Hello Joe,
>Actually, M35's would be going for between $4000 and $8000 (do these
>numbers sound familiar?).
>From your numbers I guess M35s are going for about $1000-$2000 tops at
DRMO auctions? Hmmm... maybe I am out of touch with M35 prices, but I
thought they often went for about $4000. Since I am not interested in
M35s I guess I could very well be mistaken. If so, bad example on my
part.
In any case, tacking on a couple of thousand bucks for resale is to be
expected. If someone paid $2000 for a M35 at auction, hauled it back,
tuned it up, and put it up for sale for $8000... that sounds pretty fair
to me. The actual money/time spent out of pocket post auction could
easily be a couple thousand bucks. Then a couple of months sitting
around in a lot which has overhead, plus the other expenses of running a
business... yeah, $8000 doesn't sound far fetched to me. Now, compare
this with moving something down the road a few miles and turning around
and asking $30,000 over the purchase price. I just don't see the two
examples as being in the same ball park. Both are about 4x over initial
DRMO expense, but in my mind only one can be "justified" and the other
can not.
>When did we start determining how much buyers should pay based on how much
>the seller spent?
OK, so what would you think about someone who moved an average M35 down
the road a bit and then advertised it for "only" $20,000 and called it "a
steal" at that price? A good honest business man? Seriously, how many
of you guys with M35s would want to blindly do business with such a guy?
How many of you wouldn't because you think the guy is a "crook"?
>If these vehicles are worth $40,000 then the seller
>should get it.
Well, if the vehicles are really "worth" $40,000 then as a taxpayer I am
pretty pissed off that our government is selling them off so cheaply just
so some random joe can put his kids through college (at least for a
couple of years). I mean, my tax dollars paid for that thing so why
should some random guy get to make the $30,000 difference? If the
vehicle should be selling for $40,000 then the DRMO reserve bid should be
at least $30,000.
>If one hundred of these were sold at $10,000 apiece, the odds are great that
>he will never get $40,000 for one.
Yup, unless he dupes some sucker. Which is why I raised the issue. That
and if every vehicle sold at DRMO were marked up like this our hobby
would be only for the rich and famous to enjoy. Gee... that would be
great!
>I am particularly interested in the morality of cheating an unaware farmer
>out of something and making a bundle reselling it. I gather that this is
>OK, but buying at public auction from the government and reselling isn't?
And that is why I said "which is a different issue!". In such a case the
buyer wasn't being ripped off, the original seller (the farmer) was. A
different case, and I don't think that is OK either. The buyer and
seller both have a responsibility to know if they are getting a fair
deal, but that doesn't mean it is morally acceptable to *knowingly*
attempt to take advantage of one or the other. Anybody that has had an
elderly relative fleeced by such people knows what I am talking about.
Look... maybe I am just too nice a guy. I believe in making a buck as
much as anybody, but I personally think there is a line that shouldn't be
crossed (like charging taxpayers $1000 for a toilet seat). I know if I
gouged someone like this I wouldn't be able to look myself in the eye in
the morning as I shave. To give you an example of me putting my money
where my mouth is...
I was given a M43 for free simply because the guy didn't want it to be
hauled off to the scrap yard. He owned the vehicle but it wasn't on his
property and was given an ultimatum that it was moving one way or
another. There are at least $1000 of parts on it. My only expenses were
my time and the $100 it cost me to bring it back home. If I can't do
anything with this vehicle (it was burnt up pretty bad in a fire) the
asking price will be $200 to any buyer who might have use for it. That
covers the 2 hours of my time and the cost of moving it. But if that
buyer turns around and sells it for $1000 I would be a little more than
pissed off.
Some might think I am a fool, but I don't think it is right to
excessively profit from someone else's misfortune/generosity/ignorance.
I also don't think it is right to purposefully dupe someone into selling
something for too little or buying it for too much. If people want to
condone it, fine. That is their choice to make. But I think this hobby
would be ruined very soon if more than a few people acted this way. If
enough people decide that the DRMO is a great way to get rich quick then
this will be an entirely different hobby very quickly, especially if the
government sees a trend for reselling 3-4 times over the auction price.
Steve
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:39 PDT