Someone got a good deal on this 25 HP compressor

Iggy, it's simple math. An auction takes a vig (%) on the sale. What reason would they have to run it badly? At my local pawn shop, on any given day, I can walk in and offer half of the price they want, and they will take it. We've been scoring some terrific deals lately, merely because we have some cash. I wish I could get these derelicts directly from the street, and what I pay would be cut in half again.

People are pawning everything, but few have the cash to buy.

Steve

"Pete C." wrote

Kauai is awesome. We'll be going in December for Christmas, as usual.

Steve

wrote

Ritchie Brothers Auctions in Las Vegas is fraught with $10,000 machines going for $3-$4k.

Steve

When I was in Scouting, one of the boy's fathers was in the business of buying out bankrupt stock. He said the trick was to have it sold before you ever bought it. Possible on a large % of the goods once you learned the business, and the rest you tried to break even on.

steve

"Gunner Asch" wrote

The shit is approaching the proverbial fan.............................

Steve... I appreciate it... Looks like you have done your own share of hard work... I find it that I become lazier as I get older. I do not feel older, ye, but I am lazier. Sometimes I feel like I should not work as much, and yet somehow work finds me...

This is really am amazing time to equip a shop for next to nothing.

This is also a great time to buy and sell used equipment. What cost $500 and could sell for $1000, now costs $300 and sells for $600, but there are many more possibilities.

So you figure that because I don't go out and spend money to buy crap I don't need just for the sake of having it, I'm the problem.

Not the folks who told the banks to loan money to people who they KNEW couldn't pay it back, Or the ones who sold treasuries short term so it looked like there was a surplus, when in fact they hadn't started paying those off at high interest, or maybe the current crop of folks who have decided to spend money that they won't have for 20+ years.

How about this. I'll go down to the local dealer and get a nice new Cadillac. However I will pay for it with an unsecured IOU from my neighbor.

I figure that if the Gov. can do this it should be fine for anyone else.

That's sort of half right, Steve, and somewhat misleading.

The government counts GDP by production, as you say. Non-government economists use several different measures: one is sales, another is value of final production, and a third is value-added at all the stages of production. All three are usually equivalent.

Last fall we had an extraordinary situation in which the measures of the three got out of whack, more than at any time in recent history. Sales fell off a cliff, so fast that production couldn't slow down to adjust. The official decline in GDP was 3.8%. But the real decline in sales would indicate a falloff in GDP of between 5% and 6%.

The difference was an extraordinary inventory pileup. But that difference -- around, say, 1.7% -- is as big as it gets. Inventory ups and downs tend to lag sales by a small amount but the percentage of GDP that is "non-normal" inventory (in other words, more than the usual inventory that business keeps on hand in a normal economy) never grows to more than a percent or so of total GDP, and that only happens when the overall ups and downs are swinging pretty wildly. Producers are pretty good these days at cutting back production to meet market demand.

GDP indeed is often a poor indicator of the economy, but unsold inventories are not the reason, except in rare and extraordinary circumstances like we had late last year. Inventories are now close to normal, relative to market demand. And any unsold inventory that's still hanging around had its effect on the GDP late last year. Now, pile-up inventory carried over neither adds to nor subtracts from GDP. In other words, it no longer affects the GDP number one way or the other. When excessive inventory gets sold down, it will be reflected in a sales-based GDP number that is slightly higher than the production-based number. But only slightly.

They have their problems, too, which is why they're used only for limited purposes.

Only to people like you. Optimists who are open to possibilities.

Who was it who said (paraphrased) Life is an endless number of permutations to a person who is willing to take chances. ..............?

Steve

Gold has bounced around a LOT, the thing is that you have to look at global pricing and supply. Then look for the curve and try to sell when the prices peak. OR if your using it as long term investment then you look for the low end and buy. I'm not looking at it WRT inflation as much as a solid investment.

In my case I have bought pretty close to the lows across the board. Stock wise I buy established for the most part. I do hit the occasional start-up, but those can be a real PIA if your not watching.

Unimproved land with NO utility access is on the market locally for $4,500 an acre. There is a farm that isn't priced to bad but it is still at 2,200 an acre. The barn is in OK shape but the land itself hasn't been taken care of.

I may actually grab that, break it up some and sell the barn and house for the timbers. Then put a smaller stick built on the lower section for myself and the wife and rent the upper to a local large acreage farm.

Not really that interested right now. With the bunch we have in Albany now the tax situation is only going to get worse.

I do. Leftists arent human

Gunner

"Upon Roosevelt's death in 1945, H. L. Mencken predicted in his diary that Roosevelt would be remembered as a great president, "maybe even alongside Washington and Lincoln," opining that Roosevelt "had every quality that morons esteem in their heroes.""

All valid points, However many of them have been taken care of. There are several ways to test for purity, Many of which are easily done using simple chemicals.

Security wise gold doesn't bother me as much as half of the items you probably carry daily. Have a debit / credit card. More than one? With those and about 10 minutes I can have whatever your limits are on each. If I get your drivers license I can also do more damage.

As for paying with gold. Currently you cannot pay directly in gold for anything in the US. It is strictly a commodity to buy/sell. In other countries however you can use gold.

Security isn't all that hard, really. ID wise there are MANY ways that cannot be obliterated. The old stamp the ingot crap works in the movies, not in reality.

As far as how to use it. The likely process would be that you would take an ounce to a business and trade it for an agreed amount of credit. Repeat when you run out of credit. Basically just like a credit card, except it would actually be secured.

In my area, most sellers are still dreaming that their land is worth bubble prices. A lot of those were insane, even though our bubble wasn't nearly as bad as in CA etc. So these folks think that say, 20% off is some great bargain. Some of them will wait it out, confusing wishful thinking with strategy. Others will take their lumps, some because they can afford to, and others because they can't afford not to. Either way, there are sure to be bargains for those who take the time to shop. Traditionally though, the best reason to buy land is if you intend to live on it in the not too distant future. I view the land market a lot like the stock market - a lot of research required. I can think of a couple of cases where land purchases for profit went sour, not because the price was too high, but because tax increases or school bonds ate up the profit. In one area near me, some 40 acre parcels (with homes) got whacked with unexpected bills for as much as $1500 a year to pay for a fire district when it changed from volunteer to full-time.

Wayne

$2200/acre for farm land? That's a steal. Even $4500 isn't bad (for around here). Some just sold for $7000/acre. For farmland, not development acreage. It's insane, because that won't cash flow itself for probably 20 years. But there is still enough money floating around, that some ops can absorb the cash flow loss, to gain production size to support the overall operation.

I'm certainly not one of them. I would like to add a few acres, but I can't compete with that. If I try, I will be so beholden to the banks that it won't be worth it. So I just maintain where I'm at. Oh well. At least I'm not going the other way...

JW

When you get a dose of the clap, it is not meaningful to blame it on the doctor that is treating the condition, unless the doctor was the one screwing you just before you got the clap.

Mark Rand RTFM

The problem is, of course, that you do not know the future and do not know whether you are seeking a "peak", "rise", "dip", or "collapse".

I may look for some local farmland.

Yes, gold is more of an asset, not money.

Let the Record show that "Pete C." on or about Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:39:41 -0500 did write/type or cause to appear in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

And no mountains. I've gotten used to those the last thirty years. I just realized that it has been at least that long since I last lived some place where it froze in the winter. Not just got below freezing at night some times, but the "high today is expect to be near freezing, but then it will go back down later in the week." kind of cold. But maybe it is time to consider relocating.

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!