EPV

Christ is there ANY joy in your life?

When someone says to me they want a smaller car, that usually sets my spidey senses tingling. Smaller engine yes. Smaller car? I dunno. Who drives an insignia and thinks "you know what I could do with? Less room" That's not really THAT relevant here but I do find it odd when people want to downsize.

Which is just about anywhere south of Nottingham to you lot

DA is full of utter bollocks for the most part.

Cars in Ireland generally speaking are more expensive.

No airbags in it I presume

I think the answer is that none of us define it. A judge does!

This could end up with Lucas telling us that he’s been chawed for doing the old boy in with a shovel so he could nick his pitch

I’ve done 3/4 in the last 6 months via them. I’ve still cancelled though. I’m going to try sinking some money into Facebook this year.

If you had managed to get yourself to a 60 car pitch doing 10 a week I don't see how you would need a fund. If you had managed to get yourself to a 60 car pitch doing 8-10 a week WITH a stock fund then you wouldn't need advice off anyone else that's for sure.

It's expensive if you have access to cheap money. I don't know of any banks that will loan me that sort of unsecured debt. So it's not expensive, I look at it this way; I buy and sell a car via a stock fund, lets say I nett £1100 and it costs me £150 on NG fees and interest to nett that. So I have made £950 profit. If I can do that on 6 cars I have made £5700 profit. If I don't buy and sell a car via a stock fund, as there is no other way for me to loan that sort of money (I have access to low level amounts on credit cards and IWOCO have also given me a small amount) then my profit is £0. It's not expensive at all.

It’s a straightforward enough pricing structure but too much to list out in here. Simply put it will cost you around £150 to buy and sell a £7k retail cost car within about 45 days. Personal guarantees required for businesses without much trading history. Understandably i think.

You did give some advice to the OP, which is first hand experience. You did also then say “£1500, I assume that figure is gross” which sparked off a debate about that which went a bit off topic. My response was just stating that it’s pointless having conversations about margins because people either will believe you or won’t, based on their own experience. I personally have no interest in trying to convince people of things they can’t be convinced of. That’s all. I am sure your advice to the OP would be invaluable given you’ve actually made the change in premises AND held a stock fund mate. I wasn’t trying to offend you.

This is the problem with conversations like these. Naturally most of us want to keep our affairs to ourselves. Especially on a public forum. When someone tells you something you find hard to believe or someone says you shouldn’t listen to the bullshit other traders spout off then I assume the reason why they find it hard to believe is they can’t do said thing for themselves. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done and isn’t being done. It just means they can’t. It’s worthless talking about this because even if I was, or Nik were happy to disclose on a public forum our margins, people who have made up their minds that it doesn’t happen, or can’t be done, wouldn’t believe it anyway. If you’re happy with what you’re pulling from cars then that’s all that matters. But if you’re not happy, or if you’re the type to be jealous of others (not saying you are mate just making a point) then instead of calling other people bullshitters or not believing them, you shouldn’t tell others it can’t be done. “Those that can’t do it should not get in the way of those doing it”

Well yes, if you have cash reserves or your own cash invested in stock that you can use to settle a funded car when sold that’s all good. I was more highlighting a situation where you needed the sale of the car to pay off the underlying loan. Which if you can’t do within the time set by the load can lead you into difficulties. Even past 60 days you have to start paying some of the capital back. Which is why I think if you can’t sell cars within 45 days repeatedly and don’t have the ability to settle it otherwise, I can see how people could get into difficulty, fast. My current split of funded vs personally funded is 70/30 which is too high but I needed some cash out of my business to pay the costs associated with moving into my unit and setting it up. It wasn’t cheap. Gradually though I will return to a 60/40 split and then eventually become self funded 80/20 with the fund being available for me to move quickly and stock up on days when the auctions are quiet for whatever reason. Anyway, the OP seems clued up and as long as he isn’t going to buy his entire forecourt on a fund and as long as he doesn’t buy cars that become ornaments before he gets his money and profit out, then a fund could be for him. I called you and Rory before I took mine on and you both thought it would be the right move for me and it has been so far. People should make their own minds up.

I don’t dispute that. If you can’t sell cars quickly enough, the stocking fund isn’t for you. Hence why I asked OP what his days to turn is because believe me, it matters a lot when you have a fund.

So 4 sales?

Ok, well look, I've said my bit. Good luck to you OP, to make a stock fund work you need to turn stock in less than 40 days, ideally. If you have the type of stock that sits around for 60 days but when it sells you pull big profits, then a stock fund won't be for you I don't think. If like me, your average days to turn figure is around 30 days, then it will work nicely for you.

It’s a nice way to live. Yes you end up being taken on or taken advantage of once in a while but the upside is you don’t end up a miserable cynical old bastard that hates life.

I wouldn’t take a pitch anyway, in a million years. So i’m not opining on a pitch. I’m saying taking a debt on can help you grow. It’s has done for me. It did for Rory and Nick. Maybe it hasn’t for some. But i’d wager that the debt wasn’t the problem there. OP, what’s your average days to turn?

Ok well, good luck to you. Hopefully this guy is an honest person and more helpfully for you, a forward thinking enthusiastic trader and not someone who moans about "the good old days"

Ok, what happens after the two weeks?

Amen. Sell what you like I say.

OP, Dont listen to the naysayers. Unless you have access to your own money then you’re right you need to borrow. I measure success by profit, personally, not how many units are sold or how many units you have. If you can stock 15, pull an average of £1500 profit per unit and sell 10 a month as a one man band then that’s success to me. If you need to borrow to get to that situation why wouldn’t you. Go for gold.

Well no one would believe you as apparently we should all be happy with pulling £600 out of a car.