July, how’s it going

[Casper 272]

7 hours ago, tradegirl said:

It's months like this where I wonder if this job is sustainable for me, if I'll ever get a unit, of I'll ever buy a house, or if I should just get a plan B and work towards something else.

Then there are those who are doing well, and I wonder not me?

Always have a back up plan I did a bit of property land development years ago alongside the motor trade . Keep at it you will I think you will do ok . 

[tradegirl 112]

2 minutes ago, Casper said:

Always have a back up plan I did a bit of property land development years ago alongside the motor trade . Keep at it you will I think you will do ok . 

Wish I had the money for properties! 6 years in. Years 1-3 were the golden age, years 3-6...not so great, but have to plan, work, and figure it out. Have to keep swimming at this point.

[Casper 272]

27 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

Wish I had the money for properties! 6 years in. Years 1-3 were the golden age, years 3-6...not so great, but have to plan, work, and figure it out. Have to keep swimming at this point.

Wasn't in it in a big way to be honest but I've gained knowledge off it now maybe to go back to that in years to come I'm happy doing away just now I've always had a passion for cars but  being honest i don't worry about what I drive myself now 10-11 years ago i was doing much more than I'm doing now .

bigger bills more stress etc now I'm actually enjoying it . 

It probably wont ever make me a millionaire im only stocking around 5-8 cars now so probably similar to your set up . Im unsure if i really want to go bigger again .

I think it had an impact on my health and I'm not a fit as I was ten years ago but do get more  free time to see my parents etc now who are getting on in years .

so I guess it swings and roundabouts. 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Casper

[tradegirl 112]

17 minutes ago, Casper said:

Wasn't in it in a big way to be honest but I've gained knowledge off it now maybe to go back to that in years to come I'm happy doing away just now I've always had a passion for cars but  being honest i don't worry about what I drive myself now 10-11 years ago i was doing much more than I'm doing now .

bigger bills more stress etc now I'm actually enjoying it . 

It probably wont ever make me a millionaire im only stocking around 5-8 cars now so probably similar to your set up . Im unsure if i really want to go bigger again .

I think it had an impact on my health and I'm not a fit as I was ten years ago but do get more  free time to see my parents etc now who are getting on in years .

so I guess it swings and roundabouts. 

 

 

Ok I understand. We do get caught up in work sometimes and forget about balance and that we don't get that time back. And what you said about seeing your parents...well that's priceless.

It's not about millions, it's about being happy. Success is happiness isn't it? I think a lot of the older traders have mentioned about health, stress levels and spending time with their families. I think every self-employed job means you work longer hours than others. But...as long as we strike a balance, and not let quiet periods, comebacks, and blown engines affect us, then...it's alright.

 

[Casper 272]

14 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

Ok I understand. We do get caught up in work sometimes and forget about balance and that we don't get that time back. And what you said about seeing your parents...well that's priceless.

It's not about millions, it's about being happy. Success is happiness isn't it? I think a lot of the older traders have mentioned about health, stress levels and spending time with their families. I think every self-employed job means you work longer hours than others. But...as long as we strike a balance, and not let quiet periods, comebacks, and blown engines affect us, then...it's alright.

 

It was actually something a friend said to me that really got me thinking

his dad passed away last year and he said you cant spend time with them when there not there

I guy used to come to the auctions with me he's passed away now was older than me and sort of looked up to him I remember when he died his son said to me at the funeral after we both carried the coffin he wished he had said more to him they hadn't seen each other in years 

he said i cant speak to a headstone that really touched me and probably got me thinking i should spend time with mine when i can .     

Its not about how much we make etc if i make a living wage now I'm happy 

your health is wealth .. my dad says 

sometimes i factor in both i might take a car to there house to valet it etc 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Casper

[NITM 3]

4 minutes ago, Casper said:

It was actually something a friend said to me that really got me thinking

his dad passed away last year and he said you cant spend time with them when there not there

I guy used to come to the auctions with me he's passed away now was older than me and sort of looked up to him I remember when he died his son said to me at the funeral after we both carried the coffin he wished he had said more to him they hadn't seen each other in years 

he said i cant speak to a headstone that really touched me and probably got me thinking i should spend time with mine when i can .     

Its not about how much we make etc if i make a living wage now I'm happy 

your health is wealth .. my dad says 

sometimes i factor in both i might take a car to there house to valet it etc 

This is so true, im out on my own 2 years past, my father took ill and i pulled the pin on my full time job so i could visit him in hospital etc. 2 years later its going ok, my father recovered, i sold 7 this month and im up in my parents every morning for a cupa while on the auction and i leave and lift my son to school everyday  things i couldnt do if i still worked in a 9-5 job. Your health is most definitely your wealth, aslong as i make a wage and have a bit left for a rainy day then thats all that matters  the grass isnt always greener on the other side, keep the heads up even on the bad months!

[tradegirl 112]

5 minutes ago, Casper said:

It was actually something a friend said to me that really got me thinking

his dad passed away last year and he said you cant spend time with them when there not there

I guy used to come to the auctions with me he's passed away now was older than me and sort of looked up to him I remember when he died his son said to me at the funeral after we both carried the coffin he wished he had said more to him they hadn't seen each other in years 

he said i cant speak to a headstone that really touched me and probably got me thinking i should spend time with mine when i can .     

Its not about how much we make etc if i make a living wage now I'm happy 

your health is wealth .. my dad says 

sometimes i factor in both i might take a car to there house to valet it etc 

Jesus...sorry for your friend, but I suppose we learn from other people's pain sometimes. And for you to realise that while it's still early, is a blessing.

There's a lot to be said for living, that unfortunately many of us (myself included) don't do. It's a Friday night and I've spent it on Car Gurus. On the one hand at 35 I'm still young enough to HAVE to work and make it happen, and get my house and be financially ok. But I'm 40 in 5 years and life has flown by...if I die tomorrow, all I'm going to remember is work and home, and worrying if my car photos are alright, and when the cars will sell. I've missed so many of my nieces' and nephews' moments, it's heartbreaking.

So doing it small, and being less stressed, and having time for your parents and to get your health and fitness back, is probably the best way to do it.

[Casper 272]

2 hours ago, tradegirl said:

Jesus...sorry for your friend, but I suppose we learn from other people's pain sometimes. And for you to realise that while it's still early, is a blessing.

There's a lot to be said for living, that unfortunately many of us (myself included) don't do. It's a Friday night and I've spent it on Car Gurus. On the one hand at 35 I'm still young enough to HAVE to work and make it happen, and get my house and be financially ok. But I'm 40 in 5 years and life has flown by...if I die tomorrow, all I'm going to remember is work and home, and worrying if my car photos are alright, and when the cars will sell. I've missed so many of my nieces' and nephews' moments, it's heartbreaking.

So doing it small, and being less stressed, and having time for your parents and to get your health and fitness back, is probably the best way to do it.

I prefer it I'm not much older than you but been involved in the trade in one way or another since almost leaving school at 16 which seems a lifetime away now the years fly by sometimes I look back and wish I had did more motor trade and business training 

Although at one point i was buying cars for 4 -5 separate companies in my late twenties not on my own granted the owners etc were helping out when they could it was at times they couldn't make it to auctions etc as well as buying and selling my own stuff and never got a minute to myself I much prefer it the way I am now . 

ive scaled it to down to buying for 2 companies regular who become more like friends than associates and buying and selling my own stuff  and much happier now . 

Edited July 27, 2019 by Casper

[Contracts 68]

17 hours ago, tradegirl said:

 

@NOACROSS, I don't know about necessity. I see trader's pages where they're posing with young lads and girls with Seat FRs or BMWs. Or look at Rory's stock. They're not "necessity" cars at all. Necessity is an SE spec, but it seems everyone wants bells and whistles these days.

I was offered a 118i SE as a non runner with a good profit, but I passed it up because of the SE spec. Who wants plain cloth seats on a 1 series these days? Minimum has to be sports seats.

A week last Tuesday we took a small batch of 9 cars in against a new fleet.  When valuing we were nervous as they are all base spec in either black or white so we hit the values hard but full history and minimum prep.

3 16/66 118d Auto SE

4 16/16 A180 Auto SE

1 17/17 A180 AMG Auto Line Prem+

1 15/65 Citroen C1 Feel

12 days later we only have the A180 AMG left.  What gets me is our PCP payments were not far off what we do a new one for.

To be fair 2 were outright and 3 went to 3rd party funders where the end user seemed to be a NINJA.

It just shows that nobody can predict what buyers want, we were just going to trade the lot as they seemed so bland but decided to have a punt and it paid off.

Have two latest shape Insignia Estates in next week, let’s see how they go!

[Jack Regan 116]

This job is no where near as good as it used to be ...... but it's better than having to go to work .

[tradegirl 112]

20 minutes ago, Jack Regan said:

This job is no where near as good as it used to be ...... but it's better than having to go to work .

Depends if you like having a wage or not.

3 hours ago, Contracts said:

12 days later we only have the A180 AMG left.

Wow ok...well that puts things into perspective. Although....what does a 2016 1 series auto go for? £10k-11k? I know you said they were on PCP though.

[metcars 397]

My sister has just bought a new Vauxhall Viva so somewhere a new pair of pointy shoes are on order! :-)

[grant8064 219]

On 7/26/2019 at 2:53 PM, NOACROSS said:

I wonder if that’s true of the antiques business etc. 

I got out of the antique auctioneering game about five years ago to do cars.

Ever decreasing number of actual buyers because it's literally a dying industry with an ageing demographic.

Add to that about 40% of the UK art market is forged/fake and a lot of the remaining is heavily restored or simply worthless. Plus the legislation killed lots of the market for no good reason. 

Takes a lot less brain power to buy, market and sell a Ford Fiesta than a Napoleonic prisoner of war carving, plus the margins bigger and the market's less demanding.

Gimmie cars every time.

[metcars 397]

4 minutes ago, grant8064 said:

I got out of the antique auctioneering game about five years ago to do cars.

Ever decreasing number of actual buyers because it's literally a dying industry with an ageing demographic.

Add to that about 40% of the UK art market is forged/fake and a lot of the remaining is heavily restored or simply worthless. Plus the legislation killed lots of the market for no good reason. 

Takes a lot less brain power to buy, market and sell a Ford Fiesta than a Napoleonic prisoner of war carving, plus the margins bigger and the market's less demanding.

Gimmie cars every time.

I'd imagine that most antique auction houses would just stick them on the website for the highest bidder, like Ebay. Do antique auctions still operate like the ones on 'lovejoy'?

[grant8064 219]

6 minutes ago, met said:

I'd imagine that most antique auction houses would just stick them on the website for the highest bidder, like Ebay. Do antique auctions still operate like the ones on 'lovejoy'?

Auctions don't generally own anything; they'll sell goods on behalf of dealers and joe public for a 20% fee. On face value they're transparent because all the bidding is conducted online at the same time as the physical auction takes place but in reality lots of Lovejoy-esque things happen.

It's more the goods themselves that are questionable though, so many fakes out there it was becoming impossible to operate without routine investigations...main reason I left.

I don't think any proper dealers use eBay.

Edited July 27, 2019 by grant8064

[Casper 272]

Theres a furniture auction near me sometimes some antique stuff in but its sort of mixed variety with modern etc I like The police lost and found ones just missed a box full of deep snap on sockets for 50 pounds . Was kicking myself for weeks 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

On 26/07/2019 at 10:55 PM, Casper said:

It was actually something a friend said to me that really got me thinking

his dad passed away last year and he said you cant spend time with them when there not there

I guy used to come to the auctions with me he's passed away now was older than me and sort of looked up to him I remember when he died his son said to me at the funeral after we both carried the coffin he wished he had said more to him they hadn't seen each other in years 

he said i cant speak to a headstone that really touched me and probably got me thinking i should spend time with mine when i can .     

Its not about how much we make etc if i make a living wage now I'm happy 

your health is wealth .. my dad says 

sometimes i factor in both i might take a car to there house to valet it etc 

Like big style. 

I’m all about working wiser, valuing my time and making my business work for me.

Spending quality time with my family now, watching my boys grow and enjoying ourselves is THE priority. 

My dad passed away when I was 10, he was 50..... I’m now 50 with 4 & 5 year old boys....... it’s all about family and making memories 

[stockedup! 63]

1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Like big style. 

I’m all about working wiser, valuing my time and making my business work for me.

Spending quality time with my family now, watching my boys grow and enjoying ourselves is THE priority. 

My dad passed away when I was 10, he was 50..... I’m now 50 with 4 & 5 year old boys....... it’s all about family and making memories 

I have been guilty in my early days of making a good living and not having a life!

As you get older your priorities change, it is all about getting the balance you are happy with as it's not a dress rehersal.

[Mark101 536]

Which is why it is important to do a job you like, then you'll never work again.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

22 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

Which is why it is important to do a job you like, then you'll never work again.

Bang on

 

53 minutes ago, stockedup! said:

I have been guilty in my early days of making a good living and not having a life!

As you get older your priorities change, it is all about getting the balance you are happy with as it's not a dress rehersal.

Exactly  

[XFS 70]

20 hours ago, tradegirl said:

 

I spent my younger life working like an idiot thinking I was doing the right thing for my family. Never at home, always working, always stressed . All it got me was a huge overdraft, a divorce and a heart problem.

I decided to change my life completely in my early forties. I am now in my mid fifty's, luckily my boys were great and are grown up and successful. Their mother can take a lot of credit for that. I have no stress, I am fine financially, money in the bank, don't owe a dime to anyone. I am in good shape for my age except for the heart, which is what it is. 

As they say...youth is wasted on the young.

Edited July 28, 2019 by XFS
wrong quote

[tradegirl 112]

15 minutes ago, XFS said:

I spent my younger life working like an idiot thinking I was doing the right thing for my family. Never at home, always working, always stressed . All it got me was a huge overdraft, a divorce and a heart problem.

I decided to change my life completely in my early forties. I am now in my mid fifty's, luckily my boys were great and are grown up and successful. Their mother can take a lot of credit for that. I have no stress, I am fine financially, money in the bank, don't owe a dime to anyone. I am in good shape for my age except for the heart, which is what it is. 

As they say...youth is wasted on the young.

You're right, it absolutely is. Sometimes working all the time is a necessity though. I made a lot of bad job decisions in the past, and I'm playing catch up now. Plus bad decisions in this job, and I honestly can't see how I'll be (business) debt free and finally buy a house any time soon.

It seems like a lot of traders in here are saying the same thing as you are though. That health and family come first, and that they ran themselves into the ground in the past. I suppose realisation always comes at a price. But the silver lining in what you want through, was that perhaps had you carried on, the heart problem could have been a lot worse.

[Grantlfc81 88]

How did everyone’s weekend go with the rain? Our busiest ever Saturday with terential rain, sun came out today and didn’t see a soul

[It's me 615]

4 minutes ago, Grantlfc81 said:

 didn’t see a soul

think yourself lucky ,beenaroundtheblock cant get rid of his

 

[David Ayers 171]

Love a wet Saturday.

5 sold and another strong possibility.

I didn’t get my lunch till 3:30pm!

I have Sundays off.