Giving up the prize- Throwing out the baby w/ the bathwater

[MOmo]

So I stopped by the track last week and was chatting with a couple of fellow racers. One of them recently got picked up by MRC and is racing the SBV2 and awaiting his new 2wd buggy.

I broght up The subject of vintage cars. One racer has an old Yokomo Dogfighter, (which I am trying to get) and that brought up a discussion about old RC cars. Since they know I am collector and I was askiing if any of them have old RCs.

My Pro racer friend began to talk about having to "GET RID" of his collection following a divorce from his wife. He used to race for Traxxas WAAAAAAY back in the day and remembers going to the landfill and dumping out armloads of RC suff, some NIB and all probably worth a TON of $$. One was a Yokomo from a Worlds champion complete with a custom battey tray and other "hand mods".


SO, that being said, has anyone ever talked to, or had to "Throw" thngs out? I know in this day and age, some things might be harder to let go of, but Id rather give up (sell) my collection to a fellow racer/collector rather than throw it away.


MOmo

[mikedealer]

i bought a collection of RC Cars on craigslist one time for $50 under the free stuff category, and the $50 bucks was for the guy as a tip cause he actually delivered the stuff to me too in about 10 large boxes. i think it was a old hobby shop blowout, he just wanted to get rid of the stuff... tons of associated cars/parts, TONS of losi parts which i sold on ebay ages ago, and a ton of random HPI/Traxxas/Kyosho parts.
he had no idea what he had and looked at the stuff like 10 boxes of crap lol.

[junkman]

I have never been that fortunate, or really even had luck at auctions or yard sales like some have. I do now have a clodbuster, and an optima that a friend of mine found in a dumpster while looking for some shipping boxes.

[Bugle]

A guy at my club came back to racing after 15 years had 2 gold RC10's and a graphite, raced them, broke a couple of parts and thought noone would want them so he threw them out

[Dual]

Hi Momo,

Is this Pro racer friend of yours Rick Vehlow or Derek Furatani?

I remember that they were the 2 leading Traxxas drivers (not sure what ever happened to Scott Montogomery) in the early to mid 1990's and both drove Yokomo's in the 4WD class.

Vin

[Brandon G]

I visited a Micheal's in Belfair, WA out in BFE, picked up a new JRX2, new Rough Rider body set, and various other Tamiya parts for almost nothing. They had a huge wall with pegboard sections on vertical hinges FULL of all the older RC stuff, glass case, etc. I had intentions of going back when I had more money to clean them out, only to find their R/C section gone. Asked where they shipped the old parts to, figuring I could follow them to another Michaels, only to find out they "shipped" the parts to the dumpster outside a week prior.
Todays market, I figure it was about 10-15 grand worth of stuff. Of course this was a few years ago before the ebay thing took off.

Oh well.

[MOmo]

Hi Momo,

Is this Pro racer friend of yours Rick Vehlow or Derek Furatani?

Vin

No, Hes a bit lesser known, His name is Jack Leghan. He's driven for Traxxas, Losi and most recently MRC. We DID talk about Rick and he did run with him. I hadn't heard that name, Vehlow, in ages. He doesn't race RC but his is racing motorsports i guess.

Its always sad to hear about stuff being throwing out, and you just want to scream! I have saved a few cars from ending up in the trash. One of which was my 2nd RC10 6gear.


MOmo

[mrlexan]

I visited a Micheal's in Belfair, WA out in BFE, picked up a new JRX2, new Rough Rider body set, and various other Tamiya parts for almost nothing. They had a huge wall with pegboard sections on vertical hinges FULL of all the older RC stuff, glass case, etc. I had intentions of going back when I had more money to clean them out, only to find their R/C section gone. Asked where they shipped the old parts to, figuring I could follow them to another Michaels, only to find out they "shipped" the parts to the dumpster outside a week prior.
Todays market, I figure it was about 10-15 grand worth of stuff. Of course this was a few years ago before the ebay thing took off.

Oh well.

Michael's as in craft store? I didn't know they carried RC products. My wife shops there all the time.

[purpletimbo]

I had the worst news today
I picked up a real old Serpent Impact SSG1 with loads of hop ups, needs a drive belt when I get around to rebuilding.
Contacted Serpent UK, answer was
Sorry moved buildings, all old stock from cellar was thrown away!!!!!!!!!
Cheers I said very thoughtful of you as I'd asked twice about old stuff and they said we don't have any.
Tim

[mrlexan]

They all do that, it's is not worth their time and much easier to say "we don't have anything"

[GJW]

this post is making me cringe..big time had a huge day at work..having a beer to chill out then stumbled across this post... not good to hear gentlemen all that lost gear

[purpletimbo]

A little off-topic, but I'm guessing by your name that this might cheer you up, not all that is old and beautiful is lost


Only bad news the NIB shell/decals are already gone, I bought the whole lot to get me a Ninja and my budy the shell for his resto project.
Blame Tomstacey

[terry.sc]

If it's old stock that's just gathering dust then it's easier just to chuck it as most don't know there is a market for the old bits. Similarly how many of us just throw out old kids toys that are a few years old yet in 5-10 years they may be worth a fortune.

Respect to Kyosho Europe, when they took back their distribution from all the individual companies they bought back all the old stock and actually listed everything for sale at normal retail price. A shame that a few individuals saw this as a business opportunity and have stockpiled a lot of the old parts - for example someone bought up the 43 remaining Optima chain guards, who has 43 Optimas being restored? - and the parts are once again hard to get hold of.

[Brandon G]

I visited a Micheal's in Belfair, WA out in BFE, picked up a new JRX2, new Rough Rider body set, and various other Tamiya parts for almost nothing. They had a huge wall with pegboard sections on vertical hinges FULL of all the older RC stuff, glass case, etc. I had intentions of going back when I had more money to clean them out, only to find their R/C section gone. Asked where they shipped the old parts to, figuring I could follow them to another Michaels, only to find out they "shipped" the parts to the dumpster outside a week prior.
Todays market, I figure it was about 10-15 grand worth of stuff. Of course this was a few years ago before the ebay thing took off.

Oh well.

Michael's as in craft store? I didn't know they carried RC products. My wife shops there all the time.

Oh yeah. That is where I got my first taste of R/C back in the 80's. They had a full line of Tamiya kits, my choice being the Hornet. Just couldn't rake up enough bread for the Scorcher. What do you expect on $5 a week allowance?
I think they got out of the R/C game in the mid 90's, when the slowdown happened. Check them out, you may get lucky and score big. Usually in the BFE places they might have some stuff set back.

[Tadracket]

Last time I talked to Cliff Lett, he said they threw out several old molds because no one showed any interest in them.