Are parts hoarders killing our hobby?

[troubledmind76]

What are your opinions?
Here is my example. 6 miles from my house is a field with between 40 and 70 pre 70's beetles. The owner (although he is polite and a nice guy) will not sell or part with a single scrap of metal. Second example. My neighbor owns a single 69 beetle that's restored and currently has 6 pairs of original popout rear windows but won't sell even 1 set, although he has no plans to ever buy another bug. Not begrudging anyone keeping spare components we all need to. I'm only talking about the extremist that seem To buy everything just so no one else can. Am I wrong to be angry with these people?

[johnnypan]

Here in America you are free to do with your private property as you please...fact is they made millions of these cars,find someone who actually is selling the part you need.

Venturing on to private property to inquire about cars or parts that clearly are not marked for sale requires a thick skin..you better have proper protection for insult or buckshot..

[troubledmind76]

First I didn't go onto private property all are visible from the road and the owner was standing there and I have kown him for years. Secondly in no way trying to start any arguments and think you missed my point. I'm well aware people are free to do anything they want with there belongings. I simply asked for others opinions on the matter.

[Mudpump]

People don't buy parts so someone else can't have them. People keep extra parts because they either wants spares, find a good price or want quality (ex. NOS) and came across some so they bought them.
People have the right to buy and sell (or not sell) as they please.

I know people that buy extra parts which they plan give to a son/daughter with the car or whenever they sell the car if it turns out they don't use them.
That's their business and their right.

Some peoples definition of "extremist" is someone who does or thinks different than they do

[green1303]

There is a large but finite and declining supply of air-cooled VWs and NOS parts in the world. If the private collections of cars and parts were all dumped on the market at once, then the prices of both would crash, which would set back the hobby in the long run. NOS parts would be widely available for a few years, and then they would be gone forever. OEMs and manufacturers of high-quality replacement parts depend on some combination of price and volume to justify production, and the shortage of NOS parts has helped them. The limited availability of certain models and years supports higher prices and helps people to justify restoring these cars. The biggest risk to the future of the hobby is people chopping bodies, because they aren't making new ones. Hoarding cars and parts and releasing them slowly into the market is not a bad thing in the long run.
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1973 green Super Beetle

[Cusser]

I sold an "impossible-to-get" part to a local guy who was restoring a 1970 VW Convertible, and I figured if I ever fixed my 1970 up, I likely would not go full-restoration. And I figured that a restored Convertible on the road is better than the "hope" mine would be restored, ever. My 1970 is likely to the "real patina" look, it has a great patina look to it, and that's the original paint.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[Antonio Trejo]

[Northof49]

It's like that with any hobby it seems. Some human's nature??
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1958 Karmann Ghia owner

[hopkin]

[theKbStockpiler]

It's not hoarding that is a problem it's individuals that will scrap or throw out parts when they can't get the price that they feel they deserve for it. I wanted better fenders for my car but when I look at fenders for $75 a piece that are in worse condition then the ones I have I decided to pound the dents out of mine. People think even though it sits behind their house and rots that when they get around to putting it on craigs list ; at that time worth nothing ,their going to cash in on vintage parts just for the fact that THEY posses them.
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My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[Tim Donahoe]

The two examples of hoarding, mentioned by the OP are extreme--to any ordinary person.

Hoarders like this are not "waiting for the right time to sell". They're just sick-ass hoarders. Between 40 and 70 bugs? 6 pairs of pop-outs? These guys surely went hungry to bed a lot when they were young.

Many years ago, I visited my ex-wife's uncle's house. In his back yard, he had a half-acre of, anything from an upright piano (with no tarp to cover it), to anything you might imagine at a hundred different garage sales. I noticed an antique cast iron pot, and asked him what he wanted for it. He replied that he didn't sell this stuff. He just kept it.

Seriously? This guy was sick.

Hoarders are like that. They're not "withholding from the market". They're just sitting on their piles of junk and thinking "my precious" ....

Tim
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Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[troubledmind76]

Thank you Tim, you seem to be the first to understand what I was trying to get across

[Antonio Trejo]

[Mudpump]

Some people collect things and some people collect money. Who's to say the thing collector is sicker because their yard isn't as pretty as the money collectors portfolio statement.

I guess someone who has more corporate stock than they could possibly ever need, should dispose of it so he isn't accused of hoarding and deemed sick by someone who wants the stock.

The "hoarder" is spending his money on what he likes to spend his money on. If that's a problem it isn't his problem.

[gt1953]

Some people hoard items...Um I have a couple of 034 distributor. Not hoarding just they are hard to find.
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Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[BUGGED11111]

I have 2 of everything. I look on my garage as a Noah's Ark

[andk5591]

With the OP on this. There is a big difference between and ethusiast with a parts stash and a hoarder. And honestly, I am being as careful as I can not to cross the line myself.

There was a pretty large (hundreds of cars) junkyard that belonged to a local guy that would not sell parts off many of the dozens and dozens classics that he had in his yard that were rotting away. After he died the scrappers came in - made me sick seeing old Packards and many other cars (30s to 60s) piled in the back of flat beds heading to the scrap yards.....

Yeah you can do what you want with your property, but letting stuff rot is being a dick...

Hell, I have bought pretty trashed bugs that I was just going to flip, and I put the damn things in a garage or at least under a pavillion as long as they are in my possession.
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D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[gp98]

Understand and agree within op, and see all the time people thinking mines worth a boat load because its mine....Also the statement...I'm gonna fix that up someday..cool, OK, but not when its already been sitting for twenty years and your 90 yrs old.. Oh well so it goes. I'm like that with one thing I own, my 71 BSA Lighting, all original, 14,000 miles on it. Tell family they can HV anything/everything else but I'm taking that with me...lol!
Oops, forgot I repainted in '93 so not original.
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1972 Super Beetle
1961 Dune Buggy,2010 Larz Anderson Class Winner
1971 BSA Lighting
1969 tin top westy

[green1303]

I dislike hoarding in general, because I like to have a neat and organized space, but everybody else should make their own decisions and not worry about what I think of it.

Most criticism of hoarders focuses on their unsanitary or unsightly living conditions. We don't want to live like that ourselves, we don't want to see it next door, and we don't want our condos to get infested with bugs. Here the criticism is because people want the stuff that they are hoarding.
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1973 green Super Beetle

[andrewvwclassic]

I am a bug owner that plans on keeping it for the rest of my life. I think you should have spares for every part that they dont make anymore mostly for the drivetrane and parts you cant fix by welding on the body, such as hood parts. these p0arts are still around from junked bugs at junkyards. I think without knowing what spares you need can get you Iinto adesperate search for parts. I own a super fi and need spares for a lot of the suspension rear diagonal arms for the shocks front stabilizers and r&p steering. there are many others that are good to have on hand. over the yaers a vw owner can develope what looks to be a ridiculous collection but is what they will need along with a lot of love for those parts that are damaged and can only be repaired not replaced. I just spent the morning fabricating a bracket for the rear bumper strip because it was bent out and broke at the clip part. I was gonna remove it until I noticed how good of quality it is with a metal liner on the back. the front one is gone so I have to suck it up. I am gonna use some black sand tape on it to give it a pool hall look.