I just wanted to share a recent sales experience with an 1800 owner and warn you about dealing with him on eBay

I sold a somewhat rusty 1800ES to a fellow in Colorado. Aside from some structural rust, the car was in excellent shape and I included many parts that would help the new owner restore the car or restore another with a less "troublesome body". I shared frank and revealing photos of the rust and evey concern and bit I history I had with the car. The extra parts included structural spars, two quarterpanels and a rear valance as well as a lot of other stuff salvaged from my old 1800E.

I offered the package for sale for around $1,750 and after few to no serious offers, I settled on selling the car for the rock-bottom price of $1000.00 - just enough to recoup my purchase cost. The eventual buyer, a certain fellow in colorado, told me a story that he and his son were restoring an 1800ES and that he could really use any other parts that I could send him - especially the gauges and AC. While I could find a use for, or certainly profit from selling the spares I felt that I should encourage this guy to restore his own vintage car by including whatever I had that he said he wanted.

I've been the recipient of many other volvo owners good will and I always feel like I should pass that good will along. My extra parts came from a 1971 1800E that I bought from JohnMC and that I carefully dismantled down to the car body and further down to scrap metal.

Waste not, want not.

I spent at least 100 hours tearing down the car and three packs of broken sawzal blades unmaking the body. This is significant time that I could have spent with my family or working for my own profit. But hey, this guy needed to parts save his car right? I've received parts from BB members and my own 122S came to be from a like-minded seller so I feel obligated to reciprocate.

Well, after storing the car and parts for an extra month beyond the agreed pickup, the seller contacts me and tells me that he's also working on a coupe and that he could certainly use the tudor body-specific parts that I did not initially offer. Like the good-hearted fool that I am, I tossed in most of what I still had from the 1800E

Afterwards, I felt good that I had shared my volvo parts stash and finally had room in my garage for my own 122S project. The guy who sold me my 67 122s did the same for me.

However, a few short weeks later, I start seeing the parts that I laboriously dismantled and packed for my Colorado friend, show up on eBay and selling for reasonable money.

This fellow lied to me about what he wanted the parts for, he cheated me by getting me to store his car for an extra month, he's making significant profit from the sweat of my brow, and to top it off I only received $970.00 for my sale due to paypal transfer fees.

I suppose this is seller-beware and maybe I'm a fool for not trying to milk him for all the money I could get, but I'm not that sort of person. *Many* Brickboard members have shared parts and advice with me for free and I've tried to pass that goodwill forward to others. But honestly, I feel lied to and cheated by someone pretending to be a caring member of the vintage volvo community.

So, I just want ALL of you to know that if and when you buy from this guy, you're paying him for my labor and my time. That is time I did not spend with my infant daughter or my wife of ten years. That's my desire to be honorable and that's my goodwill towards the vintage volvo community.

Enjoy it if you buy from him.