[Springo]

Right-o Dave - I also own a nice 1990 Ford Bronco XLT, a full sized one. It is fully loaded and has every single option that was available except for the pushbutton transfer case, and thank God for that because those things suck. But other than that, it's fully loaded and rust free; and every single thing on it works. I bought it with 89K and now it has 131K and runs and drives like brand new. I restored what was needed (not much) and have been improving it ever since.

Anyway, I belong to a Ford Bronco group and we do just what you said. I personally have gone to the boneyard for people, pulled and paid for the parts with my own money and shipped them at my expense and never asked for or wanted any reimbursement - because I know that they would do the same for me if my Bronco needed any parts, but I am proud to say that it needs nothing.

That is the kind of person that I am. And that is why it galls me to see stuff like I am writing about. I am certainly not expecting everybody to start giving stuff away, but gouging annoys me.

But I can even turn a blind eye to gouging; the reason that this auction ticked me off so much was that, like it or not, Ebay is setting fair market prices for all sorts of items these days. Not just car parts. If $420 clusters start becoming the norm on Ebay, soon they will be the norm everywhere. Because the -whole world-sees Ebay, it's not like ads in the back of Hemming's.

In the same vein is Barrett-Jackson. I really hate those guys and the people that go to their auctions and bid crazy money just to one-up each other. It's just a game for them. Meanwhile, ever since they started putting those auctions on the Speed Channel, everyone with a 1975 Maverick thinks that "with a little work, this car will be in the six figures!" and tries selling it for stupid money. Of course not all of these nut jobs sell cars, but many do and the overall effect is to drive the prices on all sorts of old cars up, up, and away.

That's why these things bug me - I resent people with money jacking prices up across the board, just so they can play their little games.