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Posted a lot
I won't be there when you cross the road, so always use the Green Cross Code.
Posts: 3,037
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So, what with the somewhat more mainstream interest in Retro motors is it about time that someone set up a nice used car sales oppo that specialised in "our cars"
And what would make good stock. I'm guessing things that are
1 retro (der)
2 in reasonable supply
3 reliable to minimise those pesky warranty jobbies
4 with mainstream appeal
5 er sounds like Mk1 golfs
any others?
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This space available to rent. Reach literally dozens of people. Cheap rates!
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have a look for the cresswell collection, theres a guy that always has a wide sellection of retro fodder
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
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A retro car businessDarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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have a look for the cresswell collection, theres a guy that always has a wide sellection of retro fodder Beat me to it! Cresswell Classics, can't remember the URL but it's a good site!
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here u go www.cresswellclassics.com/its long been my dream to have a retro / modern "classics" dealers and workshop, you never know i might get the lottery off tonight and then ill be setting up "jacks retro classics" tomorow ;D ;D
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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I'd have a forecourt full of imported J-cars. The UKs answer to www.nostalgiccar.comCheck 'my' stock in the background. 'Rmad's Retro Motors' 'Specialists in Classic Japanese Performance Cars' Right then, I'm off to the bank.
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so u have 10 grand and u have to buy one car of that forecourt. how long do u think the owner would let u camp there?
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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after a good look and the imaginary wedge , this is now mine." it is i tells ya"( i shout as I'm locked in the ambulance ,neee naaaaw neeee naaaaw)
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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how much is 50000 yen in pounds sterling?
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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Shortcut
Posted a lot
I won't be there when you cross the road, so always use the Green Cross Code.
Posts: 3,037
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£1.27 I think
:-)
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This space available to rent. Reach literally dozens of people. Cheap rates!
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I'd have a forecourt full of imported J-cars. The UKs answer to www.nostalgiccar.comCheck 'my' stock in the background. 'Rmad's Retro Motors' 'Specialists in Classic Japanese Performance Cars' Right then, I'm off to the bank. what time do you open? il be waiting for you ;D
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how much is 50000 yen in pounds sterling? about £250
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how much is 50000 yen in pounds sterling? 1.27GBP or 3 flat stones
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lo is th way to go
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I've entertained this idea a few times,.. I'm just not sure what the demand would be like.
Viable business or total lossmaker?
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A retro car businessDarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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One of my favourite daydreams is that if I were to win a small(ish) amount on the lottery - a hundred thousand or something - I'd buy myself a retro truck and trailer, trawl ebay for interesting motors for sale in Europe, bring them back and sell them on I'd probably lose money but it'd be cool!
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It's a great dream, isn't it. Certainly one that I have on a daily basis.
The problems come down to profitability and costs.
Think about how much profit margin you'd need to make on each vehicle.
Firstly, there's your own costs to consider - how much (or little) would you be prepared to live on? You'd need to set a base average that you'd need to achieve. For the sake of arguement, say £500 per week to cover your own needs. Then there's the overheads associated with the business. A major cost would be premesis and storage. This could vary wildly according to what you wanted to do - a prime "forecourt" location could cost you the shirt off your back! However, as you'd probably be advertising via the interweb and "Classic" magazines, a top location is maybe not so necessary. So a compound or barns on a farm could be had faily cheaply.
Then factor in advertising costs - A decent website will pay dividands and not be to costly to set up, but needs to be constantly updated with stock changes else it'll be next to useless. Add to that the cost of quarter-page ads a few magazines, plus the costs of decent ads on eBay sholud you wish to selll on there too to maximise the potential audience.... It soon racks up!!
Factor in staffing, transportation, IT requirements etc....!
Another problem is where to source the cars! In these days of eBay etc, it's getting harder to find genuine bargains... little old lady owner cars with 15,000 on the clock from new don't come up for a £100 that much now!! If you reckon that on a car you buy in for £1500, give a good bit of elbow grease and tidy up, and that will then book at £2000 - How many motors will you have to shift a week to cover your costs and make some dollar! You've got to be shifting one hella lot of motors to keep your head above water.
Diversification IS where its at. Look at guys like that FILMPROPMAN on the Bay..... Buys the motors in cheaply, THEN rents them out to film & TV companies at a couple of hundred £ a day..... then once they've fulfilled their purpose they're back on eBay with no reserve (the best way to get the best price (?!) with nice "glossy" ads.
On top of that, those of a mechanically minded disposition can be offering mending services, or bufty merchants a-la Taity can do pro-valeting on the side.
Even then, you're still not guaranteed to succeed, and you could find it all comes undone! (Make sure its a limited company, so if it all goes belly-up they can't take your personal assets from you!)
Still, it's nice to dream! Chimpy-chompeee!
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Diversification IS where its at. Look at guys like that FILMPROPMAN on the Bay..... Buys the motors in cheaply, THEN rents them out to film & TV companies at a couple of hundred £ a day..... then once they've fulfilled their purpose they're back on eBay with no reserve (the best way to get the best price (?!) with nice "glossy" ads. The Filmpropman is my hero!
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I have convinced myself that its bloody nigh-on impossible to wheel and deal in ‘low-value’ (like sub-£2500) cars for a living. That Cresswell classics guy does it I suppose, and I salute him, but his cars are hardly cheap and I wouldn’t buy anything from him at the prices he charges. In my view you pay a hefty premium if you buy from him, due to the fact that he’s a pro dealer with premises and some sort of obligation to look after you if you buy something from him which blows up spectacularly on the way home. I bet he works his nuts off finding and fixing old clunkers, and is a long way from being rich.
It might be possible to round up interesting old cars from Europe and sell them on, but again I don’t see how you could do it on the cars which we get excited about here… old Audi’s, K70’s, J-heaps, old Pugs etc cos they are just not worth enough to amortise the finding/transport/registration costs! Even if you had the best K70 or pug 504 wagon on earth, whats it worth? £2000? You need to be looking at a 3-4000 quid per car minimum to ‘absorb’ those costs I think. Hence the few people who used to go hunting in Europe for Integrales, M3’s etc. I just do not think its possible to do it with cars lower down the food chain that those.
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1972 Fiat 130 1985 Talbot Alpine 1974 Lancia Beta Saloon 1975 + 1986 Mazda 929 Koop + Wagon 1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica 1977 Toyota Carina TA14 BEST CAR EVER!!!!!!!! 1979 Datsun B310 Sunny 4-dr 1984 Audi 200 Quattro Turbo 1983 Honda Accord 1.6 DX GONE1989 Alfa 75 2.0 TS Mr T says: TREAT YO MOTHER RIGHT!
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A retro car businessDarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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...this is exactly why it's a daydream and always will be! I've thought it through and through and can't see any break-even, let alone profit Nice to dream though, isn't it...
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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A retro car businessDarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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I saw a MINT Anglia in Warrington a while back with one of their stickers in the back window. Keep meaning to check out their site and now you've reminded me! Ta!
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