I know here at The Chronicles we usually take a look at things from a bit of a more comedic perspective. Sure I take things seriously sometimes but for the most part, I like to just have fun and bullshit with you guys. Well today, is not gonna be one of those days. Nothing serious happened or anything and no need to attack any certain individuals but I think it’s time somebody addressed this issue…
I’ve been working in the industry for a couple years now and have had the pleasure of seeing and writing about some of the best builds the country has ever seen. The guys that build these cars are brilliant. Seeing these cars immortalized in print is a beautiful thing. I remember back when I first got my feature in Honda Tuning, man I was so shocked and surprised. I didn’t believe anybody wanted to put my car in a magazine. That surprise later turned into a great amount of pride once I finally had the issue in my hand. It’s like, no matter what people say or do, they can never take that away from you, you know? Somebody actually thinks well enough of you to say that you deserve to be in their magazine. The car that you probably built in your garage for fun, for you to cruise around in with your friends is gonna be in print for the world to see. It’s not tainted or biased. Car show trophies are cool, don’t get me wrong, but the feeling you get when you win a piece of plastic at a car show is fleeting. You take that thing home, it collects dust, and eventually you don’t even know what you want to do with the thing because it’s in your way. Either that or the shit breaks and you lose parts of your trophy. It’s just not the same feeling. When you make a mag, damn, everytime you look at it you remember the sense of pride you felt when you first saw it, when your friends saw it….you remember the smile that was on your face.
That might have been the way things were back then, maybe a different generation of builders….
Today, man, I’m sad to say…it’s just not the same anymore. People don’t build cars for themselves anymore, they don’t build it for fun. It’s become so competitive that people don’t even spend time to sit back and enjoy their cars anymore. Cats build cars for fame. They build for a magazine feature. They build cars to make a name for themselves and then they try to cash in. That’s sad. My point is…
Why does everyone sell out the moment they get any amount of notoriety?
People are so quick to go and sell their cars the moment they get their features, that it’s fucking ridiculous. I see people lately who are literally sitting in front of their mailbox waiting for their feature to come out so that they can post their car for sale on the internet. They’ve taking everything fun out of being in a magazine. Shit, try to enjoy it…flaunt that mag, show everybody you know, relatives that probably don’t even care shit. Drive it around, enjoy your car, enjoy the hard work. Why is everyone so quick to cash in? I see guys who are putting their cars up for sale before the features have even come out!! Shits getting outta hand…
I remember entertaining the thought of selling my car back then too, don’t get me wrong. A couple months after my mag came out, somebody hit me up to buy the car and I seriously thought about it. But when I asked some of the guys that I looked up to about it, they kinda treated me different, you know? I just kinda asked around and talked to some of the others who had been doing this longer than I have and I just felt like they looked at me differently. It’s hard to explain. But it’s like they looked at me and said “Oh alright, I see how it is, you’re just in it to cash-in”. It wasn’t until then that I realized that it’s just not the right thing to do, it’s a bad look… I guess it’s kinda just an unspoken rule…If you sell your car right after you get featured, you’re selling out. You look like the guy that built the car just so you could make money off of it, it’s not a hobby for you, it’s a side job… I mean, if you don’t care what your peers think, they do what you gotta do, but I’m just saying, it’s not a good look.
The current crop seems to be doing that a lot. Build it, sell it. Build it, don’t even drive it, sell it. If you need emergency money, then by all means, do what you have to do. I’m not talking about those guys. It’s just sad to see people selling their cars as soon as they get magazine coverage. Kinda takes away from the feature itself…as if the owner used it as a means to an end. That feeling of pride, sense of accomplishment, that shit doesn’t mean anything…it’s all about the $$$$.
People and close personal friends of mine have approached me before to ask me what I thought about this before too when they thought about selling, and I tell them straight up; “It’s a bad look. You’re trying to build relationships with other people who love cars like you, people who respect you and enjoy what you do. You don’t want to be the guy that looks like he’s only in it for the money.” It’s a hobby afterall people, let’s try to enjoy ourselves alright? I know it’s very competitive out there but people respect the guy that builds for the love of it before anything else. I’m not saying don’t sell your cars because we all have to move on to other projects eventually but damn, it’s funny how a lot of cars go on sale mysteriously around the time when they get mag coverage. I can sit here and name guys off the top of my head that are itching for a magazine feature so that they can make some money off of their cars. They think that being in a magazine makes your car worth twice as much and that’s fucking idiotic. You really think people want to pay you twice the value to drive around in a car that other’s obviously know that they didn’t build? It doesn’t work that way.
I don’t know, take what I said as bullshit or however you like, I’m just saying. It’s sad to see so many people selling themselves out. It’s disappointing to follow a build for months on end and then before they even debut the car, they’ve already traded it away or sold it. You should build cars because it’s your hobby, not because it’s a bargaining chip to get something else.