one. He went to look at them and one was a 1964 Plymouth, 2dr post, factory 426 Wedge, 4-speed car. Missing the top end of the engine, but the 18 spline Hemi 4-speed and Dana 60 was still there. The other was a 1972 Dodge Charger, 318 car. He told the owner (who was asking $2500 for BOTH cars), that he was headed to the bank to get the money. We have this guy here that has been selling/buying Mopars forever, and everybody THINKS he's the "Mopar Go To Guy". Anyway, by the time we got back to pick up the cars, there he was pulling out of the driveway with BOTH cars on his roll back. I saw my buddy cry for the first time ever. He was pissed to say the least...I mean, he made up cuss words for this guy.. Well, fast forward about 10 years. There was a certain green '68 Charger that had frame rust issues that this "Mopar guy" was after. My buddy found out about it and went to see it, bought it on the spot for $250.00 RUNNING, with a 318 and auto. As we were pulling of the driveway, Who did we see? YEP! Dude was pulling in to get it and My buddy just simply smiled and waved..One of this guys sons wanted the car and knew full and well what my buddy had paid for it. Asked if it was for sale.....
my buddy, simply said.. "Yeah, it's for sale......You got a '64 Savoy, 2dr sedan, factory big block 426 Wedge car?"...Sure nuff, he said "Yeah, it's Still down there in the yard, dad won't let anybody sell anything off of it"..He replied "I'll Trade 'ya?" By the end of all this, he ended up with the car he was gonna pay $2500 to get for $250.00.....Karma has a nasty way of coming back around and biting one in ones rear in this case.....

Great story....with an even greater ending!

Jason

[bull]

I guess karma hasn't swung back my way yet. Actually, maybe the following makes up for the $50 '68 I bought back in 1987.

Back when I was Charger shopping I heard of a '69 that was for sale a few towns over so I called on it and went right over, even going so far as to take my Mopar buddy with me armed with his White books. So we show up and the guy's playing dumb about the matching numbers game (even though he's a known Mopar "guru" in the community) and we find that it's got a '70 383 in it. No big deal (other than the lying). Anyway, long story short I decided I wanted it so I offered him his asking price (IIRC it was $7k) and told him I could get the cash to him the next day and tried to give him a deposit. "No, that's ok. It's not going anywhere. You're the only one who knows it's for sale." I insisted and he kept reassuring me it was safe and sound until I returned. Fine, it's not going anywhere, I'll believe that. So that night I take my wife by the place to show it to her and then we stop for dinner and head back home and when we walk into the house I see a message on the machine; it's the seller telling me the car is gone. What? I was just there! So I call him and he gives me a BS story about how some guy just happened by and just happened to have a wallet filled with $7k and bought it on the spot. What a lying sack of you-know-what. You know he called one of his buddies who'd been sitting on the fence and I was the motivation to pry the guy's wallet open. What pissed me off more than that POS pulling the rug out from under me was that it came with a bunch of cool spare parts including an NOS hood. Oh well, now I've got a 68 which is what I really wanted all along. And it's a rare one.

Moral of the story: don't bother showing up unless you've got the cash and you're ready to hand it over and take the car RIGHT THEN.

[jaak]

MoparManJim, Cooter, Bull thanks for the stories.

Bull your right, now if I go to look at something I am real serious about buying....I have money with me. If Im on the fence, I won't that way I have a couple of days to decide....if its there I'll buy if not I'll move on.

Jason

[69DodgeCharger]

These are not cars I "missed" out on per se. Just some that I found over the years that were available.

1987 - '65 Coronet 500 426/auto car complete $500

1988 - '66 Charger 440 4spd Complete, not missing a thing $800 Son went in Army and didn't care about it any more

1988 - '70 Superbird 440 6 pac Missing carbs and intake 71,000 miles $5,000

1989 - '70 Roadrunner Convertible FM3 Pink car one of 3 allegedly. Missing engine/trans $3,500 Basket case

1995 - '70 Roadrunner 440 6 pac, pistol grip non console car engine gone had a 383 in it $1200 (rusty)

2000 - '69 Superbee complete with ramcharger hood she was selling just to spite her soon to be ex husband $700

2002 - '57 Dodge Sweptline pickup 1 of 180 complete $500 had no idea what it was and didn't check into it.

2005 - '71 GTX 440 6 Pac car. Siezed for non payment of storage/rental house. Price quickly escalated to 5 figures and was out of reach.

[NHCharger]

My story.

Sitting at my in-laws camp (circa 1998) reading Uncle Henrey's Swap Guide (no kidding). After going thru the antique car section I start on the regular car for sale section, this catches my eye, 1968 Dodge, two door, primed, 4 speed, runs good, needs paint, 426 CU engine, ex-husbands project car, $ 1,800.00  . I jump out of my chair, run up to my van (still had the car phone attached to the vehicle back then) and call the number. As soon as I say "I'm calling about your dodge for sale" she yells "It's sold damn it" and hung up. After 1,000 calls she probably figured out she low balled the car.

[jaak]

My story.

Sitting at my in-laws camp (circa 1998) reading Uncle Henrey's Swap Guide (no kidding). After going thru the antique car section I start on the regular car for sale section, this catches my eye, 1968 Dodge, two door, primed, 4 speed, runs good, needs paint, 426 CU engine, ex-husbands project car, $ 1,800.00  . I jump out of my chair, run up to my van (still had the car phone attached to the vehicle back then) and call the number. As soon as I say "I'm calling about your dodge for sale" she yells "It's sold damn it" and hung up. After 1,000 calls she probably figured out she low balled the car.

Thats funny!

Another story.....around this same time I placed an ad in a local classified searching for a Charger. A guy calls me, says he has 2....1 '68 and a 69. He says the 68 was a yellow RT with a 440 and 4 speed. and the 69 was a bronze 318 Car with an automatic. Said he inherited them from an Uncle and he wanted to get them outta his garage. Said they both needed a little work, but both ran, and he would take 3000 for the pair. I got directions and the next day after work rode out there (about an hour drive) Come to find out it was a hoax, someone had been calling 'wanted' ads and sending them to this guys house, the guy at the house said someone had dropped by every night to look at cars, appliances, tillers, etc. Said he had no idea who was doing that to him. I knew it sounded to good to be true even for the late-90's. Needless to say I was disappointed.

Jason

[The70RT]

About 10 years ago I seen In the local newspaper 1962 chevy 500. I called at like 7:30 and lady about 80 years old answered. She said it was an Impala 2dr. Her husband past away about 3 years ago and the battery is dead now and has flat tires. It ran when he was alive. Everything else was nice....I said what about the body? Like I said it was nice and 500 bucks or don't come over. She said she can't drive anymore and it needs to be moved out of the garage so a wheelchair ramp can be built and the 500 will cover it. I said I am at work and get off at 1:30 and I will call back. I get off and call and she says no one has come over to look at it yet. She had lots of calls and is in a rural area and only a couple people got directions to the farm. I load my trailer and drive like a bat out of hell to get up there. I got there at like 4:00. I pull in and a couple guys had already loaded it on a trailer and was getting ready to leave. I can still feel the knot in my stomach. I got out and looked at it anyway and this guy looked happy as hell. It was a one owner with just over 40K on it, 2dr. H.T. original white paint with red interior and had a 327 and was nice over all.

[bull]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

[69DodgeCharger]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

And usually for less than what you offered them intially. Or they scrap them.

[Cooter]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

This all gets back to "right place, right time, with right money"...

What pisses me off is the Chevy/Ford guy/guys that go look at it only to tell the owner AFTER you have agreed on a price that that "ol Mopar" is worth much more than the asking price and screw you over in the process when they never even intended on buying it in the first place...

[jaak]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

Thats true.... I knew of a '70 Duster locally, dude's grandma had bought it new. Nothing real special /6, auto, white with blue interior, but was an all original car.....great V8 swap candidate. Every Mopar guy in this area has stopped and asked, and of course it was not for sale. I was at a friends house one night and he mentioned that the duster had a for sale sign on it, he didnt know how much, but knew it was for sale. Well I had just sold a truck, so I had 4 grand on me, we rode up there...but as always someone just left with it.

Jason

[The70RT]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

This all gets back to "right place, right time, with right money"...

What pisses me off is the Chevy/Ford guy/guys that go look at it only to tell the owner AFTER you have agreed on a price that that "ol Mopar" is worth much more than the asking price and screw you over in the process when they never even intended on buying it in the first place...

A lot of time family members own the cars and just come and get them. How many of us on here have there kids or a sibling leave cars till they get a place and then move them?

Like you can tell a mopar from a ford or a chevy guy. Lots of us on here have fords and chevys too. Troy the owner of this site has a Mach I and a Toyota!

[bull]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

This all gets back to "right place, right time, with right money"...

Actually, come to think of it I might have been that guy when I got my '68. The owner had been letting it sit for 6 years in an alley and I talked to an acquaintance of his who told me he might be willing to sell. I showed up with cash, looked it over and bought it. Who knows? Maybe people had been bothering him to sell for the previous six years. Next time I'll talk to him I'll have to ask. Maybe all the people fortunate enough to score these cars are wondering how they sat so long without being found.

[The70RT]

One common theme in trying to buy neglected classic cars that drives all of us nuts is when you bug these people over and over with offers to buy and they get pissed at you for asking. So fine, you leave the guy alone and the next thing you know the car is gone. I don't get that. They absolutely will NOT sell to 99.9% of the people 99.9% of the time and then all of a sudden one day... gone.

This all gets back to "right place, right time, with right money"...

Actually, come to think of it I might have been that guy when I got my '68. The owner had been letting it sit for 6 years in an alley and I talked to an acquaintance of his who told me he might be willing to sell. I showed up with cash, looked it over and bought it. Who knows? Maybe people had been bothering him to sell for the previous six years. Next time I'll talk to him I'll have to ask. Maybe all the people fortunate enough to score these cars are wondering how they sat so long without being found.

I use to cruise alleys all the time back in 80's After that all the 60's and 70's stuff got a lot harder to find. Most I would find later was someone told me where they seen a car.

[Cooter]

/quote]

Like you can tell a mopar from a ford or a chevy guy. Lots of us on here have fords and chevys too. Troy the owner of this site has a Mach I and a Toyota!

Actually, I was refering to a personal experience with a couple of well known Chevy guys that went to look at a certain 1967 Plymouth 2dr Satellite I was in the process of making a deal on and ended up paying way more to get the car after these guys had looked at it and the owner told me they said it was "Worth much more than that"...

[tan top]

  intresting  storys guys    keep em coming

[69bronzeT5]

Cool stories for sure! It would really suck having someone buy a car out from under you or someone else it while you go to the bank/get money. I was really worried about that happening with my Duster...I was trying to get money together for it and it took a few months (nervous months ) but it's in my driveway now so it's all good!

[teamroth]

Cool stories for sure! It would really suck having someone buy a car out from under you or someone else it while you go to the bank/get money. I was really worried about that happening with my Duster...I was trying to get money together for it and it took a few months (nervous months ) but it's in my driveway now so it's all good!

You're one of the lucky ones Cody! 

Here's mine:
I was 17 and living in Texas. There was a little town called Lytle we always used to drive through to go Honky Tonkin (no lol's I was a cowboy and really was a rancher) and I see this sweet 73 SE with a mighty 440. The left fender was dinged pretty bad, looked as if someone had a bad blow out and the rubber/steel belt of the tire came up and put a beating on it. Anyway I stopped to talk to the guy, it was on a used car lot. The price? A whopping 495.00 dollars! So he tells me there is a slight miss in the car, and won't let me drive it (not a dumb guy) without a deposit. I go pick up my friend's father who was a mechanic and worked on the city school's busses. We take a ride, and he says he can't pinpoint the miss without getting into it a bit. I tell the guy I will be back and he says do you want to leave a deposit, and I say I don't have cash on me. He says 20bucks will hold it. I tell him I will be back tomorrow at lunch. My mother was supposed to pick me up at lunch during school, but alas she did not. We went after school, cash in hand and much to my surprise someone had come 2 hours before and picked it up. Before he bought it he changed the plug wires and bam! The miss disappeared. Guy said he smoked the tires from block to block and my first chance at a charger disappeared. Second one I missed out on was a WB documented GL in 1997 for 25k. I missed that one because of a nasty ex-wife who liked to make fun of my Mopar/Dukes obsession. 

Seen a few here and there that could have been had, but still haven't found the perfect one. Ima huntin though. (as you all know with my constant WIW threads) 

The major problem I have now is I keep hoping I'll find deals like this again, maybe if I still lived in the country. Maybe not...lol