WickedSpeed
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I love badass cars and motorcycles that stand head and shoulders above others. Rides that make people do double-takes or go, "What the..." I wish could own/drive them all. But it ain't happening on a teacher's salary. So I work 3 part time jobs on top of my full time teaching career so that I can have play money and have been lucky enough to play with some amazing cars over the last few years.
Last summer it was a Dajiban style hot-rod van build which I picked up in Tennessee and proceed to drive across America towards San Diego, only to have break down just a couple of hours away from Danno's get-together in New Mexico. Huge shout-out to Danno, BuellDozer and Jeff for the trailer rescue, trouble-shooting, repairs, good times, and getting the road trip back on track. Was a hell of an adventure that I don't regret taking that's for sure! Pic/Thread from that adventure:
The Wicked Slo-xpress Adventure (Van Life Sux)
The van is still going strong and has been further modified to spit fire on command.
ANYWAYS...
Thursday night 9 days ago, going through my usual bedtime routine of checking Craigslist and Facebook postings across the US to see what special cars or motorcycles might have popped up for sale that day, I stumbled upon a very fresh ordinary Marketplace posting for a 6-window '59 Cadillac. For $25k.
A white hardtop has been on my bucket list since I saw my first one as a teenager because it was so outrageously overdone. To me, it's the iconic car of American opulence and excess.
It looked to be in decent shape and looked like it might actually be in driving condition. My eyes widened in surprise. Quickly I checked the listing. "Posting for friend call (number removed by Facebook)." No further information at all. It was listed as a DeVille model despite clearly not being a DeVille (window cranks, no center console in front seats, no DeVille script on exterior, so therefore base 62). Red flaps started going up but regardless I clicked on "Message Seller" and fired off a message asking for the seller's info before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
The next day on Friday after some issues with connecting with the seller due to the friend who posted the ad not sharing the correct contact info the first time around, and generally being frustrating and uncooperative to deal with I finally connected with Jim who supposedly was the owner.
"Yes, I still have it."
He said he was a 84-year-old widower and had owed the car for the last 12 years. He said it was in good driving shape.
I immediately told him I'd pay him his full 25K asking price and could he please give me dibs on it while I figured out what the hell to do next.
"Oh no. I'm not selling it for 25 thousand dollars," he said on the phone via sign language interpreting services (I'm deaf).
"#%@$" I said to myself.
"I'm selling it for 24 thousand dollars." He continued.
"Oh, okay. That works for me as well."
We agreed I would buy it, I would send a check for a deposit, he said I could leave it in his garage until I came out to pick it up, etc, etc. I just needed to verify that everything was legit and figure out how to get the main purchasing money to him, and the title signed over to me.
I immediately grabbed my phone, and fired off a message to our BigGar (paraphrasing here) - "Hey! Who do we know and trust in Mississippi?!"
"You're crazy! Dameon's somewhere around there and a pretty good dude."
I immediately jumped on here and PM'ed Dameon.
Turns out he lives in Louisiana and the soonest he could go and look at the car would be Tuesday. It was Friday. I started to get worried. Sure enough, insanity was about to ensue.
That night while eating out at a upscale restaurant with the wife to celebrate, I got alerted to a new posting in the 1959 Cadillac Facebook group which I follow. It was a new posting for this car I had "bought". It was a post made by the same friend, Marvin. I immediately posted on the post (very first post) stating that the car had already been sold and messaged Marvin telling him this, and asked him to remove his post. He read my message, but didn't respond and didn't remove the post. The ad started to blow up.
By the time I woke up in the morning after a largely sleepless night, the ad was still up, and despite my first post saying the car was already sold, offers over double the asking price were rolling in from across, and even outside the country trying to buy the car out from under me.
I asked Marvin again to remove the ad. A few hours later it was still up and somebody had also posted a screenshot showing that they bought this car just moments ago at a "buy it now" price of $26,500 on Ebay. The buyer was asking for the address to go pick it up right away. I looked on Ebay and it was indeed a real posting and not a doctored screenshot.
Needless to say, I was heartbroken. It had been a nice dream to "own" a white 59' hardtop virtually for just a day.
I wasn't quite ready to just roll over though and give up completely.
To be continued... Need to go to the bank today (related to this car)
-Wicked
Last summer it was a Dajiban style hot-rod van build which I picked up in Tennessee and proceed to drive across America towards San Diego, only to have break down just a couple of hours away from Danno's get-together in New Mexico. Huge shout-out to Danno, BuellDozer and Jeff for the trailer rescue, trouble-shooting, repairs, good times, and getting the road trip back on track. Was a hell of an adventure that I don't regret taking that's for sure! Pic/Thread from that adventure:
The Wicked Slo-xpress Adventure (Van Life Sux)
The van is still going strong and has been further modified to spit fire on command.
ANYWAYS...
Thursday night 9 days ago, going through my usual bedtime routine of checking Craigslist and Facebook postings across the US to see what special cars or motorcycles might have popped up for sale that day, I stumbled upon a very fresh ordinary Marketplace posting for a 6-window '59 Cadillac. For $25k.
A white hardtop has been on my bucket list since I saw my first one as a teenager because it was so outrageously overdone. To me, it's the iconic car of American opulence and excess.It looked to be in decent shape and looked like it might actually be in driving condition. My eyes widened in surprise. Quickly I checked the listing. "Posting for friend call (number removed by Facebook)." No further information at all. It was listed as a DeVille model despite clearly not being a DeVille (window cranks, no center console in front seats, no DeVille script on exterior, so therefore base 62). Red flaps started going up but regardless I clicked on "Message Seller" and fired off a message asking for the seller's info before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
The next day on Friday after some issues with connecting with the seller due to the friend who posted the ad not sharing the correct contact info the first time around, and generally being frustrating and uncooperative to deal with I finally connected with Jim who supposedly was the owner.
"Yes, I still have it."
He said he was a 84-year-old widower and had owed the car for the last 12 years. He said it was in good driving shape.
I immediately told him I'd pay him his full 25K asking price and could he please give me dibs on it while I figured out what the hell to do next.
"Oh no. I'm not selling it for 25 thousand dollars," he said on the phone via sign language interpreting services (I'm deaf).
"#%@$" I said to myself.
"I'm selling it for 24 thousand dollars." He continued.
"Oh, okay. That works for me as well."
We agreed I would buy it, I would send a check for a deposit, he said I could leave it in his garage until I came out to pick it up, etc, etc. I just needed to verify that everything was legit and figure out how to get the main purchasing money to him, and the title signed over to me.
I immediately grabbed my phone, and fired off a message to our BigGar (paraphrasing here) - "Hey! Who do we know and trust in Mississippi?!"
"You're crazy! Dameon's somewhere around there and a pretty good dude."
I immediately jumped on here and PM'ed Dameon.
Turns out he lives in Louisiana and the soonest he could go and look at the car would be Tuesday. It was Friday. I started to get worried. Sure enough, insanity was about to ensue.
That night while eating out at a upscale restaurant with the wife to celebrate, I got alerted to a new posting in the 1959 Cadillac Facebook group which I follow. It was a new posting for this car I had "bought". It was a post made by the same friend, Marvin. I immediately posted on the post (very first post) stating that the car had already been sold and messaged Marvin telling him this, and asked him to remove his post. He read my message, but didn't respond and didn't remove the post. The ad started to blow up.
By the time I woke up in the morning after a largely sleepless night, the ad was still up, and despite my first post saying the car was already sold, offers over double the asking price were rolling in from across, and even outside the country trying to buy the car out from under me.
I asked Marvin again to remove the ad. A few hours later it was still up and somebody had also posted a screenshot showing that they bought this car just moments ago at a "buy it now" price of $26,500 on Ebay. The buyer was asking for the address to go pick it up right away. I looked on Ebay and it was indeed a real posting and not a doctored screenshot.
Needless to say, I was heartbroken. It had been a nice dream to "own" a white 59' hardtop virtually for just a day.
I wasn't quite ready to just roll over though and give up completely.
To be continued... Need to go to the bank today (related to this car)
-Wicked
