MyE28.com

M5BB wrote:Making a fair profit does not equal ripping people off even if they do have money.
I would find it hard to sleep at night. Evidently they don't because they do it all the time.

Your perception is that they've been ripped off, but I would bet that never crosses the minds of EAG's clientele.

Adam W in MN wrote:

M5BB wrote:Making a fair profit does not equal ripping people off even if they do have money.
I would find it hard to sleep at night. Evidently they don't because they do it all the time.

Your perception is that they've been ripped off, but I would bet that never crosses the minds of EAG's clientele.

Like Doyle Lonergan at the conclusion of The Sting, in the best con the mark never knows he's been taken.

Adam W in MN wrote:

M5BB wrote:Making a fair profit does not equal ripping people off even if they do have money.
I would find it hard to sleep at night. Evidently they don't because they do it all the time.

Your perception is that they've been ripped off, but I would bet that never crosses the minds of EAG's clientele.

Hence the ideal customer set that allows a business to milk them for all that is possible. Must be nice to find those niches and create a system to operate within it. However, if you're in that business, know that sort of like arbitrage, you're success will be transitory. Milk it good while it lasts but know when it's time to sell the company near its peak value.

RAL wrote:Like Doyle Lonergan at the conclusion of The Sting, in the best con the mark never knows he's been taken.

I still don't see it as a ripoff. If I could buy a good car for $5,000 and then have to spend another $5,000 to make it perfect, but in that process, I need to spend 100 hours of my time moving the car around for work and estimates AND I happen to value my 100 hours at more than say $20,000, why wouldn't I pay $30,000 for what I consider a perfect car?

I get Chris' concerns about the imperfection in the presentation and while it's nice that Eric has the pictures of the car as it arrived, I wouldn't market it based on those photos, but who am I to judge, I'm at a desk typing on the internet, Eric is earning a living playing with a product he's passionate about, that people come to him for because they want a fun toy, not a reliable mode of transportation.

CSBM5 wrote:Hence the ideal customer set that allows a business to milk them for all that is possible.

Patek has been doing it for 200 years. When is that going to implode?

WilNJ wrote:

CSBM5 wrote:Hence the ideal customer set that allows a business to milk them for all that is possible.

Patek has been doing it for 200 years. When is that going to implode?

The ideal customer being one that doesn't care about value and is chasing the bigger fool theory of onwership. Again, at the rate EAG is pricing E39 M5s, they will be at $100k within two years. You have two there now to choose from in the mid-60k range and now one at $75k. Maybe a 3k mile E39 M5 is worth $100k, perhaps it's worth $200k, perhaps $1M. Every human-led financial speculative phase pretty much has followed the same path throughout history. Of course when one is within such, there is a laundry list of reasons of why "this is different than the past"...

To answer your question, the implosion will happen when one of two things occurs: (1) a significant enough amount of people realize the illusion created by the central banks over the past 4 years, or (2) the central banks have to quit creating money and buying their country's sovereign debt. There are definite limits to #2, but while the party lasts, the music is playing, nobody cares that there are no chairs left any longer.

I think EAG would be an interesting business school case study. They've done a pretty good job at cornering the market for a certain type (mostly BMW's) and condition of goods (enthusiast-owned, relatively rare, cared-for). EAG has also segmented their customers based on their buying behavior (clientele don't want to scour craigslist, forums, ebay, and are ready to splurge) and by nature of their demographic profile and income they self-select to shop at EAG. There are others that have a similar business model, i.e. brokers who work through their network and word of mouth for high value clients and can locate very rare cars. But we're not talking Bugatti's here, these are more middle-market cars, i.e. performance BMW's.

EAG's pricing strategy is also interesting relative to the behavioral economics area. Observers on the sidelines of these transactions (i.e. this forum) in many cases have the fairness perception triggered in their minds by what is going on between EAG's buying and selling practices.

I think this thread about EAG, and similar ones on m5board, are very interesting. If I had competed to buy a low mileage M-car and EAG beat me out by wiring their money first, I might be amongst the outraged folks crying foul.

I am not a fan of flippers, it made me feel dirty when I did it in college to make some extra money, but here's something to understand. You can go to Century 21 or Loehman's or Marshall's, dig there for a day, and then walk away with a leather jacket that retails for 100, paying 10 for it. But in the 8 hours you spent digging for that jacket, you could have made 800 or 8000 dollars, depending on what you bill at. EAG's value is in customer service and the fact that they already found the jacket for you, and will even fix its imperfections if you don't want to. You don't have to think about it, spend money on it. And in exchange, they charge you 80 dollars for that jacket, or maybe even 100 or 110. But if you saved time and hassle, you still win. It's about ease and value. So if this car costs 12K, but you have to watch it on ebay and do all sort of shit, wasting your time, or you can just write a check in 5 minutes, it appeals to some people. There are plenty of people who don't look at prices on the level of 12K, 15K or 30K. For them it is essentially the same amount, and they appreciate the convenience. If you think about even top 5 percent of the population, it is 15 million people. You would be asking yourself the same question re EAG if you stopped by Barney's on the upper west side of manharran. You would be looking at a 600 dollar shirt that looks exactly like a 20 dollar shirt and scratching your head to the bone.

You're right. It's dirty.

bsegalis wrote:I am not a fan of flippers, it made me feel dirty when I did it in college to make some extra money, but here's something to understand. You can go to Century 21 or Loehman's or Marshall's, dig there for a day, and then walk away with a leather jacket that retails for 100, paying 10 for it. But in the 8 hours you spent digging for that jacket, you could have made 800 or 8000 dollars, depending on what you bill at. EAG's value is in customer service and the fact that they already found the jacket for you, and will even fix its imperfections if you don't want to. You don't have to think about it, spend money on it. And in exchange, they charge you 80 dollars for that jacket, or maybe even 100 or 110. But if you saved time and hassle, you still win. It's about ease and value. So if this car costs 12K, but you have to watch it on ebay and do all sort of shit, wasting your time, or you can just write a check in 5 minutes, it appeals to some people. There are plenty of people who don't look at prices on the level of 12K, 15K or 30K. For them it is essentially the same amount, and they appreciate the convenience. If you think about even top 5 percent of the population, it is 15 million people. You would be asking yourself the same question re EAG if you stopped by Barney's on the upper west side of manharran. You would be looking at a 600 dollar shirt that looks exactly like a 20 dollar shirt and scratching your head to the bone.

Exactamundo. . . end of thread.

Very much agree with the last few threads but worth noting is that I don't know of one "true" enthusiast that doesn't LOVE the hunt. The hunt and the time is what makes a great buy so rewarding. The butterflies...the flying into the airport or pulling into the driveway. The hunt is what the passionate enthusiasts love. I don't care what one's work schedule is like or if you are busy yadda...yadda. We are all busy but we are all enthusiasts. So money and everything else aside, it appears that EAG has found a client base that is afraid, not mechanically inclined and perhaps in need of that false confidence that they bought a good one because they paid a lot at EAG.

Flipping to me is a dirty business...sort of like selling credit card processing machines/rates. Flippers of anything hardly ever "do it right" because there really is no vested interest in doing so. Do the minimum u have to do to make it "look" and sound good and that "void" is your profit margin.

These prices are flat out absurd...one could buy a quickly appreciating, low mileage F355 Berlinetta in mint condition right now for what some of these cars are listed at. The difference being, the F355B will climb quickly over the next few years while these great BMW's will change hands with some losing quite a bit. I give this example not because we all buy cars as an appreciating asset but buying cars can have a certain level of responsibility associated with them. Value of the dollar certainly being one dimension.