[FortyNiner]

So, an example to demonstrate the folly of hoarding and over-valuing.

A couple of years ago, after my brother bought a vehicle from a local-ish woman, she and I spoke a bit more after the deal was done. Come to learn that her father - and then his children - had been holding a collection of car parts since the mid-70s. Her father, who had owned a parts store, had insisted that they were 'a gold mine' and they had moved them and paid for storage in the subsequent years. I expressed and interest in helping to value or sell the stash and we arranged an inspection date.

Long story short, they were really mutts. A collection of mostly gaskets, broken take-off parts, and shelf filler that couldn't find a buyer back in the day. Poorly marked, poorly boxed, and without any record of exactly what was there - my meagerly trained eye didn't see much of value in the parts. The seller presented her research - a limited amount of checking and an insistance that her parts were worth the maximum asking price found anywhere.

I politely told the seller that I wouldn't be making an offer, that the value had likely been already exceeded by the storage costs, and gave her a couple of NOS specialists who might be worth contacting.

The seller later paid for a stall at large area swap meet. Their presentation consisted of stacks of boxes crammed with random unmarked parts in the back of a rented truck. If they grossed $20, it would have been epic. Ultimately, the seller got the stuff listed with some outfit that seemed mainly focused on vintage clothing and home goods. In short, it didn't sell, there wasn't any mother lode, and there wasn't any gold.

This stuff should have been sold decades ago when any potential buyers were alive and the parts could have been used for vehicles that were still on the road. Alas.