It is no surprise when it hits but that doesn’t make it feel
any better. It was a Holiday last week so as usual we all attribute last
week’s anemic sale to Labor Day weekend (not me). I sold straight
through the idea that it was the Holiday that made buyers less active .
As we saw this week it had zero to do with the Holiday. We just went
through the market switch. If a car was a 2010 you have to count it as a 2009. If
it was a 2012, it is now a 2011. Just price it a year older and you are
fine. But if continue to look at MMR and your brain is fuzzed out with
rationalizing why the market is the way it is, expect to dig into your piggy
bank. If you were looking for MMR results yesterday you were the King of
no-sales. Personally, I sold everything, ten million in gross sales,
like diarrhea, nobody likes it, but it makes room for the new day that’s
coming. If you stay constipated you can’t eat, right? My lifelong
theory is to take the doe and let ‘em go. Learn from what just happened
and tromp on the gas.
I was surrounded by a lot of disgruntled faces (except for
dealers with enough brains to stay in our lanes and take advantage of the fact
that I am selling to the walls regardless of the outcome, which we had an
abundance of in lane and on line, and thank you). “That was too
cheap”. Really? Wait until next week, you think they’ll be
more? A totally retarded thought. It’s called the market
switch. Now go buy on the new market and I’ll show you some happy
faces. Just like terrible tasting medicine, to get better you got to
swallow regardless.
The market change eliminates the tulips. The guys that
hit the street to “do a little wholesaling”. It’s been my experience over
the past 43 years that “the tulips” are now in full-fledged panic looking for a
rooftop to cover their ass for the winter. Tulips are the wide eyed
knuckleheads that come out in the Spring when it looks too easy to
Wholesale. The market change ids the first volley that makes them
understand it’s over and the first frost on the pumpkin is the death
blow. That’s when the stories of grandeur and hard luck sagas break
out. “Their backer pulled out the money (no he didn’t, you blew t).
“My partner screwed me” (no he didn’t, you were golfing or fishing and got
buried in slugs that nobody would buy if they were free, you couldn’t give them
away especially at the auction in the middle of the market switch, again,
if they were free. He also had to head for the hills but while you
were on the 14th tee he cleared the check book out of the money he
put up). It is the perennial litany of reoccurring stories that are
always the same, just the players change, sad, but comical. It has been
the same for decades and this year is proving to be no different.
Stop for a second and think. If MMR looks back a
month or two (and in some cases 3 years) depending on volume and you use it to
guide what you do, in a descending market, how would you ever buy a car that is
worth the money. By design you are paying too much regardless of
circumstances. Stop dreaming and start thinking is my theory.
The market is looking the opposite way.
We already have 600 units for next week. Not having
the Thursday sale this week really screwed me up. We were geared up to
have 1,000 units but Manheim pulled the rug out from under us. I was
really starting to like that Thursday afternoon thing. It would have been
(and will be) good. I am working on the solution.
Have a good selling day and we’ll see you at the High Line.
Sell Well
Robert
Hollenshead