You did WHAT???!!!

I am a bit hesitant in sharing this particular story to all of you because at a certain point in my story, a number of you will probably say, “YOU DID WHAT???!!!!

To make the subject of this story untraceable, I decided not to give too many specifics making it hard for the reader to zero in on the Volkswagen that I am referring to.

One uneventful day while I was lazily scanning the internet for vintage VWs, I spotted a pre-1967 VW bus that was just placed in the market a few minutes after I logged in. The first thing that caught my attention was the price—it was cheap! I viewed the pictures of the bus and discovered that the bus seemed to be in a very restorable state. The dashboard is untouched and possibly still has the original paint. The rust in it is not that bad and can easily be repaired. Roof is good and the floor area is complete.

I called the owner and a young fellow answered the phone. He said that he had the bus for a while now and does not really find a need to own it anymore. The engine needs a little work but it runs. At that point, I knew that I could buy this bus and immediately flip it for a good profit. But while I was talking to the owner, I discovered that the owner is a guy who is just starting on his own and probably is a college student. I asked him how much does he know on vintage VWs and he said that he only knows that they are cool cars. When I asked him if he did some repairs on his own on the bus, he replied, “I don’t know how to work on cars”. At that moment, a part of me is saying, “Just pay the guy and grab the bus”.

Though I wanted to make easy money on this one, my conscience is tapping my shoulder telling me, “Let this one go, man, and just do the right thing”. After making a smirk face with a few foot stompings, I said to myself, “Aw-shucks! I can’t believe I am going to do this!” 

With a deep sigh, I told the owner, “You know, you seemed like a cool young guy and I don’t want to take advantage of you. I think you are making a big mistake in selling your bus cheap.” The owner was a bit surprise on what I just said and wondered if I am just doing a weird negotiation strategy on him. I told him that I could pay his asking price right now and be done with it but I would be bothered by my conscience if I do it. I asked him if he knows the website “thesamba.com”. He said he never heard of it and did not know it existed. I explained to him the advantages of placing his bus in that website because he will expose his bus to serious VW buyers.

During our conversation, the owner kept on trying to figure out if there was a ‘catch’ on what I was doing. I assured the owner that he has nothing to lose and would thank me if he follows my suggestion. I asked him to pull out his bus off the market because his phone was then being bombarded with calls from other buyers who are all fighting to get through the line.

I suggested to the owner that he invest on getting the engine of his bus running and also fined tuned because this way his bus becomes more attractive to vintage VW buyers in thesamba. I also recommended to the owner that he wait until the month of April before he places his bus on thesamba because it is my personal observation that the vintage VW bus market heats up shortly before or after the “Bug-in 38” show which is scheduled on April 28^th at the city of Irwindale. If you are a VW fanatic, you don’t want to miss out on the Bug-in show!

I know some of you are now saying, “Have you freakin’ lost your mind? Letting go of a sure profit is absolute lunacy. What the heck did you do that for, man?!”

Well, I have mixed feelings about what I did. I would be lying to you if I told you that I don’t feel the pain of the loss profit. But there are special times when softening one’s heart for the benefit of another human being that deserves the gain provides me a better quality of sleep when the evening comes……. (oh, shut up! No bonehead is going to believe that crap!)

Good night, guys.

And the VW hunt continues….