Dear Tom and Ray:

I've been a fan of yours for a long time, and I thought you might be able to help. When I was a kid growing up in the Bronx, I had a fascination with the emblems on VWs and used to steal them. They popped off easily with a screwdriver. I'm not proud of having done that, and my dad actually had to come get me at the police precinct after I was caught in a hospital parking lot trying to lift one of the emblems off a doctor's car. I'm now in my mid-50s and would like to be able to purchase the emblems (without the cars attached) in order to re-create my adolescent collection. Any suggestions where to go? -- Bob

TOM: Well, you can buy them new, Bob. They're sold as replacement parts -- mostly to VW owners who've had their emblems stolen by rotten little kids!

RAY: You can get those new ones from any local VW dealer, or find them for sale online from auto-parts stores that do business on the Internet.

TOM: But I suspect that what you really want are used VW emblems -- ones that have a history, even if you don't know what that history is. And you probably want a bunch of different ones, from different-size VWs. You want a small one from a Jetta, and a big one from a Microbus.

RAY: You can find those on eBay. Most of them are being sold by rotten little kids who've popped them off VWs in hospital parking lots. Maybe if you threaten to turn the kid in, he'll confess to how he got it, and you'll be able to relive your entire youth vicariously. Good luck, Bob.