QotW: What do you do with your stickers?

Today, April 6, is Sticker Day in Japan. It’s a play on words, combining four (shi) and six (ru), or shiru, which means “sticker” or “seal”. It’s probably safe to assume that, as car people, we’ve all accumulated significant collections of stickers. Some are given away at car shows, others are prized and purchased, some come as a bonus with a car part. Stickers can act as a roll call, mementos of experiences, just plain decoration, graffiti, or whatever. Do you fulfill the sticker’s destiny and put it on your car or toolbox? Stow them away in an album? Adhere them to something completely unrelated?

What do you do with your stickers?

The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “How do you find the car of your dreams for sale?“.

We had a few answers that called out a specific dream car that the commenter was looking for. Oddly, they were all Mazdas. Nihonnotekko was looking for “the one that got away,” a Stardust Blue 1980 RX-7. BlitzPig, due to the attrition of vintage parts, will get a new ND Miata Club. And Joe Musashi is hoping to find an RX-7 Spirit R.

But if you’re looking for places where you should be looking, here are the answers in today’s market: Ernie recommends  the aggregator Cargurus. Negishi no Keibajo relies on good ol’ Craigslist. Taylor C. uses a mix of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Speedie asks friends to keep a lookout on Facebook Marketplace as well as checking Hemmings and Bring a Trailer. And for Japan-market cars, TheJWT‘s go-to is goo.net.

Of course, there are ways that don’t involve looking at all. Steve suggests buying a house instead and putting your wrenching skills to fixing it up. @ye‘s zen attitude is to let the car find you. Whatever you do, r100guy cautions, don’t use a shipping broker.

The winner this week is daniel, whose advice requires the most work but will probably lead to the best results:

The internet has undoubtedly become the primary resource for finding your next vehicle. What I don’t remember is which specific website I found my truck on… two photos, not from the best angle, and almost at night. It could have been anything. The good thing is that it was relatively close, and I encountered very professional sellers willing to give me their time to check everything. I think that nowadays, with more experience (a long learning curve in Facebook groups for the make and model), there are always some hidden gems. It’s likely that the model’s “social network” and WhatsApp groups are the most direct way to connect with the vehicle we’re looking for. It requires time, the right questions, and doing your own research on the owner and the particular vehicle (narcissism or a lack of knowledge leaves interesting records in groups about the vehicle’s problems). I suppose it ends up being a kind of hybrid between word of mouth and digital, conveniently at your fingertips.

Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!