The F-250

Today, I bought an F-250 that needs an engine. I bought it dirt cheap. I have been praying "God, help me to buy cars cheap and sell them for a good profit."

Well, he sure helped me buy it cheap. The lot I bought it from told me, "I've never taken this big of a loss on a vehicle." I then talked him down several hundred. I'm talking I paid hundreds for a vehicle worth close to $10,000, private party. Favor of God, I believe. He's helpin' me.

If you're wondering, this is the truck. The hood is off because the mechanic that worked on it sucked. It is in good condition. The body is in beautiful shape. It is a great truck. The guy had just ordered two wrong engines for it. Two wrong engines. Guess who knows how to get the right engine for it? :)

But, without the mechanic I'm partnering with, I definately couldn't do it. He's a great guy, and a great mechanic. Hopefully we can help each other make some cash!

Slow Day

You know, today must have been national "Do not buy an engine day." I had several customers that I thought I had sold yesterday call me today and let me know that they were going to pay me tomorrow. Ebay hits dropped off the charts, trending about 65% lower than this day last year (though our hits have been significantly higher other days this week than their 1 week, 4 week, and 52 week trends), and the phones just stopped wringing.

Oh well, we'll knock 'em out tomorrow.

In the meantime, be praying for a close friend of my dad's that I'm getting into some business with. He's going through a tough divorce. His wife cheated on him, so it's not one of those work it out things. It's chronic, and it ain't going away. I don't believe my friend knows the Lord, and he sure could use God's comfort right now. I'm praying for him a lot, 'believing for' him, and want to see God bring this guy into the fold and help him. If I never do any business with this guy, I want to see him whole.

Please, be Dishonest

I hate dishonest people. They waste me a lot of time.

My current job is at the family business. The one I helped my dad start four years ago. I'm now a hireling though, not a partner. Way to dip out too early Matthew. Anyways, we are able to make a living because we sell honest engines at good prices. Simple. Well, not really.

You see, a lot of my suppliers today lied about mileage on engines I was getting quotes on, and I caught them in our paperwork process. Then I had to find new engines for my customer. It pisses me off when I fall 10 phonecalls behind because billy joe in Kentucky is a worthless liar.

Good god, FTC. So, I hate dishonesty.

But here's the other end of the stick. I sold an engine on Monday, on ebay, at way too low of a price. The customer hasn't contacted us yet (they made an offer on the engine), and I'm glad. I don't want to get paid - I want the customer to break their contract - because if they do, I lose a lot of cash. So, please don't pay.

Other things: Sorry if I'm not getting back with everyone, and that I'm not keeping this updated that much. I am very busy! I rise at about 5:50 a.m. every day, anwer ebay emails, get ready for work, am at the office between 7 and 8 am (closer to 7), and leave around 6:00 p.m. I then eat, and answer ebay emails until I go to sleep! I am going to have to get a gym membership, or I'm going to go crazy here.

The fun thing for me though, so far, has been working car deals on the side. I've got a nice little audi in the driveway I'm about to flip - book value is about 3x what I have in it. I'm about to flip an '06 trailblazer with 2000 miles on it be bought wrecked and fixed up. Should make some cash on that.

Finally, I'm about to pick up a buick century tomorrow night that needs a new engine (which I can get cheeep!) and flip that. I'm working with a great mechanic (if you're in Memphis and need one, let me know. This guy is does great work at great prices. Probably the best mechanic we know of - and we know a lot, all over the country, with all the engines we sell.) and this is a money car.

I need to flip my six money cars by the end of the year and then flip the 24 my family is legally allowed to flip next year, and get some cash.

It's a lot more fun than oil. You just work longer hours, and don't get a week off :)

A Sweet Little A4

We sell engines. (Oh yeah, long non-blogged story. Summary: I'm in Memphis, selling engines at lowmileageengines.com, the family business). We also are starting to sell cars, and we got an Audi on the cheap from a dealership the other day. Reason? Bad transmission. And no one in Memphis works on Audi's except the Audi dealership, and own it the Audi dealership did not. Well, no one except Christ. We ordered a replacement transmission, Chris popped it in the Audi while it was sitting in the alley behind the office... and I drove that thing last night, and it drove nice. I love leaving people in the dust at lights and such (you have to test the car... right?).

Anyways, I'm a bit miffed at my dad on this - he wants to just barely double money on it when book value is triple what we have in it! But I see where he's coming from... we haven't sold many cars and the name of the game is "turning" them. I'd love to sell cars though, have bout twenty of 'em on hand.

Tool Concert

Thanks to my friend Ben for taking me to the Tool concert on the 16th. Here is a funny clip: Tool brought out this ripped guy in a tootoo and a mexican wrestling mask... and he danced by bobbing his head. To me this was funny because the concert was just super high quality - hundreds of thousands spent on lighting and videos and the best job of synching them into things I've seen in a while.... and here the thing you remember most is a guy dancing in a tootoo on the stage. Funny.