An economist dropped by the other day. To hear her tell it, she was one of those work-experience kids. The economy’s too bad to hire all of them, so the university just tells the bottom 98% of them to wander the streets looking for an interesting fiscal discovery to cover. I guess while she was trying to catch a rat to eat for dinner out in the alley, she looked up and saw my harem of cars.
“I think,” she said breathlessly, while eyeing the packet of Cheese Doodles I had in my hand, “there is room for a unified economic theory of beater valuation.” Maybe if she got published on this subject, the university would realize she actually was a really good undergrad and she’d get a work-experience position where all her classmates wanted to go: Blockbuster Video.
We sat around for a few hours that night, with her asking me questions about various “normal” people vehicles and what I would pay for them. I could tell her frustration was growing, because every single vehicle mentioned - even a Bugatti Veyron, whatever that is - would never move above a grand. Until she mentioned the Lada Niva.
“I would pay eight thousand dollars for a mint-condition Lada Niva,” I said reflexively, before clapping my hand over my mouth. My father had taught me through painful whippings never to give up my real number in a negotiation, and although this hardly qualified, I didn’t know if her dad’s uncle’s nephew’s cousin’s stepsister might have one mouldering under a tree on her back 40 that I had compromised an opportunity on which to lowball.
After that, I rushed her quickly outside of the house. It was good that she was relatively inexperienced in the domain. What if she had asked about the Subaru XT turbo coupe? That was too close.
