RC Chop Shop's CRP Adventure
By Eric Harnden
®Click here to see:our current ebay auctions
Yes! We did buy the remaining CRP inventory that was stored in an old barn near Atascadero, CA!
How were we able to locate and eventually end up buying it? Here's the story:
The CRP buy-out all started a couple years ago, 2000-2001. But, to get the whole picture, let me take you back a couple of years before that.
I had started buying used RC cars for my kids (and myself) in 1999 to get into a hobby and to get into it as inexpensively as I could.
It wasn't long before I realized that these old "cheap" cars were going to need parts. So, I began to search for them. I went to all of the local hobby stores and somewhere along the line I got the idea to search EBay. I found parts for our cars and also discovered that there was a HUGE demand for old cars and parts. I was working in the computer field, monitoring systems, writing programs, and fixing database errors, etc. and with this job, I had a lot of spare time to surf the web and do a lot of research on these old cars, their parts and their value.
I thought it would be a good idea to start a side business selling parts and cars on EBay, not that I needed the money at the time, but I am an entrepreneur at heart and I wanted to build my own business (I hated working for "the man".)
It went really well and I have been able to build "RcChopShop.com" from that time until now, up to the point where it is my full-time business and I have no bosses, other than my immediate family (if you get my drift).
So, during my search for product, I noticed a guy selling a HUGE lot of tires on EBay for a really low price. This peaked my interest and I sent him an email asking about the lot and if, by chance, he had other items.
This guy, who I'm sure a lot of you EBay RC junkies will know, was named Todd. I won't give his last name because I want to protect his identity. Todd was really friendly and explained how he had run across the CRP inventory and that he'd been selling off the stock for quite a while on ebay, for the current owner of it, on a consignment basis but that we could probably work out a deal where I could buy the whole lot.
It seems that when CRP went out of business in the early 90's, the owner left the inventory behind. Because of mounting rental fees, the landlord ended up accepting the remaining inventory in lieu of rent. (There's more to that story but I don't want to get anybody mad at me.)
He eventually moved all of the stock to an old barn and there it sat until Todd struck up a deal to move it and other items, via EBay sales, for him.
Well, after months of negotiation, I was able to finalize a deal to take the remaining stock. But I had to take and move ALL of it, including a TON of just plain junk!
During the time it took me to negotiate the deal, I met another great friend, Glenn. He too sold RC items on EBay and had been into RC for most of his life. He happened to live not too far from me (in California) and we have been friends ever since. I still talk to him on a regular basis. (Even though I have moved to Western New York).
Glenn helped me out a lot with the load of CRP (affectionally named "CRaP").
I rented the hugest U-Haul I could and Glenn, my girlfriend (both driving pickups as well), our kids and I drove up to Central California from Southern Cali to load it all up!
Click here to see some pictures of what we had to move!
When I was able to check it all out, I was in heaven! What a great load and what fun I'd have with all this history of RC in our hands! (Where the heck was I going to put all of this stuff?)
Well, we worked all day long loading the truck with the help of Todd and his then partner and a forklift. It was a BIG pain in the butt! But it was an adventure and I like adventures. After we loaded it all up, we drove all night back to So Cal. (Unloading would have to wait until morning!)
It took longer, I think, to unload all of the "crap" but in the end, I had my garage full and both sides of my house full with pallets of CRP.
My kids will never forgive me for all the work they've had to endure dealing with moving CRP stuff, then moving portions of it many times during our stay in CA from one spot to another nor for the moving of a whole lot of it to NY, but I keep trying to convince them that it is a good thing.
Glenn, helped me out before I moved to NY by buying a huge portion of the inventory and I think you can get many of the items from him as well on EBay. Just search for "CRP" in the "Toys and Hobbies" category of EBay and you're bound to see his, as well as our listings.
Both Glenn and I are hard at work trying to sort out what is left and what goes with what, so if you have any old CRP parts, catalogs, pictures or instruction sheets that you'd be willing to picture or scan and email to me, that would really be a great help! I have managed to gather a lot of data but I am still in the process of building this database of knowledge.
Well, that's about that on the "BIG BUY" and I hope it was of some interest to you! Thanks for checking us out and don't forget to check our on-line store for your vintage to new RC needs!
Thanks,
Eric
for RcChopShop.com
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