A STICKY (sticker!) SITUATION

I know it’s been said that there are only two kinds of people:  Those who LOVE Neil Diamond music and those who HATE Neil Diamond music!  That may be true, but I’ll add two other types:  Those who LOVE classic cars and classic car paraphernalia and those who HATE classic cars and classic car paraphernalia.  Believe it or not, I really enjoy classic cars and classic car paraphernalia.

I don’t own a classic car because of the great expense involved.  It’s not only the money to BUY a classic car, but the cost to maintain it is almost unbelievable.  It’s nothing to spend $20,000 to $75,000 for a classic car, and then thousands and thousands to maintain it.  For Massachusetts classic car aficionados, there is a “poor man’s” classic car hobby:  Collectible Massachusetts inspection stickers.  I happen to own hundreds of mint condition authentic Massachusetts inspection stickers from the late 1930s through and including 1981.  

My father worked for the Registry of Motor Vehicles for many years, retiring as a Supervisor in 1982.  Most of his stickers were being thrown out from the back rooms at the Registry’s old 100 Nashua Street headquarters, and he brought them home (along with a large number of collectible license plates).  Up until about fourteen years ago, Massachusetts had the plainest and ugliest license plates in the country.  The state staunchly refused to put any catchy slogans or pictures on the plates.  Of course, that is certainly no longer true at all.  But what Massachusetts lacked in its plates it made up for in its inspection stickers.  Today’s inspection stickers are dull and boring.  I don’t think they will have any collectible value.  AND, you can’t really look at them unless they’re on a windshield because they’re made in the modern “peel and stick” fashion.

Up until the mid-1980s, Massachusetts inspection stickers were printed with glossy “gummed” fronts.  The auto mechanic who inspected a car would wet the lower passenger corner of the windshield with a sponge and slap the sticker in place,  (Well, VERY far back, the stickers went in the upper center of the windshield area, but from the late 1950s on, they’ve gone in that lower corner).  The stickers of the late 1950s through the early 1980s are particularly colorful and downright pretty, and could be classified as works of art.  I truly think Massachusetts at that time had the most attractive inspection stickers in the country!  Up until we began the annual emissions tests in the mid-1980s, Massachusetts had a TWICE A YEAR safety-only inspection...Spring and Fall.  Many of the stickers are square and many are rectangular.  There are bright reds, blues, greens, orange, and even PINK in 1970!  I think the Pink Spring 1970 stickers look kind of stupid.  The Fall 1970 stickers are yellow and much prettier.  

I go to car shows, sell these stickers, and split the profits with my sister.  I’ve also given them as gifts.  When my mechanic, Bill Lincoln and his wife Joanne celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in 2002, I made sure there was a 1977 inspection sticker at each place setting.  They were especially appropriate because the 1977 stickers featured a charactature of a mechanic with the slogan, “YOUR SAFETY IS MY BUSINESS”.

If you’d like to see a BEAUTIFUL framed display of Massachusetts Collectible Inspection Stickers (from one of my satisfied customers), I encourage you to go to Absolute Car Care at Clark and Grant Streets in the Dennison Crossing section of Framingham.  (The main office sets back from Clark Street...you kind of have to look for it.)  Just tell John Lincoln or Mike Foreman that Bob Baril sent you and ask to see the sticker display.  (You may want to make an oil change appt. while you are there...they’re a great shop!)

If you know any classic car buffs, please let them know about this.  I sell stickers as follows:  

1970s through 1981  $5 per sticker
1960s   $10 per sticker
1950s  $20 per sticker
1940s $10 per sticker (they are less collectible than ‘50s).

Except for those I’m keeping for myself, I am all sold out of 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, and 1967.  

Send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Bob Baril, P.O. Box 4702, Framingham, MA 01704.  SPECIFY the year sticker you want and if you want SPRING, FALL or both.  (Obviously, if you want both you’ll have to pay for both.)  Please enclose a check or money order- no personal checks.

Baby-boomer guys who grew up in Massachusetts like to get a sticker in their birthday cards- seriously.  I’ve done that, and guys have been thrilled to get them.  I’ve used the year of a person’s birth, and the year they got their license.  Even my sister cherishes an inspection sticker of theyear of her birth.
Well, I guess my Scripture for this piece is Luke 20:25, “...Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”  If it weren’t for the Commonwealth’s auto inspection requirement, I wouldn’t have any stickers!