I must be missing something here, or just don't care enough... I just saw a RC15 radiator cap at $234.00 on ebay with 22 bids and 3 days left...

 

You never know on Evil bay.
I got one for $15.

 

They're too often BS bids being generated by the seller indirectly. I don't bid on much anymore because I don't like competing with a ghost. I retracted my bids on an item recently because I was obviously being run up in increments.

 

That is exactly what happened to me when I bid on a 1965 cutlass,on e-bay. I got in contact with e-bay ,and they took some of the bs bids off ,but mine stood. I got in touch with the seller after he pulled the car off site and was able to buy the car. The best part ,it was only 30 miles away from where I lived.

 

I will only ever bid on an item I want when there is less than 1 minute left on the auction (usually less than 15 seconds). Any bidding before that just drives up the price..............

 

one just sold for 650...

i dont buy the BS bids..i know guys that will pay 400+ for an NOS correct RC15....theres a couple..the big eared is assy line correct...

every time a correct one comes on and is NOS its 400 +

heck decent used one brng 200+

been tracking them for 2 years...

one bid...so no one is running it up
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-RC15-Rad...r#ht_413wt_938

 

Looks like it closed out for $308.99... Well if that's what they want, personally I am completely fine with a $10 -15 reproduction or aftermarket one....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Buick-Ca...efc4d6&vxp=mtr

 

+1. It is foolish to do otherwise.

$300 for a radiator cap? Crazy, man!

- Eric

 

one bid...

no one ran it up..

theres things to look for..the rivit..the spring color and a few other..if the stars line up..and its in the box and mint....

so hard to get..in 3 or 4 years i still havent stumbled on to one

i dont have a car that needs one..but...

you could have a $650 cap..and here it is

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-RC15-Rad...r#ht_413wt_938

 

Crazy!
If you look below under the ad,
there is one with a bin for $85.
They are stinking rad caps for crying out loud!
I don't get it...

 

Well, yeah, but look at the teensy little ears on that cheap cap.

Imagine the SHAME at next summer's car show when your buddy's car wins over yours by 2 pts, because you cheaped out and got the small-ear cap with the wrong date code and the incorrect-font "S"... Then when it's time sell and get richer and start on another car, his gets 2x the price because it has the Best of Anything Ever trophies vs your lame-*** "first place" - which any car over 900 pts gets.

 

Ha ha, alrighty then.

 

I have followed them also. Correct ones are very hard to find and a boat load of cars used the same one. Supply and demand at it's finest. Huge demand and a very small supply. Super glad I don't need any.

 

Sorry you guys missed the fine print. It also came with a NOS 71 W-30 car. Just kidding.

 

OCA Judging has responded to this extreme cost issue, and now has classes where NOS isn't needed everywhere on your restored car, such as Street Stock, Modified, and Race Cars.

 

the guys buying those are L78 cars...LS6 cars...69 Z/28s etc etc..Yenkos..COPOs..etc

Their cars are done..they are replacing wrong stuff with correct stuff,and they just want a correct car...nothing wrong with it...without being mean...if you cant understand it after this..you probably wont....


the repop looks close..they where even smart enought to repop it in the big ear...but sooo wrong..

Theres a whole market out there that guys buy good used original used ones, take them apart, replate, repaint, and even replace the rivit with correct marked ones..and that labor is 200 bux plus the original cap..if you have one


just look around at gas caps and PCV valves...a good friend of mine pulled 450 bux for an NOS brake check valve...it was an assy line correct part...heck i got 75 for a used one like it..ive seen them bring 250 for a plastic check valve...

so rare...ive busted 100s of cars apart..and in all those years ive gotten 1 correct big eared RC 15 and one correct check valve...i'm not even talking about 20 years of trolling the junkyards popping every hood....

 

Wow. I think if I had one on my car it would come off and get sold to someone who appreciates it more than I. Or rather someone who needed it more as my car isn't that correct.

 

I'd have it bronzed.

- Eric

 

I understand it about this particular item and people that are willing to pay for perfection. But if you don't think that there are SOME people out there bidding on their own auctions you are mistaken. I've become like one of the other people that posted on this thread and only post a bid at the end. I will use the Buy-it-Now feature if I'm comfortable with the product listed, price, and seller reputation. - Steven

 

Keep an eye out for "supposed" NOS items that are still available from GM. There are people who make a living buying boxes of parts from GM (some items like springs and rubber items require a 10 piece minimum purchase) and separating them, and selling those items as NOS. They are in fact NNS "New New Stock". Some of those items differ in appearance from the "original" pieces, but because they carry GM part numbers...........well, you know the story.

 

It makes the price that people want for numbers correct carbs look like a deal. I think it is stupid does it really matter?

 

It is all in what you want to do. I know people that have put $50,000 into pulling trucks just to win a trophy and if they are real lucky they may bring home a $250 pay out for a win. When they sell their trucks they are lucky to get $5000 for them. Sure, the high end cars that they are putting these radiator caps on may not make them money either but at least they will hold their value better than a high end race car or a pulling truck.

 

Bernard, it matters on the big money "numbers" cars. If two cars are at a collector car auction, and both appear the same, the one with more "correctness" will sell for more money. In theory, the more correct a car is, the more collectible and valuable it is. I say this with a little "tongue in cheek". At some of these auctions, the "liquid courage" (spelled ALCOHOL) prevails and all the theory goes out the window! In the real world, the items that were usually discarded early on, are now the items we strive to find and make our car more like they were when left the factory. Some of these items that are unique to a specific model can be priced at whatever the market will bear. Is a radiator cap worth $500.00? To a guy with a mass produced Cutlass probably not, but to a guy with a 1 of ???? it can be the last missing piece and now that $500.00 seems justifiable. The thousand dollar Q-jets are becoming somewhat normal now days and who ever thought of restamping Q-jets? Or distributors? Or reproducing radiator tags?

 

Here's what happens when you ruin the patina by cleaning it with steel wool and metal polish:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-64-6...90907337418%26

down to $65

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-64-6...item2c7842393b

 

I should have said, "... Bronzed and mounted on a plaque in my study."

If that cap is what is going to win you that trophy, it'd be cheaper to just go down to the sports supply store and buy the trophy directly.

- Eric

 

I had a buddy that built a street rod..best of everything...103 grand and he did most of everything himself.....and the car stood on its own merit..no one could say anything bad about it but maybe the ford-chevy argument..

He came to my shop one day, the proudest day of his life...more excited than when his son was born...and all he could do was brag about his $3 trophy that was about 10 inches tall..he carried it for a month...til he got the next 3 dollar trophy...

NOW thats a damn shame....but hey..he built it..and he loved the attention..

i dont understand it...but he did..and the older i get, the more stuff like that doesnt matter to me..to each his own...

 

My Dad complains that he pays $15 dollars to enter a car show, the public gets to see everything free, and all he gets is a $5 trophy. The first few were a big deal, now it's a money loser.

 

I still occasionally purchase on Ebay, but I am also a realistic bidder. I am also a habitual final 20 second bid dropper. I have zero interest in bid competitions. I once bid on a '70 W30 Matador Red Exact Detail model and lost the auction. The winner actually sent me a message stating that how proud he was that he had beaten me in the auction. Three days later I purchased the same model for $8 less than he had paid from the same seller……And no, I did not send the other winning bid a gloating message.

What was that P.T. Barnum quote??

 

Okay this is just to funny I just went out side to check my rad cap and sure enough it is a original. So how do you clean them with out devaluing them?

 

i thought it was stupid? why clean it? so you....can...sell it? i thought value of these where stupid to you?

 

Exactly. I'm not hostile to the people who are interested in this sort of thing, but I reserve the right to be completely mystified by them, and to think they're positively insane.

As you say, to each his own. I can't understand the people who get their jollies by dressing up as stuffed animals either.

- Eric

 

dont get me started on dressed up animals....i'm orig from the country..and i can not understand it at all...heck i was in my was in my 20s before my mom had a house cat or an "indoor" dog..

dont get me wrong..i love my pets, and loved the ones that have passed..but jiminy cricket....they are pets not kids...

 

I was talking about a whole different thing, Mark, but I can't say more on a "family" site.

- Eric

 

i see...totally missed it...

 

I won't be selling it but the car will be getting a full frame off and I would hate to devalue my rad cap

 

use white vinegar...and a white scotch brite...no steel wool...

first scrub it with a plastic brush and as much dawn dish soap as you can...then get the vinegar..do it once and only once...you'll be tempted...but you will kill the finish

 

Furries. Yiffing. Yeah, I know what you mean. My best experience with that crew was at a Renaissance Fair. The furries showed up, and the staff, all dressed as knights, with arms, ran them off yelling "burn it with fire" and similar invocations.

Back on topic, money trumps sense, anymore. Original cars have gone way down in value except for the utmost original because of the quality of the no-dollars-barred restos. These cars are transcending being vehicles and becoming works of art. The only thing you can do is have more knowledge, or have the parts already, or pay out the nose, or don't play the game.

I'm not in the car hobby for money. I don't plan to sell any of mine and trade up. Sometimes, more fun can be had driving the car to a Saturday show than trailering it to a convention center for the best of the best of. I drive to the shows I go to, and my favorite part of the show is the trip to and from. Just me, the car, a 2 lane road and the cornfields.

 

Amen to that!!! Unfortunately my 68 Toronado has an aftermarket one on it and I am sure even if I had the original one, it would probably be one that nobody wanted...

 

I just dug through my "radiator, gas & oil caps" box & found 2 originals. Looks like they have factory stickers on them? Or not?
ResizedImage_1386717527764_zps54be80b2.jpg

 

You're rich, man, rich, I say!!!

- Eric