Protecting Your Inve$tment

This is a tricky one. We don’t believe in an alarmist approach to anything, but we recently heard that a fellow enthusiast passed away, leaving his widow with a garage full of parts and a couple of cars—and no earthly idea what to do with them. Her husband—not in ill health—wasn’t expected to die suddenly, and she never dreamed that she’d be left holding the bag on all that stuff. Well, a fellow who knew the couple offered his services to liquidate the parts for the widow. In the process, he also snagged several of the tasty bits for himself (unbeknownst to the widow) and sold the rest for a tidy profit—keeping a handsome chunk for himself. We’re not the type of folks who would deny a person’s right to profit, but it was our understanding that the guy misrepresented what he received for the parts to the widow.

So what does all this mean? Record keeping. As an enthusiast, you should document everything you own. Why? Well, aside from the story we just told you, there’s the problem of what to do if the car is destroyed in a fire, a tornado, or other natural disaster, and we’ll discuss these issues and others in the sidebars below.