Used Cars Are Commodities?

People in our field can make money in spite of ourselves. We are the truest entrepreneurs on this planet. But some of the things we do amaze me. Take used cars, for example.

Some of us look at a lot full of used cars and see just a lot full of used cars rather than different vehicles to meet a variety of consumer wants and needs. If every other industry had that closed-minded opinion of their product, nobody would ever come up with anything innovative.

We do it in new cars, service and parts. We come up with new paint codes and model styles. But for all the money we have invested over there on the blacktop, in our mind it is still “used cars” all lumped into one big category.

In fact, they're commodities. There is no difference in those vehicles sitting over there (all different makes and models) than there is in corn or wheat futures that are traded on the commodities exchange every day.

Your used-car manager is an automotive commodities broker, and how good he is at understanding the whole pre-owned market as well as what's in demand in your local market?

If you get a person who is focused only on two or three commodities and that's the only thing they are good at investing in, how many opportunities are missed, even though research is easy enough in the Internet age.

It is the same thing in the pre-owned department. You have X-number of dollars committed to a portfolio. How well your manager brokers pre-owned commodities futures will dictate your success.

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