5
 
 
 
3:34 PM, Thursday, April 10th, 2014:
 
Exhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale. It was a long day, as usual it turned out nothing like I thought it would, and as of yesterday at 3:51 pm, I am the owner of this, ridiculously nice, DeLorean...
 
 
 
I'll be honest, I wanted the Alvin car all the way up to the moment Andrew was in his car getting ready to meet the dude at 10am my time. I just had a good feeling that the fixes wouldn't be as much as we thought and I would end up saving $2-3k. However Bob talked to Greg in Memphis about the "Bitcoin Car" and just said "Dude, take it. He'll take $21k, take it. It's a known known."
 
...except it really isn't. Alvin is a known-known, it doesn't work. Bitcoin seems almost too good to be true. In it's favor though, is that it was in the news and the owner, Greg, is all over the internet with his car. It's clear he babied it and it would be a hoax of epic proportions if it wasn't running or wasn't real. The whole bitcoin angle is that when he decided to sell it last year he made a site called BitcoinMotor.com and only accepted Bitcoins for it. That got not only his car, but bitcoin notoriety as any institution willing to accept bitcoin as a currency is spotlighted. For those that don't know, bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system introduced as open source software in 2009. The digital currency created and used in the system is alternatively referred to as a virtual currency, electronic money, or a cryptocurrency because cryptography is used to control its creation and transfer. He had some people interested when suddenly the value of bitcoin SKYROCKETED. This of course shook the buyers up a bit and they figured they should hang on to their bitcoins. Then it came down again and the bites aren't happening, so he put the Delorean up on craigslist for sale with dollars or bitcoins.
 
So I called him. The one nice thing about these negotiations is that I'm not negotiating. $20k is where I want to be at and I tell them that up front. Even the Alvin car, I tried to get him down to $12k because it didn't RUN. Bob and I assumed a good $7-8k to fix it at most? But it truly could be more... So the Alvin $14k was a risk... this? Though it's above my number? Isn't a risk. In case you didn't go to the site or it has since been taken down... look at the details on this thing:
 
I mean, I honestly toyed with the idea of buying this and forgetting all about the mod. This is a gorgeous car and honestly, exactly why I didn't want it. The cool thing about this mod is you don't need a great DeLorean, you need one that runs. We're gonna drill holes into it and decimate the inside anyway... so the true value of this Bitcoin Car is lost on me. However, what isn't touched by the Time Machine mod is just gorgeous. I mean this car has been babied. He even made his own flux capacitor like the total GEEK we all are. The only wrinkle for me is that it's not a grey interior like the movie. I know this is silly, because with all the lights and gadgets you actually have to strain to realize that the car is grey - but I know. That's the thing. If you're gonna do this? You take the time to get it right...
 
...but the chances of ever finding a car this nice under $30k is so rare. I've seen several $30k DeLoreans (that haven't sold of course) that aren't even close to this nice.
 
So we talk and talk and the cool thing is Greg knows Bob (bought some DeLorean stuff from him) and knows what we're doing with it and is excited about that. Also loves that he's going to be able to follow his car on The Journey this entire time. I have to admit, that had an influence on me. This is my life. This is a huge story. Hell, even the Alvin guy and the DICKHEAD REDLANDS dude are characters - ya know? I want the person I get this car from to be a part of this story. At some point I want him to come out and see it done, play the minigolf hole. If you are crazy enough to own a DeLorean and put up with all that means? You're in a club. So the fact that he's excited to have me own it and excited about following the transformation just worked for me. And how bad would I feel if I went with the Alvin car - and it did indeed end up being $7k to get it running? That's, uhm, $21k - and it's NOTHIN' like this one. And the other thing? On the black/grey thing? Black actually does look a lot better. The lights shine incredibly off the black, especially at night... it's stunning to me they didn't choose it for the movie. It really is incredible. Of the replicas I've seen the interior is half and half and I have a feeling those with black wish it were grey and those with grey wish it were black. But no one in their right mind would turn this deal down. That is a "priced to move" price and we were ready to wire the money...
 
...and then he said:  "Well, I have someone coming at 6pm Central time with a briefcase of cash. If you can wire the money before 3pm Central I can call that off."
 
Uggggggggggh. We can't wire it until 3:30pm PST which is 30 minutes before the cash dude comes. WTF. He finally assured me that if I wire it and text him a picture of the wire receipt, even though he didn't have the money - he wouldn't take the cash dude's money at 6pm.
 
Fuck me. Guys, this is so freaking scary. I mean, I had alllllllllllll of his info. His license matched mail at his house, his name is on the title... he's on the internet everywhere, we're connected on Facebook. It's as good as it's gonna get on the phone - but I'm not there. But what choice do you have here... you simply cross your t's and dot your i's and hope you aren't completely screwed. At 3:51 the wire officially went through. We called to congratulate each other and this morning he received the funds. I ordered the truck to ship it (though I still haven't heard back - UGH) and Bob will get it next week with plenty of time. I mean when you think about it. I first called Bob at 12:07am Central Time Monday and all of this transpired and was finished at 5:51pm Central Time Wednesday. Unreal.
 
The best news here is the moment this is done? The car is worth $70-$75k because of the condition of the base DeLorean. During the swell of 2015? I can see it getting close to $90k. So, we're not gonna lose money here... but as you know, it is my intention to make enough in the next 18 months that we can keep it. I don't care about profit, I care about taking care of Karen's investment. So far I've done it far better than I thought I could have.
 
Once that was over? Jimmy and I were off to Huntington Beach to see Danny's DeLorean that I had already schedule with him before Bob entered the picture. He doesn't know I've gone with Bob, but when I eventually tell him (he's gonna be my DeLorean guy here in California, no doubt) I don't see him being the slightest bit annoyed. In the end, though I could sit and quabble about quality things here and there or nuances in design of parts, etc? It was the time frame. Bob was also cheaper, but after shipping and the things that Bob doesn't do... it's fairly close. No, the real reason for going with Bob (especially since I CAN'T BE THERE) is because I get it in May with him and December with Danny. That's 7 months for me to make some money, pimp-out the GolfKon events and learn how to make money with this thing in 2015. With Danny, I would've been doing ALL of that during 2015. Now I have a bit of a buffer - and a smaller number to get to to break even. It's a no-brainer.
 
Danny was awesome and I look forward to working with him in the future. Took a little video and threw in talking to Greg at the end when the wire finally went through..
 
 
Man, I am extremely excited about what next month holds, but for now? I get to rest. And by rest I mean work on the car port for the DeLorean and build a website from scratch. But that seems like a DREAM in comparison to what I went through the last 3 days. May I never, ever, ever have to buy a car like that again.
 
Adam