When you step in front of the bus

So now we have a perfect example of what we were talking about. I was informed by two Fiat friends of mine that a gentleman passed away and his spider is now sitting in front of the house and the widow has to get rid of the car. She turned to one of my Fiat friends who lives near her to help out. I volunteered to make a post on MIRA (soon, haven't done it yet) and the mechanics of selling a spider for the widow who does not know what to do and for obvious reasons does not really want to get involved with the sale process starts to unfold. Three of us want to help her but none of us want to get involved much...this is not going to go well.
 
A friend passed away almost a year ago leaving two warehouses full of non running cars and boats and parts. Luckily his sons have taken the lead and have sold or disposed of most of the stuff. I had his '54 Nash Metropolitan coupe stored at my place and he had told his family to leave it to me but his widow can't find the title among the stacks of paperwork he had so it sits amongst my Fiat projects. At least everything is indoors.
 
The ad is just posted on MIRA, amazing how little I know about it. And I probably would be interested if I didn't already have a spider project I'm going to start on. A Fiat buddy said I should buy it, get it ready for the road and flip it but I don't do flipping as I can't get interested in a Fiat I'm not bonding with.
 
Going a bit off topic, I tend to think of flipping cars as kind of a form of automotive prostitution. To me it is taking advantage of someone for money, the car being an innocent victim in the middle.
I see a lot of this at the big auctions. Cars are built specifically for the purpose of deceiving buyers; they look the part upon casual observation, but everything is hacked and hidden in reality, with super inflated prices.
 
"Flipping" definitely has a negative connotation. A related word might be "resurrecting" which is what I end up doing. My white spider and the 128 wagon belonged to friends of mine who had done nothing with the cars (which were mostly shells at the time) and I brought them back to life. I have done this with several spiders that had sat for years and needed at least a year of work to get them safely on the road to my standards. These are all cars that would have never been on the road again without my input. I have also built a 124 coupe (my flat black monster) that was using...er...borrowed?...title/vin plate but when I was done playing with it I removed all my goodies and returned the shell to the friend I got it from because there was no way I would ever sell a car without it's true title. My current rat X was a parts car that would have gone to the crusher.

My flipping comment in the above post just refers to me getting the car, making sure it's safe and sending it on it's way to a new owner. In all the Fiats I sell, I usually try to just recoup my expenses.

I think helping widows sell Fiats or any other car is mentally draining for all parties involved.
 
carl said:
"Flipping" definitely has a negative connotation. A related word might be "resurrecting" which is what I end up doing. My white spider and the 128 wagon belonged to friends of mine who had done nothing with the cars (which were mostly shells at the time) and I brought them back to life. I have done this with several spiders that had sat for years and needed at least a year of work to get them safely on the road to my standards. These are all cars that would have never been on the road again without my input. I have also built a 124 coupe (my flat black monster) that was using...er...borrowed?...title/vin plate but when I was done playing with it I removed all my goodies and returned the shell to the friend I got it from because there was no way I would ever sell a car without it's true title. My current rat X was a parts car that would have gone to the crusher.

My flipping comment in the above post just refers to me getting the car, making sure it's safe and sending it on it's way to a new owner. In all the Fiats I sell, I usually try to just recoup my expenses.

I think helping widows sell Fiats or any other car is mentally draining for all parties involved.
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One could think about flipping cars, when some modification/repair is involved, as performing work that the new owner would have commissioned had they known the work was necessary. I'm sure that no one would have issues with a new owner taking a car to someone to fix or modify it - after they purchased it. In the case of flippers, the fix or modification, was done as speculation that the costs could be recovered from the new owner. As long as the repairs are good, and there is no attempt to misrepresent the car, this type of flipping could be viewed as a noble service. Think Wheeler Dearlers.

I think the negative connotation comes from flippers who purchase a car, perform little or no work, then sell it on for a substantial profit. This kind of flipper could be viewed as profiting without effort. The new owner might disagree though, after all they thought the car was worth the price. Of course anyone who performs sub-par repairs, or hides shoddy work, deserves to be criticized, or keel hauled, or both. Those type of flippers are worthy of universal disdain.

It seems that it's often that the bad apples are the ones who shape peoples opinion.
 
MikeHynes said:
Of course anyone who performs sub-par repairs, or hides shoddy work, deserves to be criticized, or keel hauled, or both. Those type of flippers are worthy of universal disdain.
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Well Mike, we will need an appropriate keel before we get to far into the punishment phase. Here you go:
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You mean like Drivan Ivan (look up his youtube test drives) who bought this from me for $3,900, fixed the dent by the passenger side headlight and advertised it for around $10,000? Didn't bother me any, he was the only person to respond to my ad and I got what I wanted. I have seen the car at some local Fiat events but have yet to talk to the new owner. Took me a year or so to get it to this condition...another spider sitting in a garage unused for years and years.
 
carl said:
You mean like Drivan Ivan (look up his youtube test drives) who bought this from me for $3,900, fixed the dent by the passenger side headlight and advertised it for around $10,000? Didn't bother me any, he was the only person to respond to my ad and I got what I wanted. I have seen the car at some local Fiat events but have yet to talk to the new owner. Took me a year or so to get it to this condition...another spider sitting in a garage unused for years and years.
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I think this illustrates my point. Carl's efforts to revive the car and eventually sell it at a reasonable price for what it was, is not what I consider "flipping"...certainly not in the context that I meant. However the following owner, who purchased it, did little more that make it appear a little better and then sell it for almost three times the money is what I call a flipper (in the negative context). I hate people that do that. And I have the same sentiment for those that do similar with any product. The mentality is to seek personal gain at the expense of another. Perhaps I'm too humanistic and just don't get greed.
 
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