Ack! The car!

[webcowgirl]

Just realized shadowdaddy has not sold the car this weekend as planned. Ack! Am envisioning posting it on Craigslist, Expedia, and Microsoft all the same time, but it's still going to be hard to get it sold in three days! Is there a back-up plan to sell the car? What is he going to do? Ack! I'm so far away and that's absolutely the largest chunk of money we've got on the table, ACK!

Otherwise, cool and overcast today. The view from the apartment window is rather like it would be on any given day in Seattle - gray, though the windows aren't wet.

Lesson for the weekend: although people say, "Oh, Seattle! You must be used to the weather, then!" the fact of the matter is that it rains much harder here than it did at home and I must stop being Seattle-shy about umbrella carrying and use, lest I spend much of my time here being very wet.

Comments

[shadowdaddy.livejournal.com]

Backup plan, as we'd discussed, is to hand it off to your brother to sell for us. I've already spoken to them about it.

I could also, conceptually, go to the dealer and leave it with them in exchange for a somewhat smaller chunk of change than we might get otherwise.

We've got a plan... Ninja marketing!

[irrationalrobot.livejournal.com]

First, we'll start with building the pre-release buzz. A viral marketing website will be created at WTFGoogle.com, with nothing but extremely zoomed-in pictures of the car, adding slightly more zoomed out pictures every couple of days, and map-points at which the car has been seen recently.

Secondly, the pre-release ads get lined up. Local celebrities photographed in the car (Steve Pool, Dan Savage, Dave Matthews), and a couple of up-and-coming bands record songs about the civic and its adventures. The real deal here is we don't have to pay- we get all of the youtube traffic once the videos are uploaded, and the bands get the free publicity. Synergy- it is what I'm talking about.

Phase three is the personal angle. For a month before the sale, readers (at WTFGoogle.com and the blogspot account that will be set up soon afterward) can sign up for TheLittleCivic meetups and to get twice-weekly updates on the car. This is all about buzz, where we just build the excitement.

Phase four is the sale itself. I'm proposing that we do a launch event at sandpoint, maybe have the Civic doing donuts in one of the old aircraft hangars while the previously-mentioned local bands rock out in front of a laser light show. With Nathan's connections, we should be able to get use of the sound equipement and light show for free. This all culminates with flashpots going off (I'll pay for those because they are so Rad), and confetti falling from the ceiling with the url for the ebay auction on them. I picture a mass rush of people for the exits as they try to find a solid DSL tap. I'll make myself available to the media at this point, talking about the total awesomeness of the car, and then giving a backflip and a kick to the face of the USAToday reporter to make sure we get on all the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, SpikeTv).

When they open the ebay link, the pictures will be all of those celebrity pictures we took back in phase one, and the description will contain a link back to the viral marketing site. For every day of the auction, we upload a new YouTube article about the building excitement, and get bidders to appear on the articles, talking smack about each other: "RealDealSeattle73, you ain't SHIT!!! You goin DOWN, MUTHA@#$!@!!"

I figure the car goes in the high five figures, easy.

Phase five of course is the mop-up, where we sell teh Merch ("I participated in the 2006 awesome civic auction because I kick ass" T-shirts, coffee mugs, and panties courtesy cafepress.com) and auction off any resources we have left (like framed, autographed copies of the promotional photos.

Then, we hand over the car and fade into internet lore... FOREVER

Re: We've got a plan... Ninja marketing!

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

You are such a total goon. I can't believe we're not doing Thanksgiving together this year.

Saw a shirt (http://threadless.com/product/632/In_Case_Of_Zombies) that made me think of you this morning.

And hey, we can have the Rat City Roller Girls there, too!

[adjectivegail]

*snorts* I come from Hong Kong, sub-tropical and with a typhoon season every year, and yet it took me a while to learn about English rain. My rule now is to always carry an umbrella, no matter what it looks like outside the window, or what the forecast is.

Having said that, of course, I swapped bags this morning, and what did I forget to swap over? *head-->desk* Now I have to hope it won't rain...

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

My plan is to have an umbrella 1) in my bag 2) near the door and 3) in my desk drawer at work. That should mean I only get rained on one time out of four.

[adjectivegail]

There may well be Wisdom in this. If I did the same, I wouldn't have to worry about rain today! Also, maybe there should be plastic bags. The number of times I haven't wanted to put my umbrella back in my bag because it was wet, and then promptly left it on the tube/bus/train/etc...

Also, I just realised I left my iPod at home. That'll make work monumentally tedious, then... :-(

[juliet]

I gave up on umbrellas ages ago because I invariably lost them (all-time record between buying & losing brolly: 4 hrs). These days I just get wet. Actually I find I don't get *very* wet (or not so's to worry about) very often; a decent jumper/jacket will handle most rain, & I don't mind being a bit damp. Cycling helps, mind; if I'm changing *anyway* when I get to work, it's not a major problem.

I have only once been in the situation where the trousers I was wearing on the way in (this was before I had decent cycling trousers) got so drenched that I had to detour via Ken High St to acquire a dry skirt :-)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Re: the car. He's gotten everything else done; he'll get this done, too. And I bet, you know, if you ask nicely, irrationalrobot would be willing to step up and help if the car doesn't sell before shadowdaddy departs. Have a little faith.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

It just hadn't come up in the discussions this weekend (which to me seemed to be mostly about how I was a mean and horrible person) and if he doesn't get a job we'll need the money pretty quickly. So this makes me nervous.

*sweat*

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Also easier to get the insurance cancelled while he's still there.

So when are you doing your London writing retreat? :-D

[wendolen.livejournal.com]

I thought you said he'd sold it about a month ago, so I wondered when I saw it while picking up the dining room set... but I figured, maybe he sold it to one of your house's new residents (who were there painting while I took furniture, so of course I got paint on my clothes, grumble grumble)... I guess I was being overly optimistic.

Did I dream you saying it sold, or did it fall through?

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

No, it hasn't been sold. The three people moving in our flat only have one car between the 3 of them, oddly enough. we're looking for about $6500 for it.