Started the horrendous job of cleaning up under the house and after about 10 minutes found an old tatty cardboard fruit box containing carparts, including; parts of a the centre console, a steering wheel, two side mirrors and a windscreen wiper motor. The Toyota badge suggested they belonged to my son when he bought a 1986 Corolla Sprinter about 20 years ago. I called my son and he confirmed they did indeed belong to him. I asked him if he wanted them but he said, chuck them out. I though surely someone can make use of them so I advertised them on Gumtree. Initially I was going to give them away but to reduce the "freebie chaser effect" I advertised them for $50. They sold within 15 minutes of posting the ad and had 3 more phone calls before I managed to pull the add.

The chap that bought them was Irish and I though he was going to haggle but he said the parts were worth more than $50 and he gave me $80. I noticed he was particularly interested in the badge so was clearly a Sprinter enthusiast. He said he has 7 Toyota Sprinters back in Ireland in various states of restoration and then showed me some photos and I could not believe the extent he was going to to restore what looked to me like rusty hulks well gone, back from the grave. He showed me photos of two of his restos that cost over $100K to restore that had won prizes at car exhibitions. "I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, so I have to spend my money on something", he said.

I normally hate selling stuff on gumtree but this was one of the most pleasant selling experiences I have had for a long time. After he left I decided to look upon the prices of some of the parts and realized he did get a bargain as the going price of just the 2 side mirrors was $90.


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