Distractions.

Maybe, “distractions” is too harsh a word to describe wishful thinking. This market recovery is really no different from others in the past. Activity was down for an extended period of time. With little transaction activity we had lower prices. For a while it seemed as if you could just put up the gone fishing sign. The phone did not ring.  During this period of dormant activity certain planes for sale seemed like a screaming deal; almost even as if there must be a mistake. Especially when they did not sold in the first moments they appeared on the market. Call them motivated sellers, call them desperate sellers, call them real sellers given all of the external forces in the prevailing economy. Then finally a few people stepped up in the middle of an awful economy and bought the offerings and made remarkable buys.

Now jump ahead to the recovery of the market. The time when buyers start to amble back on to the market playing field. They are drawn back in by what is perceived as the bottom of the market being recognized. By the way that bottom is almost always above where the few desperate sellers were forced to sell in the middle of the downturn. Content with the prices albeit higher than the desperate offerings, buyers start to buy. So what is the distraction or the wishful thinking in a recovering market? This week alone I have had over 10 calls from people who have told me my current recovery period offerings where priced too high. They go on to quote specific serial numbers and manufacturer offerings. They tell me they have special inside information about these offerings. Some of the calls even came attached to low offers that were sent to me for planes I have for sale!

We take the time to check out each and every one of these claims. It is critical that we have the most accurate market intelligence since this is first and foremost what our sellers as well as buyers are looking to us to deliver. Not one single case of these reported pricing calls was correct. So in at least 10 calls and emails telling us about the deals of yesteryear, prices that seemed too low even buy the worst of times pricing standards was actually correct. Now let me go back to the title of this blog. I am not sure that the word distraction isn’t just perfect for this phenomenon. You know the old saying if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Well here we are with information that just may be too good to be true!