Wild Living ... No Renting, No Buying, No Selling ...

PasturesNew

Catblue wrote: »

And a 20 year old fella. :cool:

It's on my "Life List" of things to do .... one of those will be my treat for my 70th birthday ... even if I have to pay for it, which is doubtful because there are some right weirdos on the Internet so I can probably get one for free easily enough.

dopester

PasturesNew wrote: »

Well, first problem is it's in Solihull (500 mile round trip, 4 hours 15 minutes each way according to Google, which certainly makes it 3.5 hours each way) ... and if I bought one I'd need to go and kick its tyres for myself, then get a little man in .....

But, I have been thinking about the whole thing .... there is one for sale locally this week that I could go look at, but that is £14k, so that's "spend creep" and I've been wondering if I should just go for something that isn't "exactly what I was after", but instead spend £2k or so on something that just gets me mobile, while I decide what to do.

Being in a remote area really leads to procrastination as you can't just get what you want, but have to engage in a long, drawn-out, system of finding/deciding.

If it were within 50 miles I'd contact the seller and go look ... but, with 58 bids already, I bet it goes out at £9k in the end (picking a figure out of my head). It's coming up to easter.... silly season for campers.

All points accepted and understood. That ebay Autosleeper ended on 58 bids and at £3,300... which surprised me a bit, but like you say.. you'd have to have confidence its running/living condition really was sound, and not a duffer that'd cause you continual problems. Although the description made it sound like a high quality example of that type and age of Autosleeper.. well maintained and cared for. Long MOT and lot of tax disc time thrown in too.

PasturesNew

dopester wrote: »

All points accepted and understood. That ebay Autosleeper ended on 58 bids and at £3,300... which surprised me a bit, but like you say.. you'd have to have confidence its running/living condition really was sound, and not a duffer that'd cause you continual problems. Although the description made it sound like a high quality example of that type and age of Autosleeper.. well maintained and cared for. Long MOT and lot of tax disc time thrown in too.

I thought it was a well written advert, to be honest... and at £3,300 somebody's got a bargain.

But from this distance it'd have been impossible to satisfy myself to the condition of it - as well as checking that the seller was genuine and it wasn't a stolen one or some other scam. If it'd been local and I could have arranged to go see it myself, then I would have been able to do an RAC check and HPI check.... but they're huge undertakings to try to do at a distance for a van on an ebay auction.

I was tempted ... but genuinely expected it to go higher. Maybe there's actually money to be made buying campers up north (where they're cheaper) and flogging down here (where you can't get your hands on one)

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was tempted ... but genuinely expected it to go higher. Maybe there's actually money to be made buying campers up north (where they're cheaper) and flogging down here (where you can't get your hands on one)

I don't know if the same applies nowadays but S/H cars used to be a lot cheaper up North...we noticed during the 90's as were up in Yorkshire for work every 3 weeks.
Perhaps DS can confirm? Maybe the dealers in SW buy stock from up north already and add on a big mark up?

Hope the hunt yields something good.

and PN I need some advice on web stuff...i....dont know how busy you are so don't want to clog up your time but I will PM you when I have worked out exactly what the issues are.

Doozergirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

up north

Solihull? You might be way down there but I an assure you there's a lot more North than Solihull It doesn't even come close.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

and PN I need some advice on web stuff...i....dont know how busy you are so don't want to clog up your time but I will PM you when I have worked out exactly what the issues are.

Go ahead ... if it's outside of my expertise I'll soon let you know

My areas of particular web expertise are in the areas of:
- SEO/SEM, onpage and offpage
- Affiliate marketing
- web presence for small companies
- marketing on and offline
- linking strategies
- web project management
- article writing, submission, etc etc

On the IT front, it's specifically IT project management, in the areas of company mergers/acquisitions and changeovers, where entire new systems are being rolled out or two organisations are merging and coming onto a common new platform.

... and various other random stuff that I've picked up and used along the way.

All a bit vague really..... but "I know stuff that means I have free money plopping into my bank account every day .... and I have some freelance clients along the way for short projects where they need stuff sorting out".

And if I could write that up into a coherent paragraph then I could actually "start a business" as opposed to just knowing it all.

PasturesNew

The plan was to go to an exhibition this weekend ... however, personal events have overtaken me and I may not feel able to get away to look. Also, the original London plan seems to have just blipped on my radar again ... and I'm off to Facebook to get in touch with somebody on the other side of the world to see if I can cut the London deal again.

Everything in my life is forever moving, changing .... it's like I can never make plans because tomorrow always brings changes.

dopester

You're probably are more sensitive to any such forces in play than I am, fc. If there is more money down south, then maybe cars and stuff do go at a premium with more money chasing what is on offer - I don't know.

Maybe people are prepared to pay that extra instead of incurring travel costs, time, and the general messing about of going further up north... to get something cheaper - if after all that travelling the vehicle matches the description in the advertisement.

I do know when I advertised a VW Polo in 2001 in AutoTrader, it sold within the hour (guy rang me and made me promise to give him first option on it.. that he'd be coming up from London the next day), and sure enough he came up from London to Manchester next day (met him at the station), he paid (£2,200), and drove off with the car.

He said he did this full time, to immediately sell the cars on.. and that with a family of 3 down London way, needed to make £600 a week to keep their life afloat. There are some risks involved I'm not keen on. The week before, on the day I originally planned to put it in AutoTrader, the exhaust silencer went and I had to pay £90 for that repair. He could have been landed with that cost - or maybe something worse - if the exhaust had held out for another week.

DeeDeeinDooDoo

Hi PN,

Have just found and am loving this thread.

We used to have a VW 1971 camper which was cute but uncomfortable. We now have a Mazda Bongo which is a great van. Very comfy, insulated, flexible in that it can be a mpv etc. Very cheap japanese imports considering a similar VW would be £20K. We got ours for £7K and you can get them for £5K off ebay if you are very lucky.

We do also have a boat sitting in France waiting for us to retire and go and live on, just counting the days, minutes, seconds...

Oh meant to say we went around Portugal, Spain last winter in the Bongo, great fun, I loved being a gypsy but some of the photos of me and my hair are a bit scary to look at!!

There are bongo owners clubs and honestly cant rate them enough but they are perhaps small for what youwant. They are the length of a car so park anywhere. Some problems with height, ours is 2.05m I think but we get it on as an mpv for the eurotunnel and ferry and can squeeze into tesco car park!

Am looking forward to hearing how you get on.

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Go ahead ... if it's outside of my expertise I'll soon let you know

My areas of particular web expertise are in the areas of:
- SEO/SEM, onpage and offpage
- Affiliate marketing
- web presence for small companies
- marketing on and offline
- linking strategies
- web project management
- article writing, submission, etc etc

On the IT front, it's specifically IT project management, in the areas of company mergers/acquisitions and changeovers, where entire new systems are being rolled out or two organisations are merging and coming onto a common new platform.

... and various other random stuff that I've picked up and used along the way.

All a bit vague really..... but "I know stuff that means I have free money plopping into my bank account every day .... and I have some freelance clients along the way for short projects where they need stuff sorting out".

And if I could write that up into a coherent paragraph then I could actually "start a business" as opposed to just knowing it all.

That's the stuff....our lovely webman is not answering my Q's as he has worked out I am trying to work out stuff myself first. It's not just about saving a few £££...it's trying things out to see whether they are actually worth doing. No point in attaching or whatever it's called to affiliates when we don't need to.

We are going onto a big e-tail site in a few weeks and I need to sort out our google search and things too. I will PM you in a couple of days.. I have a long train journey on Thurs so will list out the main points then.
Cheers