worth more in pieces

Yes IMHO, you could probably make more money. But keep in mind that every part you sell has a time expenditure associated with it. E.g. taking photos, eBay setup, answering queries, talking on the phone, haggling, eBay monitoring, packaging, shipping, processing payments, follow-up calls, follow-up emails, defending each sale, etc., etc., etc. Multiply all these little jobs by 2,000 parts. To me, that sounds like a fulltime job. You're in the parts biz! And when you calculate your 'salary' for this awesome new job, you're probably making $2 an hour. Is that really where you want to spend your time?
 
A friend of mine does this with Model-Ts but it is usually done with partially restored cars where the restoration has stalled. He buys the project, pays to have it shipped to his shop, and then he dismantles it and lists what he dismantles for that day.

There is a market for it I think. Click HERE to see what Mike currently has for sale. Click HERE to see what he has recently sold. Look at his success rate! ..
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I bought an A-V8 coupe once that had a lot of nice parts, but as a whole it was a near disaster. I began dismanteling to fix things. When I got down to the bare frame I parted it out. Got my money back. Didn't make anything. What's time to a hog?
 
Dog:cool: here,
It's taken us a month of FOREVERS to get Vermin together, it'd be sumptin' like HERESY:eek: or MURDER:eek: or sum AWFUL:eek: thing to take him APART & sell his pieces!:eek: That's like a LOW-LIFE CHOP SHOP!! Hope you guys are jist FUNNIN':D Buster T.:cool:
 

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BILL WILLIAMSON said:
Dog:cool: here,
It's taken us a month of FOREVERS to get Vermin together, it'd be sumptin' like HERESY:eek: or MURDER:eek: or sum AWFUL:eek: thing to take him APART & sell his pieces!:eek: That's like a LOW-LIFE CHOP SHOP!! Hope you guys are jist FUNNIN':D Buster T.:cool:
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I don't think they are kidding at all! How many time have we recently read about how nuts we are to spend the time and money we do on a restoration when any old part will do! You can take the original dome light switch cover from a SW car and sell it for 20 times the cost of a reproduction. How about spark plugs, sell your set of 3x's for 70 times the cost of replacements, how about hoses and fan belts. Sell your steel fenders and buy fiberglass ones and pocket the difference.

No, they are not funnin at all. A true restoration is a rare thing and just throwing a car together with a nice paint job and call it a restored Model A seems to be gaining momentium.

As for the original question, a Model A is worth less the sum of it's parts.
 
glenn in camino said:
Has anyone ever taken a Model a apart and sold the pieces for more than the complete car was worth?
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i am sure they do that all the time. But i am genetically calibrated against doing that.

In theory a complete car should be worth more than the sum of its parts but the buyers in the model market are cheapskates (it's true!) that they only want to pay, like, 40% of what it would cost to duplicate. Hence why i call my car a money pit.
 
This isn't quite the same but a story that my dad told me many times. In the early 30's he and 3 friends had to get from their homes in NW Iowa to Grand Rapids Mi. They bought a Model T for $10 and drove it to GR. They parted it out and sold all the parts for $25.
 
It is one more A off the road and that makes many of us unhappy ! I would say that those that do it are obsesses with the financial gain and care not about our hobby and the Model A industry ! Brent says his friend does well but in my life money is not everything !
AL
 
The other side of the coin... Where do those parts go? Back into somebody's pride and joy model A. Those fiberglass fenders just have to go, so you look for a good set of originals. Guess what, those original fenders came off a car somewhere! I also hate to see anything old parted out. I myself could never do it, but sometimes it happens and we all like to get nice original parts.
 
eagle said:
The other side of the coin... Where do those parts go? Back into somebody's pride and joy model A.
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I'm not convinced this always happens...

For example, I'll bet a percentage of parts go onto somebody's spare parts shelf. Others are part of somebody's good intentions but never actually get installed because they lost interest. Others don't fit so they are set aside. There are lots of reasons parts don't go back onto cars. They end up in unlabeled boxes up in the rafters and years later are thrown out with the spring cleaning by other people who don't know their value. One way or another, the laws of entropy prevail.
 
I know a guy that is thinking about parting out a bunch of a's. I am trying to convince him to not do this. He and his dad got them all when they could be had for very little. They are all coupes and pickups from 30-31. I told him it would be way to much work to do. There have been parts stollen off of the cars over the years. I will keep trying with him.
 
newshirt said:
I'm not convinced this always happens...

For example, I'll bet a percentage of parts go onto somebody's spare parts shelf. Others are part of somebody's good intentions but never actually get installed because they lost interest. Others don't fit so they are set aside. There are lots of reasons parts don't go back onto cars. They end up in unlabeled boxes up in the rafters and years later are thrown out with the spring cleaning by other people who don't know their value. One way or another, the laws of entropy prevail.
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To start with, I was always told not to love something that cannot love you back! Sometimes we treat our Model-A's as a God(ess) instead of what they really are!!

We all could make excuses or valid points as to why this practice should or shouldn't be done. If it bothers somebody from an ethical standpoint, then by all means they should refrain from doing so. I am unaware where this practice breaks any written laws or Biblical scripture.

While I do not directly partake in dismantling for profit, my personal view is it is easy to become hypocritical in that we say we want to preserve the Model-A for generations to come yet many of us choose to do things to our own vehicles which fails to promote authenticity or preservation (i.e: alternators, 12 volts, colors, upholstery, transmissions, et/al.). Like I said above, most of the cars that I have seen exploited for this practice are not necessarily top notch driving vehicles. Most of the time, these are restoration projects that have stalled out due to lack of any/all of the following; skill, funding or commitment, ...or poorly done restorations where the car is useless in its present condition. There are many cottage business' that help promote the hobby of Model-A's by their catering to the hobbyist, and I tend to think that most of the time this is one of them.

Still not convinced, then explain where swap meet & eBay parts come from! Maybe the difference is knowing vs. not knowing how the parts became available?? :D

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Somebody has a creative way around the rules.

So a Model T birth certificate is worth $425.

Had a pinball machine that worked all the way. Had people only willing to pay half of what the electronics would sell for on ebay. Parted it out for $200 more then what I wanted for the whole working machine.
 
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