[A/S] Re: firetruck, was manual trannys and looking for 51 flying cloud

[john dorsey <jrdorsey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ok, The story of buying it is not too complex.

I regularly troll ebay for parts for my old panel truck. It's a family
heirloom as it was the first truck my grandfather bought new for his
plumbing business. I'm going to finally get it restored, someday!

Well while I was searching under "195* chev* gmc*" this auction popped
up. "1952 GMC 640 Firetruck 29000 miles". Curious, I looked at it, first
thing I noticed was the HUGE chrome grill, then the vintage "roto-ray"
mounted on top, then the Federal"Q" siren. I fell in love with it on the spot!

Now I thought about this rationally, I considered it, and the more I
though about it, the more I wanted it. I decided ahead of time EXACTLY
how much my max bid would be. I emailed the seller to see if they could
store it until labor day (about a month) they promptly responded that
they could. I put in my max bid, $3250.00. I was High bidder! I checked
the next morning before work, still high bidder, Lunchtime, still high
bidder, after work, still high bidder!! It was closing that night and I
was going to have a Firetruck!

Now I don't drink much, so a couple of beers gets me buzzed, and I'd had
a couple that night. No real problem as I'd already put in my MAX bid. 
So I keep watching it, and then with 30 minutes to go, I got outbid,
Crud! By now after being high bidder for so long I was thinking of this
as MY Firetruck, so I thought about it and decided I could bid a LITTLE
more, so I went to $3500. I had stepped onto the slippery slope and was
set for a fall. Sure enough a few minutes later, and got outbid again.
Hey! Quit that, this is MY firetruck! I stopped and thought about it for
awhile, then decided that my NEW top bid would be, $4000. 

I waited until 10 minutes left and bid my new top amount, I was high
bidder again and stayed that way for about 6 minutes, then boom I was
outbid. Alright you &%$# you're not getting my truck. I'll do whatever
it takes you *&%*#*. 

I won't say just how high my last bid was, I'm just glad the other guy
gave up when he did! I ended up paying $4188 for it. I sat there
thinking that's just over a grand more than I decided was the most I was
going to pay. Yikes!

I now have a new hard and fast rule NO drinking and auctions closing.
None, None, None!!

I had looked into shipping and it was rather high for a truck this big,
so I had decided to drive it home. That is a story of it's own and is on
my web page at http://www.strato.net/~jrdorsey/fire/fire.htm

Daisy, If you really want one (and you're sober) there is one like this
for sale in California for $3000 :=)

I will say that I'm the envy of most guys around my town. Most boys play
with toy firetrucks, but how many grown men (or women) have their own
real one to drive around!
-- 
John Dorsey
Wauchula FL
http://www.strato.net/~jrdorsey
'49 3800 Chevy Panel
'52 640 GMC Firetruck