The beginning of the end...

[Orv]

Another factor may be that people in the top income tiers have seen *their* incomes increase quite a bit, even though incomes overall have been flat. They've been outrunning inflation and have a lot of spare cash to spend on toys. I bet that's a lucrative market to run a brokerage service in. As toys go a $100k Sprinter is probably both more fun and less likely to draw a negative reaction than a $100k Maserati.

This theory, that high-end vans are seen as status symbols and desirable toys, is backed up a bit by how many of them rarely seem to actually go anywhere.

[rallypanam]

All in all, while a silly idea, $500 ain’t bad. I’ve bought and sold a lot of vans over the years, and now way in hell I’d help someone for $500. Much more involved than that!

[MarinBlaine]

Originally Posted by rallypanam

All in all, while a silly idea, $500 ain’t bad. I’ve bought and sold a lot of vans over the years, and now way in hell I’d help someone for $500. Much more involved than that!

Agreed. This isn't the "end of the world", it's a preposterous business model. No way can this scale into a real business at this price and be anything near effective.

Even more so, the $850 "full service package", including negotiation with the sellers, pre purchase inspection, arranging transport...are you kidding me?

A quick check on Whois.com shows that this domain was registered on 2/13/21 folks. This is a 12 day old website, hardly a real business. And hardly the end of the world as we know it.

The notion that this could ever be a real business at these prices is laughable.

I'd like to propose that we go back to talking about our rigs, adventures and dreams...

Just my $0.02, and with apologies to our friends at thevangurus.com, I wish them the best with their new business.

[attikusfinch]

Like all the other challenges this one will live on

[JohnandMandi]

As we have experienced it, been fulltime in our van for almost 6 years, the trend of vanlife started to wean as soon as the lockdowns began. We do run into the occasional social media pusher but overall most are back home living with one of their parents. What we have seen is a shift from the 20 to 30 somethings to retirees. Both groups don’t stray from connectivity very often but the number of vans, versus other RV types, is substantially higher than when we first hit the road. We’ve also spoken at rallies/expos and, surprisingly, most that identify as vanlifers are actually weekenders. By most we mean greater than 95%. That means fulltime van life is on the decline but under the new definition of vanlife it is still growing...or just a reallocation from other RVs. Same for what is referred to as overlanding.

As for types of people in vans we have met those who are homeless to those who are trust funded with a few self-made millionaires sprinkled about and every conceivable combination in between. The largest bulk are actually middle aged, like ourselves, taking an early retirement before officially retiring sometime much later in life...especially those traversing multiple countries/continents. Where the impression becomes skewed is due to only seeing the younger crowd pushing social media while the rest of us only post for family and friends (a way to keep in touch to prevent worrying). Our accounts are not as flashy, or phony, so we mostly follow each other to capitalize on making sure we don’t miss each other by 100 miles or so. Video has also supplanted the staged perfect picturesque scene so many are either moving in that direction or hanging it up all together, both in terms of social media and vanlife. As things begin to fully open up we’ll see if it’s a downward trend or just the exhale before the second wind.

[kelpie]

It may be the beginning of the end of offroad backcountry solitude as we knew it.

[simplesez]

Very cool post JohnandMandi

[HIGHCOUNTRYMIKE]

Welcome to "SHARK TANK"
Stay tuned to see if anyone will "bite".
Don't miss Mr. Wonderful's response to "vangurus.com" over valuation and ridiculous/ "preposterous" business model".

HIGHCOUNTRY 2003 E350 4X4 SMB 285,000 I may not live in it but I do use it. I will continue to do so until the stock market goes bankrupt.

[Spr]

Great post JohnandMandi.

Regarding the OP I think the smarter model would be to broker the entire sale. Charge a $1,000 listing fee and a $1,000 buying fee which could even offer a one hour consult. Having a clean and user friendly website that would allow the user to search nationwide based on their criteria would be amazing, but unlike RV trader this should be limited to certain van chasis to be more van specific. I would imagine the higher fees should bring more legitimate vans/sellers/buyers to the site. As I’m sure most of you are aware SMB had a similar service for 1,200 which I used to both buy and sell a van and it was brilliant. Every seller was required to pre inspect at a dealer and photos were limited to only 6 or 7 pictures with specific angles (limiting photos keeps the site consistent and is def enough for a buyer to know if they need to reach out or not). IMO that service is what kept our vans values high over the years because we could all call on Lynn for comps and we could continually monitor sales if you wanted to keep an eye on things. Much like the housing market it would be great to have a large portal to view inventory broken down by chasis/home build/pro build/ even builder name etc. To me the OP of van Guru is half baked. I don’t see what someone would pay 500 just for someone else’s subjective opinion. However, it does seem like the beginning of something potentially useful to all of us. The only scary part is the overwhelming amount of vans out there now will inevitably bring down values, but I’m hopeful most owners will hang onto their rigs for years and years while they continue to travel or at least fantasize about traveling more. I’m not sure how this is the beginning of the end. Instagram and geotagging is already taking care of that for us

[Sporkchop]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I hope I'm still around by the time the next generation comes up with #houselife. What a concept! No need for a plug in, or water tank. Always connected to the grid!

I'll be ready to take their money.

funny but true