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Comment by throwaway0a5e | Hacker News Reader

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throwaway0a5e

First the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of station wagons.

Then the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of small trucks.

Then the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of fullsize trucks.

In what universe is it sane to tell HN how great vans are?

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Quick, somebody jack up the price of four-door sedans so I can sell mine!

I’ll get my top people on it right away

Oh no, I need a new van. Keep it down, we don't need prices to soar.

Actual minivans are cheap in the used market right now. They seem to be out of fashion. If I didn’t already have a Toyota sienna I would be buying one used.

INB4 someone tries to tell you the inflated purchase price is irrelevant because you make it back in inflated resale value.

I see someone has tried to buy a used Tacoma in the last decade.

I used to flip cheap (like buy non-running for $500 or less, do work, sell for $1k-2k) cars of all types. I was space and time limited to I made money on throughput so I sold stuff below market to make it go quick. You'd think Tacomas and similar would be great because if you can get in for cheap you can sell for $$$, right? Wrong. I eventually stopped buying Tacomas/4Runners because the prospective owners were entitled jerks. No, having a ton of door dings and a roof that's beat to crap from hauling stuff on it does not entitle you to a discount on a vehicle in a price segment where price is determined by raw functionality. No I will not accept partial payment in weed regardless of what the street value is because I'm not a street pharmacist. The screening mechanism I wound up using was if someone called about a Taco/4Runner and they weren't having a tough time speaking in English I didn't want to deal with them and I'd tell them it was sold. Even then it was still a massive waste of my time because I'd have to answer 50 calls from non-serious buyers in order to get someone who was likely to show up and do the deal without making a problem out of themselves so I stopped buying those vehicles. Contrast with selling random commuter shitboxes where if you price it below market someone who is hard up for transportation will show up, pay asking price and both parties can walk away highly satisfied with the deal. Like FFS I'm successfully dealing with the stereotypical "problem customer" demographics and yet Toyota people manage to find a way to make problems out of themselves.

Did not know about that particular market dynamic. Used Toyotas are definitely at a premium, that’s for sure. Your screening process was ingenious.

There’s a good podcast series based on this side business you have going.

I’m serious.

Yes. There are many YouTube channels on the subject that I never get tired of them. Podcast would be great.

Blue collar bros in red state america drove the price of trucks up - not white collar engineers on HN.

I think the overlap may be surprising. The CTO of the last startup I worked for (well-known e-commerce shaving co.) had a massive lifted F-250 and I've seen a fair share of tech-truck-bro types.

I get what you mean, though.

Used pickup prices have been bonkers for a couple of years now.

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