12/09/09

I found a Triumph TR-3 engine on e-Bay today. Yeah, shut up. I know I said “Fuck e-Bay” a few times the other day, get over it. Anyhoo, I found an engine in Kansas City, Missouri. There are no bids yet at $400.00 but there is a $749.00 Buy It Now option. They will palletize it for $60.00 plus another $250.00 to $350.00 for shipping. It looks like KC,MO is about eight and a half hours from here so a one-day round trip wouldn't be impossible. If “we” left at 0430 h, “we’d” arrive in KC around 1300 h. Call it one hour to inspect the item, do the deal, and load it, then “we” could leave there at 1400 h. (I know, that’ll never happen and we’d actually leave closer to 1430 h or 1500 h, it always takes longer than expected, but let’s be optimistic.) A 1400 h departure would roll us back into Fort Worth at around 2230 h. Let’s say another hour to unload and get home would still be before midnight. OK, so if we were to add in an hour for lunch and another for dinner on the road, we’re looking at 0200 h. Realistically, it would turn into a twenty-four hour plus ordeal. Oh crap, I've also been figuring this on a Saturday so “we” wouldn't have to take off work. That would mean they would have to be around on said Saturday to meet us. OK, let’s set that aside and figure cost here. Google Maps says it is 555 miles from my house to KC, MO. That’ll be 1,110 miles round trip. If we figure Fifi at a pessimistic 20 miles per gallon, we’re looking at 55.5 gallons of gas. Call it $3.00 a gallon average and I'm looking at $166.50 in gas. I'd probably feed my copilot to the tune of... oh, let’s say $10.00 for lunch and $20.00 for dinner, shall we? That’s $60.00 for the two of us in meals. I'd be willing to bet we’d snack on the way so figure another $25.00 there. What’s the total now? $251.50 to feed the drivers and vehicle. Hmm, I'm still coming out cheaper than shipping. That wasn't what I was looking for with all that math. I guess I could figure in the “value” of our time. That would bump us over the limit! If I figure it to be a 24 hour time investment, I'd have to value both of our time at $3.33 an hour for the drive to break even with the high shipping quote. How? My pre-labor total was $250.00 or so, right? The high quote was $350.00 plus $60.00 to palletize the engine or $410.00 total. $410.00 minus $250.00 leaves $160.00 of labor to make the drive cost the same as shipping. $160.00 divided by 24 hours is $6.66 an hour, but there are two of us so $3.33 an hour each. I guess I could more realistically call my time what it is worth, $0.00 an hour, and make the copilot’s rate the full $6.66 an hour. Of course if the shipping is the lower figure, I'd have to value our time at a buck and a quarter an hour to break even. I don't know. I need to cipher and figger on it some more. I'm trying to think how to break it down where I have a maximum bid I'd be willing to pay and still pay the shipping but if it went over I'd start thinking of making the trek. I guess if I took the Buy It Now price of $750.00 and subtracted the $410.00 of the high shipping bid I'd get... a bid lower than the opening. Hmm, that didn't work out. What about the BIN minus my drive cost (fuel and food only)? OK that’s $750.00 minus $250.00 or a $500.00 maximum bid. Does that work? No, not really. Well, kind of. If I got the thing for $500.00 and drove up there, I'd break even with the BIN price before getting the engine down here somehow. OK, what I need to do is ADD the drive cost to the BIN price to get $1,000.00 then subtract the $410.00 of the high shipping price to get a $590.00 maximum bid to have it shipped. Yeah, that works. If everyone involved, mom, John, me, and Fifi, agree that this engine is the way to go, then I'll put in a $590.00 bid and plan to have it shipped. If the bid goes over $590.00, but stays under the BIN of $750.00, I'll just buy it and go get it. Unless something else happens along the way, which is quite likely. Well, I just found out I have to be here at work at 0530 h tomorrow because some douche bag is having an 0600 h meeting and can't be bothered to figure out how to turn on a friggin’ video projector. I'll also be baby sitting the Bored Meeting so a rambling and incoherent rant will likely be the outcome. And on that note...