What was the best garage sale deal you have ever made?

[Skyguns MKII]

So me and my pops check out garage sales. Sorta runs in the family but anyways i made perhaps the best deal of my life so far. Iv gotten stuff cheap before but nothing like this AT ALL. Guy had a engine on a stand for spare parts but never used it. Barely any miles and clean as could be. Bought it for 100 bucks to study off of. Did some research on it and i found out it belonged to this badboy below. These engines run over 1g used and iv got one that's barley used if used at all. So yes... I am a happy camper 

Nissan 300 zx
 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

So me and my pops check out garage sales. Sorta runs in the family but anyways i made perhaps the best deal of my life so far. Iv gotten stuff cheap before but nothing like this AT ALL. Guy had a engine on a stand for spare parts but never used it. Barely any miles and clean as could be. Bought it for 100 bucks to study off of. Did some research on it and i found out it belonged to this badboy below. These engines run over 1g used and iv got one that's barley used if used at all. So yes... I am a happy camper 
(Image removed from quote.)
Nissan 300 zx
 

Hardly used or professionally refurbished engines that are no longer attached to cars are very often ripoffs that in the worst cases have contained parts made from wood inside. The wooden piston will run the car for a few minutes, enough to show it off as working

But maybe you got lucky, against the odds. For 100 bucks its not a bad deal you can almost get that for scrap metal.

[Grayeagle]

Guy got orders to England ..had a '71 Duster, a 440 6 pac motor complete with Milodon oil system and pan, 4 speed setup ..basically a rolling chassis with most of the drivetrain in peices.
Paid $500 for the lot.
Built it, painted it, raced it for most of two decades.

Started out like this:



Yes..that's a 428 Cobra Jet Mustang in the other lane ..people would come up from Pomona talkin smack
..LACR (Kings Valley Raceway originally) would average DA about 3500 ft most days..
..the Pomona crowd would run about a second slower ..
I useda love embarrasing the *crap* out of them

Ended up lookin like this after a decade or so:

[Grayeagle]

Then there was this:
Guy didn't even know what kind of motor was in it..
..was given to him by his grand mother and the mileage was terrible
so he wanted to get rid of it.

Paid $250 for it.


A 440 powered '68 Dodge Coronet R/T .. I put a hemi grind cam in it, 850 Holley, Weiand Dual Plane intake,
headers, and would run 4.88's in the back on race days. Daily driver while I put the Duster together





-Frank

[RTHolmes]

it was a liquidation sale not a garage sale, but I picked up my Fluke scopemeter for £90 (theyre ~£1000 new)



bargain

[rogwar]

Hardly used or professionally refurbished engines that are no longer attached to cars are very often ripoffs that in the worst cases have contained parts made from wood inside. The wooden piston will run the car for a few minutes, enough to show it off as working

But maybe you got lucky, against the odds. For 100 bucks its not a bad deal you can almost get that for scrap metal.

That would certainly be some amazing wood working.

[mbailey]

Then there was this:
Guy didn't even know what kind of motor was in it..
..was given to him by his grand mother and the mileage was terrible
so he wanted to get rid of it.

Paid $250 for it.

(Image removed from quote.)
A 440 powered '68 Dodge Coronet R/T .. I put a hemi grind cam in it, 850 Holley, Weiand Dual Plane intake,
headers, and would run 4.88's in the back on race days. Daily driver while I put the Duster together

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

-Frank

You have damn good taste in muscle cars 

[Grayeagle]

You have damn good taste in muscle cars 

Thanks .. I have a hard time tolerating 'trundle cars'
..it's gotta have appeal and be able to get up to the speed limit in a prudent and timely manner or I am just not interested

When I worked part time at a speed shop in SoCal
..every now and then these deals would walk through the door.
This is where those deals found me ..among many others.

ie: Bought a bright red w/white stripes '69 SS 396 Camaro without the engine ..everything else there,
..4 gear, 12 bolt rear, all original, red interior even ..for 100 dollars.
Guy had blown the motor up and it had been sitting for a couple years.
I literally washed it, pumped up the tires, and had it towed to the shop..
..sold it the next day for 1k.
I didn't want to sell it .. but .. I was buildin the Duster an the guy waved cash at me.
Cold hearted bastage!

I got the tunnel ram setup complete in trade for my 6-pac ..
..guy was runnin the tunnel ram on his 69 Road Runner, turnin 10's with it
(we became friends, I watched him run more than a few times out at LACR ..very stout Road Runner)
..an original 6bbl car, and he wanted to restore it back from the race car it had been.

Good times

-Frank

[ink]

Then there was this:
Guy didn't even know what kind of motor was in it..
..was given to him by his grand mother and the mileage was terrible
so he wanted to get rid of it.

Paid $250 for it.

(Image removed from quote.)
A 440 powered '68 Dodge Coronet R/T .. I put a hemi grind cam in it, 850 Holley, Weiand Dual Plane intake,
headers, and would run 4.88's in the back on race days. Daily driver while I put the Duster together

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

-Frank

you lucky SOB


very sweet Duster

[Devonai]

I once got an Atari 2600 and a box of games for $1. 

I used to enjoy poking through gun stores looking for hidden gems.  Nowadays everybody's got the internets and you rarely find a weapon priced below its actual value.

[BreakingBad]

I got an office stapler for $0.25 after haggling the guy down from $0.50, still in the box.  Took about an hour but I wore him down.  A real chump, I would have paid asking price had he held out a little longer.

The stapler goes for about $5.75 at office depot, so I got it for about 30x lower than retail price, which proportionally blows away the engine deal. 

Nice find though.

[Rob52240]

I've never sold a garage.  I feel lame.

[CZCH64]

Only bought from a garage twice. On one, this woman's husband was not at the sale at the time, so she sold me over 200 of his early National Geographic's (60', 70's) for $10. Quite sure the sign was $1 a piece, but it was hard to decipher the way he wrote it up. The other sale, I got a two man tent for $5.

[jeep00]

So me and my pops check out garage sales. Sorta runs in the family but anyways i made perhaps the best deal of my life so far. Iv gotten stuff cheap before but nothing like this AT ALL. Guy had a engine on a stand for spare parts but never used it. Barely any miles and clean as could be. Bought it for 100 bucks to study off of. Did some research on it and i found out it belonged to this badboy below. These engines run over 1g used and iv got one that's barley used if used at all. So yes... I am a happy camper 
(Image removed from quote.)
Nissan 300 zx
 

Nice find hope it works out for you. Was it the n/a or tt version? I am a huge fan of the 240 thru 280, and the 300 of the last body style that you have the pic of. Those motors are amazing, and the tt is a screamer. I miss working at the Nissan dealer for that reason. Toyota gets the credit for the favorite Japanese import it seems, but the Nissans, across the board, are far better autos IMO.

Bob