Stuff

[MiniDave]

Styers and I went over to a local guys house today - he's an old Mini racer from the 60's-70's and a real car guy. He said he had a basement full of Mini parts he wanted to sell so we decided to go see what he had........

Basement-full was an understatement - guy was a hoarder. I don't think he ever threw anything away his whole life. He'd recently been thru a divorce (imagine that, wife didn't want to live in that mess!?) and as we went downstairs to the basement....well, we were shocked to say the least. Boxes piled up to the ceiling, no idea what was in any of them, but many were full of car parts - according to him. I'll post a few pics to give an idea, but there was little point in taking many pics cause you couldn't really tell what anything was or it's condition.

I asked him if he knew what he wanted and he said he had a figure in mind - but wouldn't say what that was. He also said he already had a hard offer from a guy in California who would rent a truck and come clean it all out, load it up and haul it off. John and I figured that would have been at least two weeks of work! Later he admitted he thought it was all worth $50K for "everything" and that he'd take half that. He wouldn't sell any individual parts - all or nothing. We wished him well as he's a nice guy - he had 3 Lotus in the garage - well a Westfield and two supercharged V-6 Stalkers. Not that you could have gotten any of them out of the garage due to the shit piled up on them and around them!

For all I know there could have been $50K worth of parts in there, but how would you know unless you dug them all out, inventoried and cataloged them?

The engine was supposed to be a Longman 1293 Cooper S block, he said many of the tires are mounted on original Mambas (how could I tell?) and there were doors, subframes etc everywhere. It was still an interesting afternoon, guy is interesting to talk too - hope I run into him again and he does get $25K for it all!

[MiniDave]

Missed the engine pic....

[BruceK]

Interesting how some people value their "stuff".   You can see this sometimes on the TV show American Pickers.  I find it difficult to imagine someone gambling on the mysterious unseen contents of an unknown number of boxes and handing over big money to do so.

[MiniDave]

Yeah, that's pretty much where John and I went too....we thought maybe $2500 based on what he said he had, but not $25K!

[velopackrat]

Good luck to the fellow and to his California buyer too.  I suspect there is a pretty short list of us Mini nuts who are still in acquisition mode.  We're getting older as a group and few of us will build, maintain and field a vintage racing Mini.  On various parts I've tried to sell, I've realized I was about the only nut who thought the part was desirable.  Buyers are scarce and proof is on eBay by looking at used classic Mini parts.  That said, of course a thick flange S motor assembled by Richard Longman is cool.  One cannot have too many of those:)

[MiniDave]

Now that I think about it, I wonder if his "California Buyer" was Don Racine - of MiniMania? This kind of a find would be right up their alley - even so I seriously doubt they'd pay $25K, or even half that.

[94touring]

I have two car ports full of stuff.  25k takes it.  Comes with a 67s shell and title!

[velopackrat]

What's an autographed Dan S shell worth these days?

[94touring]

What's an autographed Dan S shell worth these days?

[joakwin]

tires are so old they wouldn't be safe to use

im sure that cooper s block could get some good money but sitting for that many years would need a rebuild

25k good luck

[MiniDave]

Update: talked to a friend the other day who said he still has all of it, still piled up in the basement. That stuff will be there till the day he dies, then someone else will have to deal with it.....