October 19, 1998
Uxbridge Business Has A Different Spin
Uxbridge resident Ronald Young Jr. opens every Friday morning for business selling hubcaps on Route 122 in Northbridge.
(Daily News/Marshall Wolff)
By MARGO SULLIVAN
Daily News Staff
UXBRIDGE - Ronald Young Jr. owns over 13,800 hubcaps.
The Uxbridge man is not a collector, however, but a businessman. Young sells the wheel covers roadside from a van packed with the inventory.
If it's Friday, he has a table set up along Route 122 in Northbridge. On Tuesdays, he's in Medway. On Saturdays, look for Young in South Attleboro. He also takes orders over the phone.
His business is called Hubcaps on Wheels. He launched the operation five years ago, proving it is possible to earn a living from hubcaps.
"I'll tell you how'" he said' stepping away from the display racks where the hubcaps sat like vinyl records wrapped in clear plastic. "I go by a percentage," explaining he can discount a set of wheel covers so the customer pays $22.75 for a used hubcap. The identical item brand new would have cost $90.75 retail from the car manufacturer.
Young sells between eight and 10 sets of wheel covers in a morning's works, mostly to people who know his product and like the service.
For instance, he will pop the old wheel covers off and install the new ones on the car. He also is willing to take special orders for custom wheel covers.
Custom covers and knock-offs are manufactured by a company in Boston for practically every year, make and model of car, he said. The Boston company's price is much lower than the manufacturer's price, so people who are satisfied with a good-looking imitation get the savings.
If they want the original, he probably has the set in stock.
Young's fascination with hubcaps started when he was six years old, but his customers are not just car buffs. Typically, they are people who lost a hubcap along the road and do not want to drive around in a car with a wheel cover missing.
Primarily, they buy from Young because they want their cars to look sharp.
"Your car is usually one of your biggest investments," he said. "People pay thousands of dollars for their car, and they want it to look good."