Buying/Selling Parts: Meeting Other Enthusiasts

[WagonR]

***Sorry in advance if this is a bit of a long rambling thread, but had a pretty interesting experience selling something recently, and felt like sharing the experience that came out of that.***

I've purchased and sold a lot of parts through the forums or Craigslist over my years. Probably something like 100 parts at this point. I've shipped stuff from my Type-R to Puerto Rico, wheels off my WRX to New Jersey, and some M2/M3 parts up to our neighbors in the north. I've also bought/sold a lot of things in person.

Sure sometimes the person is an idiot or jerk, but 95% of the time meeting someone in person is actually pretty enjoyable. Whether they're just getting into modifying their car, super experienced or in-between it's always interesting, and it's pretty easy to blink and you've spent 30 minutes bullshitting in a random parking lot with some stranger about their interests in cars. Cars they've used to own, advice on what you're selling, etc. No that you become best friends, but always nice when a few days later they send you a picture of the part you sold them or something like that. I'm probably a bit too into cars, but it's always cool when you see someone else enjoy something you too installed and enjoyed. The part lives on.

This brings me to what was the most positive experience I've had selling something and the very cool person I met during it. Back in January I picked up some seats out of a M2 competition for my M2 (see here for the upgrade). It wasn't until April when I got them in, and then a month or so later when I finally listed the original seats for sale.

That's when a guy named Evan Brown reached out to me on Craigslist, asking about the seats. You can tell pretty quickly via messages or text if people are normal or flakes or whatever, and he seemed like a normal car guy to me. After some brief negotiating on price, he agrees to buy them and wants to swing by and pick them up that day. Now, usually I don't have people come to my house, but I'm not trying to pack up the seats, and I was in back to back meetings anyways, so we agree to a small window when he can swing by and get the seats.

Evan showed up on time, but I only had 15 minutes before I had to jump on a call, so I'm pretty quickly showing him the seats, helping him and his GF get them loaded up, and then he's like, "I like your E90, really like the 4 door, is it manual?" Yes, it is. "And the M2?" Yeah, it's a manual too. "I like your taste in cars." Thanks man.

I ask him what he's putting the old M2 seats into. He asks me if I know what drifting is, and I'm like yeah man, not exactly my main automotive interest, but I'm familiar with it. At the time, thinking to myself, OF COURSE I've watched The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, come on! He lets me know that he's putting them into a 1 series drift build where he's going to keep a full factory interior and have that contrast the wild exterior. Hum, seems interesting.

He proceeds to talk about his E36 drift car that's his main car. He just bought a shop in Hillsboro for his company Autohandler Sudio, he's working on making body parts for E36s, he's going to put on a drift show. He's into older BMWs, and does find, fix and sell them, if I know anyone that's interested. Show's me pictures of the car and the shop, you can tell he's very excited about all of it. He says I can follow him on Instagram (@itemb)...I let him know I don't have any social media. He says that's cool, and at this point I'm running late and bid him a good day.

5 hours later he shoots me a a text of the car with the seats in it. I let him know it was cool talking with him, sorry I had to go so quickly, and he should let me know if he's doing any drift events. Both my brother and I are into cars, and it would be cool to see. He says he will, and lets me know he has an article coming out on his current car, and I'm like, cool, send it to me when it comes out. He sends me this a few days later.

I read thought that and was like, man there are some cool stories there, and good for this guy getting out there, being motivated, and working on what he's passionate about. The article had some links to his business website and Instagram pages. The Instragram page had a link at the top to his YouTube page, and every once in a while on a Saturday morning or whatever when I was just having some coffee and doing stuff on the computer, I'd be like, I wonder how Evan's stuff is going and check out his YouTube page for videos. Recently he was working to complete his LS swap in the E36 before hosting his own drift event down in southern Oregon.

I'll pause here to make a quick point in all of the rambling - to me it's just crazy that meeting someone so briefly would lead to interest in what they're doing, but I think when you have similar passions that happens. What are the odds when you randomly sell some seats on Craigslist.

Now, time for the less happy part of the story. A little bit ago I go to see if there's any updated videos on YouTube, start at the Instagram page to click the link, and that's when I see a gofundme link at the top....shit, that's not good. Read that page and it turns out that he had the car on jackstands (front), was working on the starter when it accidently connected, spun the flywheel, and the car jumped forward, off of the jackstands and onto him. Evidently this was at his event, and luckily people were around so a dozen people got around the car and lifted it off of him for him to be pulled out.

I'll pause again to just say, it's a hell of a reminder to stay safe when working on the car. Not a knock against Even, just a reminder that when you rush, things can happen, and take care of yourself out there.

On the plus side, Even is out of the hospital, but still has health struggles to deal with. In addition to the medical costs, he has a business that he was just starting. Hence the gofundme. Now, I think we all have views on medical costs, what can happen to people financially when they have serious injuries, and where personal responsibilities lie. I'm not looking to debate any of that. If you're so inclined, here's the gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-evan...-medical-costs

If you're interested, here's his YouTube page, he has the story on there as well:https://www.youtube.com/c/Autoh%C3%A4ndler

For some reason, the whole thing really just stuck with me. Made me reflect on life, on passions, on what's important. If you've stuck with me this long, thanks for reading along! Take care out there, be happy to have each day.

[dongerkim]

this is terrible and tragic. I honestly thought i was reading a scam story, especially when the tone turned into the "less happy part". I too fit the profile of both you and Evan, car enthusiast that buys/sells parts and loves to work on my own car, often times, alone and at night.

Now i'm a bit nervous on doing the rod bearings next week…

[WagonR]

Originally Posted by dongerkim

this is terrible and tragic. I honestly thought i was reading a scam story, especially when the tone turned into the "less happy part". I too fit the profile of both you and Evan, car enthusiast that buys/sells parts and loves to work on my own car, often times, alone and at night.

Now i'm a bit nervous on doing the rod bearings next week…

I feel like usually it's just one of those things where if you take your time on the safety stuff you'll be okay. At least for me, whenever I rush to finish something that's always when I screw it up. But yeah, I know next time I get under a car, it's going to be the first thing on my mind...

[TMANN]

WagonR - thanks for sharing, you made a difference.

[WagonR]

Originally Posted by TMANN

WagonR - thanks for sharing, you made a difference.

Thank you sir.

[E90325M]

Thanks for sharing, I alway take time to doing things and safety is top prority.