How much is your time worth?

[opethmike]

No Mr. "20 posts to my name and I'm done" you don't have it straight. This guy took an extremely generous offer and tried to lowball it even further. It was an insult to her time and her(I'll say it again), extremely generous original offer.

Few months ago, my new neighbor got wind I was selling my old work van. I was selling it for 1,000 dollars. Already below market because I wanted it out of my driveway. He waltzed over, looked at it for exactly 11 seconds and said with a straight face "I'll give you 200 bucks".

I take offers like that as an insult and the only people who operate like that are assholes.

:applause: :applause: :applause:

Reminds me of when I was selling my first Corvette a few years ago. I was asking about ~$2,500 below market already. Guy who came to see it offered me HALF of what I was asking because he had cash on hand. I literally laughed in his face and told him to get off my property.

[louielouie2000]

No Mr. "20 posts to my name and I'm done"

Dismissing people because of low post counts is irrelevant for a couple of reasons. A perfect example: there is an owner here in Austin who bought his DeLorean 32 years ago. He's extremely active with his car locally- he drives it in parades, attends local car shows, is present at every local tech day, and volunteers to display his car at most any event/charity/party that's requested. He's one of the most knowledgeable and insightful owners I've come across in my 2 decades in the DeLorean community. He reads DMC Talk religiously, but has only posted on here twice. Point being, dismissing people because of their post count is potentially doing the community a huge disservice. Not everyone feels the need to engage on here, yet they might have a whole lot to add when they do. Conversely, there are people here with hundreds or even thousands of posts who haven't added a whole lot of insight.

As far as compensation for showing your car and haggling over goods/services, those are ultimately personal preferences. I personally can't envision charging for a child's birthday party... but I totally get why others would. I also can't fathom haggling with someone who agreed to share their car... but I also understand why they would. What is appropriate in these circumstances is ultimately highly subjective.

[Jonathan]

You guys watch much stand-up comedy? Bill Burr in particular. He's really funny. Crude, yea, but honest and says what's true without much regard for pleasing everyone.

One of his specials included a bit on "gold digging whores." Like I said, crude but really funny. Towards the end of the bit where he points out Kobe, Mel Gibson, Schwarzenegger and others going down in flames on account of not being able to keep it in their pants, he mentions how he had only ever seen one article written on the subject of keeping yourself out of trouble from that sort of thing. And he mentions how the article was written by a woman!

His comparison was how stupid it would be for him to write a book on what it is like to give birth. Because it is pretty obvious that a woman shouldn't be telling a guy what it's like to have a dick!

Why mention any of this in this thread?

Because there are some things about DeLoreans you just aren't going to know yourself until you're an owner yourself. If you own the car, then sure, you get to have an opinion or thought on these kinds of things. If you don't own one, your opinions or thoughts on what it might be like if you owned one regarding a certain subject is not of value here.

Threads asking for similar advice on brake boosters, fascia painting and getting mice piss smell out of carpeting welcome the non-owner's opinion. Threads like this one where you are going to try and hypothesize how you would handle a specific DeLorean situation that you're using your experience with Vette's or Volkswagon's or minivans, doesn't need your input.

NSFW...

[Rich_NYS]

So let me get this straight. It is the general consensus of this forum that $25 is the difference between a person who will and will not "respect your time, your car, or you as a person" and the difference between respecting and "disrespect[ing] the DeLorean" $25??? ~snip~

No, that's not the consensus.

IMO, the amount of $25 is irrelevant.

The fact that the guy tried to negotiate $75 down to $50 for her to drive her car an hour one way shows me he's the type will not respect her time, her car, or her. It's a complete stranger, if I'm understanding correctly.

I can almost picture this kid's party, and the car leaving with a broken directional stalk.

Here's something for comparison:

I had a request for my car to display at a car show where they never get a DeLorean; the guy offered a special parking space two cars wide, and offered to procure a velvet rope thing to keep people away. That is the sign of a respectful person.

[Michael]

Dismissing people because of low post counts is irrelevant for a couple of reasons.

Actually I didn't dismiss him based on post count...more like the attitude that he is "done" after his 20 posts is kind of an empty threat.

I dismissed him because he is an idiot

[Dangermouse]

I can almost picture this kid's party, and the car leaving with a broken directional stalk.

.

^^^ This.

I answered a request for a DeLorean to attend a kids party, whose theme was BTTF. The request was from a forum member "Joe" on a different car forum, so I presumed it was for his kid. When I arrived at the address Joe gave me (which was just round the corner from me, so I didn't mind showing up for a few minutes for free), I was met by Bob who's house it was, a detail that Joe had omitted. However the party wasn't there, but half a mile down the street at Janes house. Ok then.

So I roll up at Janes and the car is besieged by a dozen sugared-up under-10s, watched from afar by their parents who clearly couldn't give a rats ass beyond getting a good instagram photo of their little rascal testing the structural integrity of every part of my car.

Thankfully no damage was done but I am 100% certain none of them would have been digging in their pocket for repair money should something have broken - that's what insurance is for, eh?

So, no, I wouldn't do an unknown kids party again for $75 or even $750.

[jackb]

So let me get this straight. It is the general consensus of this forum that $25 is the difference between a person who will and will not "respect your time, your car, or you as a person" and the difference between respecting and "disrespect[ing] the DeLorean" $25???

People have argued that the initial offer of $75 was a "generously low price." I'd be willing to bet that the guy had NO idea what the "going rate" is for renting a DeLorean. I have no idea either.

I think it might be reasonable to assume that the guy was hoping to surprise his kid on his/her birthday, and was hoping to do it as inexpensively as possible. No malicious, disrespect, or ill-will intended.

In contrast, people on this forum view his offer of $25 less to be evidence that the guy is a person who will not "respect your time, your car, or you as a person." I think that is a bit harsh based on what I've read.

The main point of my post was to try to get people to consider that the guy might have been hoping the owner was someone who was just looking for an excuse to drive and show the car. The initial offer of $75 would suggest to me that the owner wasn't looking at his as a business opportunity. I wouldn't have made a counter-offer (not my style), but there are a LOT of people who view everything as a negotiation (independent of their ability to "respect your time, your car, or you as a person."). I realize his offer was "1/3 of the initial offer", but let's be honest, it was still $25 less. The forum can make it fraction/percentage if you want to make it sound more nefarious, but if you can accept that some people will make a counter-offer, how much less would be reasonable? Again, it was $25.

At the end of the day, I just think it is giant leap to conclude that someone who made a counter-offer of $25 less ($25 dollars!) is a person who will not "respect your time, your car, or you as a person" and is "disrespect[ing] the DeLorean." That is a pretty harsh characterization of a person on pretty thin "evidence." I just need more.

The fact that so many people on this forum would jump to this conclusion about a person's character so quickly is a poor reflection of this community. I'm done.

I agree, the potential renter probably had no ill-intent, and was just hoping to do a nice surprice on a budget.

HOWEVER,

If I made an offer for something that I know is really unique, and I get a *very* reasonable response, I'm NOT going to try and negotiate it. And I'm one of those people who realize everything is negotiable. But the appropriate way to behave is: don't always try to negotiate, because a lot of people will be insulted by lowballing their already low price. And there are consequences to insulting people. Just take the great price, and celebrate your victory.

The other week I was selling some excess stuff on the facebook marketplace. I posted a bluetooth speaker for $10. Like 50 people messaged me within an hour saying they wanted it. One guy just offered "Will you take $5?". No, fuck off, I will not. So he says "Ok, $10". I told him I wouldn't sell it to him for $50 at that point. This is the same thing. If I set a generous price and you lowball me, I'm withdrawing the offer, and you get nothing.

[mr_maxime]

I had a similar experience selling my accord when the transmission died. I asked $750 hoping to get $500, but a guy lowballed me with $200 for the engine only. No, I don't want to be stuck with a car that has no engine and a bad transmission.