History of MBZ.ORG
By Richard Sexton - site founder/owner/editor
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In 1997 my dad drove my Buick into a deer; I replaced it with a 1970 280SE on a whim. The rest of the story just falls out from there. 1997 was one year after the rapid adoption of the Internet by the mainstream and as I began to keep track of parts vendors and handy tips and other people that had older Mercedes, this site just grew as people began hanging around talking (Mercedes) shop.
Mailing lists sprouted, and the website kept growing. E-commerce was born.
 One of the crazy people I met in this rather odd hobby was one Gary "Jabba" Hurst in Atlanta, also a recent convert to the fold. After having an air filter mishap one day he met a feller named "rusty" and for a few years there Gary and Rusty in Atlanta proffered parts online using my site to promote this business.
This worked for a few years until a) an errant (now ex) employee went bezerk and turned off all the servers killing the whole thing, b) my daughters became teenagers and c) dilution: there were now 1000 sites that could sell you Mercedes parts online.
Having to do the single dad thing really cut into my time and not much happened Benz-wise between 2005 and 2009, but the kids are frighteningly grown up now. I dunno what happened down there in Atlanta with Gary and Rusty (I suspect a goat was involved though) but Gary is still around and crazy as ever and still the only guy *I'll* order parts from.
At any rate if, or rather, when you need parts please consider our site sponsor: Gary Hurst's parts.mbz.palo-alto.ca.us.
Richard Sexton
July 2017 |
