As a teacher who lives in the Bay Area, I have accepted that I'll never be rich. Cost of living here is insane. I recently talked to one of my neighbors and he told me they pay $2,700 for their two bedroom townhouse. Do you know how many Tony Gwynn rookie cards I could buy for that kind of money?
Luckily I was fortunate enough to buy my townhouse before prices soared... but unless I win the lottery... it doesn't look like I'll ever fulfill my dream of purchasing a house here in Silicon Valley. On the other hand, I have been actively pursuing another dream of mine.
Ever since I was a teenager, I have wanted a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. I've owned three VW Bugs and a pair of VW Squarebacks in my lifetime, but when the time comes... the sixth VW I own will be a Ghia.
Until then... I'm content with finally purchasing a 1961 Topps Sports Cars Karmann Ghia. I've actually added about fifteen cards from this set to my collection and after reading a post on The Shlabotnik Report, I guess I'm not the only blogger who enjoys these cards.
Not sure if I'll actually attempt to build this set or not, since I already have a bunch of other sets on my plate. Plus... my cardboard budget has already been cut down as I set aside extra money for my dream car.
Happy Wednesday and sayonara!
P.S. I apologize for the abundant use of the word "my" in this post. I wonder what my shrink will say about this. ;)
Speaking of crisis, I've sent you another package today. You've been warned.
ReplyDeleteLol ;).
DeleteAwesome. My first roommate in college owned a Ghia. It was forever overheating in the Kansas heat. Nice car!
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen a Karmann Ghia in years. Thanks for bringing me back to my youth.
ReplyDeleteI've been renting in the NYC area for 10 years...the amount of money I've pissed away with no equity is sickening.
ReplyDeleteMan, I love Karmann-Ghias! And I'm more impressed by your two Squarebacks than your three Beetles. If you ever want to share photos of your past VW "collectibles", I would love to see them!
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind other collectible sidetrips, you might want to keep an eye out for vintage VW sales brochures. I've got a few 1970's brochures around my house *somewhere* and they're a lot of fun (when I can actually lay my hands on them).
BTW, thanks for the shoutout!
When I was a kid I worked moving sprinklers on a farm. The house next to the field had an old Ghia sitting by it. I always daydreamed about taking that car home and fixing it up, but the one time I talked to the guy about it he said it wasn't for sale. It's probably still there. I'll have to look next time I go visit my dad.
ReplyDeleteYou will still see an occasional Ghia used as a daily driver here, which is kind of surprising considering I live in upstate New York aka salted road country. Good luck getting one! Owning a classic car is my lifelong dream.
ReplyDeleteThe best VW ever, close second Kubelwagon. Told my wife a few years back we can't retire here (Silicon Valley) and at first she was like "What?" but now she understands.
ReplyDeletego for a thing while you wait for the ghia.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have nice vintage cars in my town. You have 30k college kids who have little regard to the rules of the road.
ReplyDeleteYou have a shrink? :-)
ReplyDeletezippy - oh man... should i be nervous?
ReplyDeleter laughton - it's not a vintage vw if something isn't breaking down ;)
marc - no problem. half of my posts bring me back to my childhood
cardboard curmudgeon - they're cheap. you can find these for around $2 to $4
the lost collector - i know how you feel. i was renting here for five years before buying my place and threw a lot of money out the window.
shlabotnikreport - totally agree. square backs > beetles i'll have to do some digging, but i probably have some photos of my cars laying around somewhere. if i ever get my ghia, i have a feeling i'll be buying a bunch of memorabilia like brochures and stuff.
raz - if it's still there... maybe he'll finally sell it to you :)
billy - one of my square backs was from the east coast and it had major rust issues because of that salt.
gcrl - those are cool too. although... i rarely see vw things in my neck of the woods. i'll have to do a craigslist search.
matthew - oh man... i can only imagine.
tony l. - lol... nah. not really. i did a while back when my anxiety was running wild, but i've mellowed out this year.