Re: Finders fees.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SS427</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I too used to do it quite frequently for people at no charge and just as a favor to the hobby. However after several of these people bought and sold the cars I helped them find and at a huge profit with little more than a thank you and the fact that it was taking me out of the shop where I (was) getting paid I started to charge a fee. Most people expect it but seldom offer it so you are not out of line asking for it. I have put some fantastic cars in the hands of collectors and feel I earned the fee for doing so. As was said, time is money and I should be able to earn money the same as anyone else. Especially if you are an expert in your field, you should get paid for that expertise.
Same goes for inspection fees. I almost 100% of the time save people more than the fee cost them. In many cases I have saved them well over $100k from buying a fake car. Because of that I no longer feel guilty about charging a fee. </div></div>
Absolutely.
They are paying you for your years of experience and expertise in differentiating the frauds from the real cars. You should be paid for your time and effort especially if you take time from your day job to do it.
It's like shopping for a brain surgeon. Yeah, your buddy down the street who carves wooden statues with a chain saw could probably do the job for 1/100th of the price, but wouldn't you want someone who is an expert operating on your brain?
Yeah, that same chainsaw statue guy could look at an LS6 convertible and say it looks real to him. And then an expert comes in and laughs the moment he sees the crisp, hand-stamped engine block with circular broach marks and a shiny new window sticker, inkjet printed on fresh bond paper.
I've assisted a bunch of people looking at 70-73 Firebirds (455HO's and SD455s). If it's an easy time just looking at some photos to verify what is real and what is fake I just do it for the joy of spreading good will. If I had to travel, I would expect to be paid. In the past couple years I have been offered decent money to travel to "verify" a couple of my old Mopars that I used to own back in the 1980's.
I have saved a couple people some big dollars by stopping them before they pulled the trigger: I have seen some real doozies recently where supposedly real, 1970-73 T/As were obvious rebodies being offered by unscrupulous sellers. All it takes is one peak at a photo of the trunk bulkhead and I can tell when it's a rebody from the wrong year for that alleged car - each year used different stampings in the reinforcement. Then again, that's what I have learned from years of playing with these cars.
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