I just learned something interesting in an article on Jay Leno's 1934 Duesenberg Walker Aerodynamic Coupe

for full gallery:  http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/05/jay-lenos-aerodynamic-walker-bodied.html

In contrast to it being the most expensive Duesenberg ever produced, $475k in today's dollars, it was damaged and reduced in grandeur when one owner used it as a tow truck and sold it for the lowest amount I've ever heard a Duesy sell for, $400.00.  From high to low prices, this car hit both record numbers.

Seriously... this car was a tow truck, after it's new car-ness wore off, and it was just a powerfully motored old car.

Anyway, Autoweek July 2nd issue has an article on it, and Jay Leno, now a feature writer at Autoweek in addition to many other magazines, tells about it, and what it took for him to buy it, a story I've never heard before.

The previous owner who'd bought it for $400, well, he knew what he had, and exactly what it was going to take the next millionaire to get him to part with it. A half mil.

But? He wasn't going to accept the payment, even after handing over the keys and car to Leno, until the capital gains tax was reduced. See, he simply would NOT pay what he considered too much gains tax. So, Jay had it for a couple years, and even had it restored to Pebble Beach 2nd place in class award winning stature, before the tax rate was reduced, and then the guy selling it was 88 years old.

Leno made yet another in a series of calls to ask the guy to accept the payment, and yet again, was told no, the tax rate was too much. A month later Leno gets a call, the tax rate was finally lowered to 15% and he'd take the payment now.

He died 2 weeks later.

People, for pete's sake, what the hell is money for? Why do you want it? To use to get what you want? Or to compete with other rich people to see who has a larger number in the monthly bank statement? The last owner didn't need the money, so, why ask a half mil for it? Then, wait years to save a few bucks in taxes that would have been a moot point by the money that could have been made by investing the rest of the half mil?

The world is a crazy, greedy, complex place. And so are most people.

Autoweek, July 2nd 2018, page 16