That really pisses me off,when you go to buy a trinket like those emblems ,and the sales man at the counter wants a ridiculous price,when they were most likely going to be crushed anyway...a lot of salvage yard owners are jekyll & hyde types that have wild mood swings from happy to surly in a heartbeat..bi-polar or something!..and a lot of them dont want to dicker about prices..they have the attitude "I HAVE it--you WANT it--so pay what I want or I'll just scrap it"..
The salvage yard I go to most often has changed a lot since the owners son took it over--all the older trucks dont get saved for long,and there is no more bartering for the best price--the old man would often say "eh--gimme 5 bucks" if it was a bunch of small trinkets,or "just take em and I'll get you next time you buy something"--often he'd just give you things like switches,interior parts,etc,stuff that he knew was going in the crusher anyway..and I'd bought engines from him for 150 bucks more than once,including a 409 from a '59 GMC oil delivery truck..
The son isn't so generous,and now there is a sign saying "If you took it off--you OWN it"..one time when I bought a plow pump setup off a 6.2 Blazer the old man had ,he sold me the joystick,pump,pulleys,brackets,even the belt,for 40 bucks,a steal because you just dont see diesels in the junkyards very often,and the brackets are one of a kind..he had several other GM trucks with plows too (gas engines) and he even let me trade my old rotted out plow for an identical NICE one,he had on another truck,he just said "yours is worth scrapping,it'd be a shame to see that nice blade scrapped--give me 20 bucks and your old blade and you can have it..
When I returned to the same place a few years later after the son took over,I found only one Fisher plow pump & joystick left in the whole 82 acre yard!..was on an old Dodge pickup--I wanted it for my 85 Suburban..
I removed the pump ,control valve and joystick and took it to the office,and the son was livid that I "took it off without asking first",and he points at the sign----I had stopped in at the office to ask if I could go look for a fisher plow setup,and he said "go ahead"--didnt tell me NOT to remove one!..then he tells me he wanted 100 bucks for the stuff--
..
I said "gee,what happened,I got one identical to this from you a few years ago for 40 bucks,and this one was here THEN too!.. --he said "well,times have changed,those are hard to find now--"..he let me have it for 60 bucks after I showed him that was all I had..
It kind of sucks,I knew the father good and dealt with the son often too,and he wasn't like that before he took over the place--I heard he had some substance abuse issues too,so that probably has a lot to do with it....now I hear a lot of people wont go there,after being sold things that were junk like transmissions,and he refused to give refunds,all he'll do is "get you another one"..so you really have to be careful what you buy there now..
Even a used tire & rim I saw there the other day,that would have sold for 30 bucks not long ago there,is now worth 50-80 bucks...I passed on taking it off an 8 lug Ford van with rusted 2" long wheel studs and rolling it back to the office a good 1200 feet uphill,to be told I now "own" it for 100 bucks...
I used to buy tires and batteries there for 10 to 30 bucks that were like new..no more,the forigeners come to all the junkyards and buy them up by the truckloads...its hard to get a good deal on any used parts around here now..a lot of salvage yards wont even sell parts like trannys and steering racks,they cut them out of all the cars and sell them as cores to rebuilders instead of risking comebacks selling them to walk in customers or garages..
