To Sell Or Not To Sell
True story, continued. Perhaps others have shared this same sort of experience. I purchased my '69 in November of '79. Throughout the years people would ask what I'd sell it for - what was the value. Not in the market to sell, I would offer a ballpark figure which I thought would provide me with a nice return. But - I did not want to sell. The responses I received indicated that I was pricing this too low. Sometime around 1990 I thought about selling the Corvette and placed an ad in a national Corvette magazine, which wasn't cheap. Well before computers and on-line anything.
I still wasn't convinced that I wanted to sell this, but for whatever reason I felt that if I could turn a nice profit, why not. Shortly after that issue hit the stands I got a call from a guy in Washington who seemed quite interested. We spoke for 30 minutes or so and all the time I was getting more and more anxious - and not wanting to sell the car. We hung up and the next several calls I got - my answer was that the car was sold. I wanted out - I wanted to keep the car. Maybe I had priced it too low again. I accepted that I would eat the expensive magazine ad, but keep the car.
Skip ahead 25 years or so - I find that I'm not really driving the car much - just enough to keep in oiled up, and in top running condition. I again offer my Corvette (which by now has become family) up for sale, with a greatly increased price tag. My end goal was to use the sale funds to buy a 1964 Corvette. Once again the phone rings and a gentleman comes over to inspect the car. Damn - I'm too low again. He spends about an hour really going over the car. He is very interested, but not quite at the point to write a check. We part ways and I immediately, once again, tell any other potential buyers that the car is sold.
So - I still have my 69 Vette. I have twice brushed with the possibility that when I go to the garage, my pride and joy won't be there. I'm fairly certain that a shrink would have a field day with me - trying to figure out what a piece of iron and fiber-glass has become such an important factor in my life. My Corvette is NOT for sale, but I still have my eye on a '64 that would make for a nice pair. My wife however, does not share that vision.
As a P.S. - I did speak with the NMCA member whom I purchased the car from in '79 - I contacted him after I came across the original owner. He was intrigued to hear some of the early facts I learned, and said "damn - you still got that car!"
Source: True story from the webmaster