The Lane County Events Center is starting to host some events again, and from the looks of this random congregation of white vans, I assumed it must be the white van convention. Actually it was the Gem Fair, and this is where the exhibitors parked. A small sea of white.
Well, there had to be a few exceptions.
The two white Hondas make a nice addition.
That poor guy with the paint molting off his particular van is probably looking around at all the others and wondering “why me?”. Hopefully he can score some free candy from the others to cheer himself up.
Well! If anybody needs any definitely-not-stolen speakers…!
I actually had a couple of guys jump out at me from a truck (can’t remember if it was a white van) trying to sell me some speakers, which they had to get rid of ASAP for some unspecified reason, about 10 years before I first read about this online. Really bizarre. Since when are speakers an impulse buy? Well maybe modern Bluetooth speakers, but these were big wooden boxes.
The first time I was approached with the we are supposed to deliver 4 speakers but they loaded us with 4 pair line I was still in HS and that was long long ago.
While it all sounds super sketchy and that you are getting a good deal because of it there is an actual company that does or did this in my area. One of my former tenants actually worked for them for a while. They had a big warehouse of the ultra cheap crappy speakers and like 8 or 10 crappy old vans that they sent out daily two guys per van.
So apparently they are or were enough people to make it a viable business all around the US.
And this makes we wonder, not entirely tangentially, what Tucson’s annual gem and mineral extravaganza will be like in January and February. Historically, it’s Tucson’s biggest annual event.
Kind of sad, it wasn’t that long ago that any white van gathering had at least a couple Nantucket Fords and GM G’s. I guess it is not surprising though since the last ones made are 30 or 25 years old.
It is interesting that there are so many other white vehicles trying to blend in. Yeah white pickups are common but the Toyota and Honda aren’t commonly seen in fleet white.
The last time I bought Chevy vans there was only 4 color choices, white, black, red and yellow. Red fades and looks like crap. Black, can’t get enough A/C to survive in it. Who wants to drive a YELLOW van? White it is. We used to buy safety yellow and orange vans, poor resale, color not available or special color price and manufacture will build them when it is convenient for them. I had a few that insisted on dark blue or black and the usual results were, make sure the next one is white. Work vans that live almost their whole lives outside do best in white with the occasional wax job.
Is there any vehicle that is most likely to be unloved as a white van? Interesting that none have any sort of logo but that makes sense if they are/were hauling gems.
I worked for a while for a company that, as a part of its business, mailed diamonds around the country; they were always sent in plain small packages with no insurance and no indication that anything interesting was inside. They even used an very nondescript return address which gave no clue as to the company’s name.
I just sort of assumed that a white Chevy van, ideally with peeling paint was the gem dealer’s plain wrapper for the same reasons.
Most people don’t know that used white vans with low mileage in good condition are a fairly rare commodity and can be worth more than a luxury passenger vehicle of comparable age and mileage. Supply and demand.
I’m guessing that no one makes P-Vans anymore ? .
That’s a shame .
Here and there around Los Angeles I see dirt lots full of identical white vans, little ones like Ford Transit or similar .
-Nate