Upside down depreciation, Create, Space Golf, 4

Shortages and inflation have been hitting all sorts of industries in the last year, a side effect of the global lockdowns from covid and the slow recovery process.  I mean everything is more expensive, food, fuel, building materials, electric unicycles and used cars.  Yes, used cars are going UP in price.  In particular I had heard how used Teslas were going up in value.  A used car normally does nothing but go down in value however scarcity, rising gas prices and long wait times for new Teslas have pushed the used Tesla market skyward.

My coworker has a 2019 Model 3, almost exactly like I had.  When he got a trade in number from Tesla it wasn’t all that impressive, only 27K, perhaps because Tesla demand is so high they don’t have much need to be generous with trade values.  However when he punched his car into Carvana, he got a trade value of almost 37k, a huge difference and only a few thousand off what he paid for the car new two years ago.

So as he was in there he happened to look at what Model Y’s Carvana had in stock.  There were only three of them and two of them were the standard range model similar to mine.  When he told me to look at them I could not believe the numbers I saw.  Each car was priced in the 58-59k range, what the hell?  The list price on my car was 39k and my actual cost after everything was in the low 40’s.  Could this be real?

For the hell of it I logged into my Carvana account and tried to get a value on my car.  The system was unable to give me one, perhaps because of the crazy market conditions.  I was directed to call and talk to one of their appraisers directly which I may do today.  Now the odds that I would do anything are extremely slim. However if they would offer me 10k over what I paid for the vehicle I would consider it strongly.  Now the reality would be if I did that it would have to be with the understanding that until market conditions settle, I just wouldn’t be able to replace the car.  I would be relegated to driving the Tacoma full time, which wouldn’t be the end of the world. So anyway, it at least will be interesting to see what sort of number I would be offered.  Regardless, if you are looking to get the maximum value selling/trading in your vehicle, now is the time to do so, without question.

Last night Cindy and I played some Beat Saber and minigolf in VR.  My Beat Saber skills were rusty, Cindy crushed me worse than she normally does.  She is exceptionally good in a rhythm game like this.  Minigolf was fun, we played a new course which was situated in outer space.  The game is just so well done, it’s really immersive and enjoyable.  The immersion is so complete that I repeatedly find myself reaching for the virtual railings to lean on while I wait my turn.

I have been creating another custom piece of 3D printed gear, a headlight cover for the Veteran Sherman.  I call it the Full Face Headlight Helmet or FFHH for short.  The design went through 6 or 7 iterations until I got it where I want it.  Like the Exo-Armor that I released earlier, I will sell these on the store but I also released the file publicly so those with 3D printers can print it themselves.  That of course isn’t the best move to maximize revenue but I look at it as just a nice way to give back to the community.

Speaking of the community, one of the things I plan on doing during my four day weekend is hosting another live stream, something I have not done in a while.  It is scheduled for Friday night.  I am sure much of the talk will be focused on the insane and dangerous riding in the “alleycat” race as well as my video about it.  It should be fun regardless.

The rest of the weekend will have some tasks/chores of course but hopefully not to an overbearing degree.