Skip to main content

What Are You Getting For Your Guide Book Subscription?

Are they kidding? For years and years, Galves got to be known that it was just plain old $1,500 light... made it easy for buyers they had on the road bringing cars back to NJ! But that was then. Today, with technology in terms of real time data communications, how in the devil can a book be wrong by $3500 (ie., March NADA 2008 Volvo XC90). What's craziest is that this is not new news... NADA has been dreadfully wrong for years. With nearly 90% of active auction buyers carrying hand held devices and in my professional estimate, less than 35% of buyers "using" a book, you need to ask yourself what you are paying for!

You need the book because you need to know models by VIN sequence. The book is useful here. You need to know variations for mileage categories. The book is useful here we presume but if the ACV's are that wrong how close are the adds and deducts for miles? You also need to know the loan value and here are the cross roads. The book is really for the bank (not the dealer I submit) and if this is the case why don't the banks get in the business and just tell us what they will lend and get it over with?

The answer is that the auto auction business is to darn dynamic (in the truest sense) and the banks like static things. Now we're back at the original question: where is that dynamic "book" that is in pace with what is crossing the block right now? Tell me, and we'll both make a fortune!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reimagining service... it's time!

I have been attending and participating in a new podcast, "Auto Transport Intel" that Jay Wertzberger produces and broadcasts with Ty Thompson. It drills in on automotive transport and is dedicated to improving the industry. A topic I explored with them recently was focused on not how to get new business as a transporter but a revealing look at some of the reasons we can't get new business. The theme was that if we look at ourselves with open eyes and ask if we feel if we're putting our best foot forward, what little things could we do to improve our professional profile... and that triggered the theme, "reimagining service". Over the next several weeks, I'll define Reimagining Service in more detail, and we will dig in on the relationships that the car auctions have with vehicle transporters. Stay tuned!
1 comment
Read more

Heard around the auction block

As a college freshman, I enjoyed the mandatory Psychology 101 & 102 courses... but if I had known then that I would need to be counseling my customers now, I would have taken better notes! I'm telling you... seasoned and experienced auction pros are confused and conflicted with what is going on in this winter market and the joke is that they must need to see a "shrink". The chatter at the block is staggering! Nobody is comfortable with what they have in inventory, don't know what to add or deduct form that inventory, and aren't sure what anything is worth right now. Generally, the market is flat (if not down) and traditionally [it] should be ticking up in terms of the number of bodies in the lanes (the very best barometer). Rather, there is a noticeable number of missing buyers and that's the primary factor pushing the market index down. The question is, where are these buyers? For the balance of February... plod through your inventory and make adj
Post a Comment
Read more

A Resignation That Opens The Door

Just one year ago this week marked a point that I had never been before over a 30+ year career and it was a professional decison that had to be made. I was not healthy and I was not at the lofted level of dedication I'd held myself to. The decision was easy! I resigned. I committed to my team to a seamless transition and told them there would be no disingenous goodbye followed by an announcement on the competitor I was going to join. Resignation became dedicating more time to my family, friends, my health, and to the larger community that surrounds us all. Unencumbered by a business culture stalled in its own way, I relished "taking the high road" journeying thousands upon thousands of miles with eyes and ears wide open and no timetable. And there it was in front of my wife and I every trip we took: The door of opportunity swung wide open with one clear-cut decision. A year on now spiritually and bodily rejuvenated, I re-engage to be purposelful in mentoring
Post a Comment
Read more