May 1, 2004
Things get underway early at Don Docksteader' Motors annual Garage Sale. The sale has become a tradition in the Volvo community and the customers line up early for great deals in the parts department and equally great deals on new and used Volvos. Paul Docksteader likes to have our display of old Volvos in place by 9:00 a.m. and as an enticement, the early birds are eligible for a draw on a $100 gift certificate. It seemed to work. By 9:00 there was a whole yard full of old Volvos shining in the morning sun and the owners were wandering around in search of fortifying coffee. At about 10:00 a.m. a regular parade of Volvos from Washington State arrived to join the display. It is great that they take the time to support our events. Walt and Rick Tartar even drove their 53 PV444 all the way from Seattle with that ancient B4 (1400 cc) engine working hard.
Dave McAree, Bob Cuthill and I brought our Swedish-Blue 145 Express to haul the club clothes and other paraphernalia and with its Volvo Club of BC signs on the side it made a unique backdrop for our club table. By the end of the day we had taken in $800 in a combination of clothes sales, new memberships and renewals. Next year I will be tempted to move our activities to the other end of our parking lot to get further away from the truck-mounted band. It made holding conversations difficult and the conversations are an entertaining feature of the event.
After an hour of so at the Club Table, I did a tour of the site. My first stop was the service bay that is converted to a giant parts sales space. I noticed that there was a distinct lack of PV 544 fenders and 122S seats and 1800 anythings, but it didn't seem to be bothering anyone but me. The line up at the cashier was certainly long and happy. I managed to find a set of newish used snow tires and set off to make an offer. When I got to the tire sales table the young fellow in front of me had just convinced his mother to buy him a $2700 set of large diameter aluminium wheels and low profile tires for his S70. Now that's a customer. After that, I didn't have the heart to try beating down the price of used snow tires.
My next stop was the new car show room and I was happy to see that every sales booth was full of customers taking advantage of what must have been excellent pricing. Of course I was just passing through enroute to the hot dog line up and the used car display. I am not that familiar with new car pricing but I certainly recognized that the used cars were a bargain.
Througout the day we gave "peoples choice" ballots to everybody touring our display of Old Volvos. The ballots were tallied and the peoples choice award was presented to perennial (and deserving) winner David Warner for his light-metallic-blue 1800ES. It was nice to see the runner up award go to our good Washington friends, Walt and Rick Tarter and their PV444.
The Docksteader Garage Sale is the event that started our club in 1992. It is gratifying that the event, the club and our sponsoring dealership continue to thrive.