Recognizing Change from Using Broadband in our Daily Lives

My neighbors thought I was crazy, I guess. The rain came and went as I washed the car. One shouted from her driveway and told me her horror story of selling a used car years ago. I kept on washing. My next door neighbor pulled up and commented that I looked like an illustration for an Aggie Joke. I finished the body and went on to the wheels and tires. After two rounds of wiping it down with a chamois skin as the rain continued to sprinkle, I called it quits and went inside, changed into dry clothes, and got the car papers in order.

With a doorbell ring, the first buyers had shown up. They passed, I think because I wouldn't negotiate on price - I kept the price firm because I had another buyer on the way - maybe this would be harder than I thought. But the second buyer didn't even bother to take it for a test drive, handing me an envelope of cash. The paperwork was over in less than 10 minutes, the keys and title handed over and I stood on the front porch and watched and waved as the old Lexus and nearly 12 years of memories drove away. The proud new owner was a 20-something young professional. It felt good all around, but it was a strange day, and it all happened so fast.

This used car selling experience was uniquely different certainly than the nightmare my neighbor described from her driveway, and indeed, from any sale I've experienced in my past - I've sold at least 15 cars in the 34 years I've been driving, and always have preferred to sell them myself than to unload them on the dealer at a steep discount. But this was almost too easy. Too easy, and not just because it was a Lexus. It made me wonder if I couldn't have made another $1000. It was that "seller's remorse" one feels, where one is happy, but there's that little nagging doubt that it was priced too low. I decided to hold on to the happy, and let go of the nagging doubt.

I write about this experience because it demonstrates in a neat little package the wide ranging thoughts I shared on this website on Thursday, summarizing the reading on Internet change that I've done over the past couple of months. That post on my website came just 18 hours after I'd made another post, a short notice on Craig's List to sell the car.

It was all pretty simple, really.

1. Set a Market Price. I researched Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds.com to help me not only fix the right price for the car, but also find out how many other cars like my Lexus were for sale in the area.

2. Market My Product. Then I made the post on Craig's List-Austin on Wednesday night (I have Craig's List bookmarked on my Firefox browser window, in the Local Information folder). No fee, no hassle.

3. Qualify the Prospects. Within minutes, I was getting short emails asking for pictures, asking other buyer questions. With short responses, I engaged in dialogue with those who appeared most serious, continuing into Thursday afternoon and evening.

4. Sell on Value. Out of six potential buyers, four had emerged by Thursday as serious. One appeared sincere, but wanted to bargain the price down, with stories of limited budget. Another was ready to buy for his daughter, but wouldn't be able to confirm until after the weekend.

5. Close the Sale. On to Friday morning, the ultimate buyer said he had to get a loan, and when I called back on Friday morning to tell him that another buyer was on the way over, he said he'd be there in an hour with cash. He came through and got the car.

6. Ensure Legal, Appropriate Paperwork. And in the thirty minutes between wiping down the clean car and selling it, I Googled "Selling a Used Car in TExas" and found a site on the Texas DMV, which had links to forms I would need to ensure a hassle-free sales process and protect against potential liability down the road, which I was able to print up and fill out in minutes.

So if it wasn't Gone in Sixty Seconds, it was more like Sold in Under 48 Hours (in six basic steps).

In my past experience, I've had to list the car in the classifieds or put it out on Auto Trader, first the magazine, then the website, both at a fee. I would be reluctant to tweak my ad, because it would cost me more. Or, I would put less information in the ad, because it would cost me more. It was a hassle for buyers to find me. I've had to put up For Sale signs in the car windows and drive the car around, or park the car in a high traffic area so it would be seen by the masses. It was considerable work to sell a car, for most of my life. I enjoyed the challenge because I treated it like a game, but it was still a challenge to find the right buyer and get the best price. But broadband Internet tools are changing this process, and the role of the middleman looks more and more tenuous because of the tools we can use now.

Craig's List leverages the broadband Internet and a changing society to put people together, without a lot of hassle or other stuff that gets in the way. Craig understands that a tool should be a tool, it should do what it says it will do, and so he has kept it simple. I'd say the same for Google Search. What gifts to us all. I'm sure that any of you who has had success with Craig's List understands what I mean, and by now, who doesn't get Google? Maybe my experience this week was a fluke, but I consider it yet one more demonstration of the way things will be when we become a digital broadband society, because that's what we are becoming here in Austin, bit by bit. This economic activity had nothing to do with the cost of broadband, but contributed considerably to both my welfare and that of the buyer. We both walked away happy. A frictionless economy and harmonious society are two goals of metropolitan broadband but most of the press wants to talk about "free Wi Fi" and "laptops in the park." I think this story is far more relevant to my happiness, and should be written about a lot more.

My next post will be on buying a new car, with the aid of technology, which I need to get to now, or else I'll be walking around the day after Memorial Day, wondering why I sold my car!

We have a vast array of new tools at hand, more every day, as the Internet becomes more widely accepted and more tools are invented. And these tools are changing our daily life experience by removing hassles and headaches. Sure, sometimes the tools that are meant to help us bring even more hassle, but yesterday was one of the good days, and it's worth a pause to consider how much has changed, and how much will change in the days to come.