Has anyone tried to buy your Shelby?

Anyone have any interesting stories about people attempting to buy your Shelby? Since I bought mine in 1979, I have had a number of memorable and funny attempts. This is one of the better ones.

In around 1984, I had a friend who had a ’64 427 Galaxie for sale. A guy came up here from Salt Lake City to look at it. I went to lunch with them, and it came out that I had a 65 Shelby. This guy assumed that I was going to sell the car, and refused to take no for an answer. He started calling me two or three times a week. His plan was for me to let him take the car to a collector car auction in Texas and sell it. (yea, right!) In the meantime, he offered to buy the Galaxie but my friend had to deliver it to Salt Lake City. I advised my friend against doing this because the guy hadn’t put any money down on the car. My friend loaded the car on a truck and made the trip anyway. Once there as predicted, and although he had looked at the car here, the buyer picked it apart and beat him down on the price pretty bad. Since he had invested so much money in the trip, he went ahead and accepted the guys offer. He sold the car at a loss. The kicker was, the buyer paid him 3/4 in cash, and wrote him a check for the rest. The check bounced. Since it was out of state, my friend was going to have a bad time collecting. This same guy was still calling me about the Shelby. My first reaction was to tie a tin can to his tail, but I wanted to help my friend collect the money this flake owed him. I started playing along selling the car, gradually being more receptive to his offer. He was really leaning on me about the Shelby, I told him we could seriously talk once he had taken care of that bounced check for the Galaxie. After he finally covered the check, I told him I changed my mind and the car was not for sale. He was quite upset. It gave me great satisfaction to play a player. Never heard from him again.

 

I have no problem with legitimate attempts like that. I used to find a few business cards under the wiper, don't any more because when it's not in my garage, it isn't out of my sight. Gone are the days when I could drive it to a restaurant and leave it in the parking lot. Usually I don't have any problem getting the prospective buyer to understand. The few times when the message doesn’t get across, invariably it’s someone who is used to getting his way.

 

I talked to a guy who used to own my car. He told me he was driving down a street in Portland Oregon when a tool case came flying out in front of his car. It didn't come close enough to hit it, but it did startle him. It was thrown by an IBM service technician who had been running through a parking lot trying to get his attention. The car owner did an admirable job of holding his temper since the IBM guy seemed like a Shelby enthusiast. Things went to hell when the guy asked if he wanted to sell the car.