Got to know when to fold them...

[Historybuff]

Hope I am not giving away any secrets but...this is a philosophical discussion.

I visited a guy the other day who owns an original Shelby American race car.
I guess the age of the guy is about 70. People are beating down his door to buy it but I kept thinking as I was talking to him--this guy's youth has gone, he's had medical problems lately, he's not in the crazy-old-man stage but could get there in the near future.

Offers are over $3 million, he says.

I wonder why he didn't sell it when it was only a million and get help with his medical problems and enjoy life a little while he still looked middle aged instead of like the crazy professor in Back to the Future?

Of course you could argue "Hell, these race cars didn't go through major appreciation until the last couple years" but my argument is--is $5 million that he could get a year or two from now as good as a lesser amount now?

I'm only in my early sixties and have nothing valuable to my name but as I look at these geezers who want to take their treasure to their graveyard, I can only think of that Kenny Rogers' song, can't remember the exact words but something like "You gotta know when to fold 'em."

Of course I folded a little early when I sold my first 300SL gullwing for $2500, but that was when I was a callow youth...I think they're about $500,000 now...but I hafta think there's a happy medium there someplace.