What Was It Worth

My internet business was appraised by a firm in Pensacola called O’Sullivan Creel www.osullivancreel.com.  It is included below.  It was done in 2002 with a projected worth thru 2006.  TBAworld.com and AutoGalleryOfPensacola.com as well as others were web addresses I owned which directed you to my master site CarCityDirect.com.  TBAworld.com was the name of the first website I built.  It had a following of customers that I could redirect back to the master site.  AutoGalleryOfPensacola.com was also my company but it sounded like a car lot on a street corner.  TBAworld.com didn’t really describe what I was doing.  In my town, Pensacola Florida, we have a strip on Pensacola Boulevard called Car City.  My company Auto Gallery of Pensacola was at one time located on Pensacola Boulevard in Car City. I soon found that I was selling more cars on the internet than out of my lot in Car City.  Car City is the high rent district for local car dealers.    This was around the year 2000 and it was the start of the internet, a new frontier.  I developed a system that would enable anyone to advertise his car in less than 60 seconds.  Through my Extra-net, you could sign in just like checking your account at the bank.  You could upload as many photos as you wanted and it would only cost you only $1 a day per car.  Like MySpace or Facebook which you now have, your ad would be sent out to the world and accessible 24/7.  I was promoting my business to other car dealers and by 2003, at an Ebay convention in Orlando, Ebay Motors recognized me for selling more cars on the internet than anyone else in the world. 

Clients like Pete Moore Chevrolet were paying me advertising and sales fees of $30,000 to $40,000 a month.  I had lots of clients and was working on getting a lot more.  Everyone knew me as the “Internet Guy”.  Other dealers began following me at the car auctions to see what I was buying.  If one of these dealers started bidding against me, I would often let him win that day.  When he could not sell the car on the internet, I would approach him to let me buy it or let me sell it for him.  Most did but even though it was lucrative, I realized that selling the car was not where the money was.  I could sell it.  Why?  Because I developed a special technique.  I had over a million views a month on my website.  I was earning $900 a car in fees for those listed in my “Featured” category.  But this was not where the money was.  The real money was in my $1 A Day Program. 

Currently, in 2009, even in these economically hard times, 100,000 cars at $1 A Day would not have been a problem to maintain with the clientele I had.  In stable economic times, 500,000 cars would be a feasible goal.   That is $500,000.00 per Day!  My focus was on the car dealers of the world.  I could bill them monthly and wouldn’t have to worry about the individual with only one car for sale.  I knew most of the dealers from New Orleans to Atlanta and down as far as Miami.  How many hundreds of thousands of cars are setting on lots right now.   My business was the bridge that could transport the old way of selling cars into the future.  My business was an international virtual advertisement and sales site.  Today, you have businesses like Craig’s List, Ebay, Auto Trader etc…but none of these assist you in the sale of your automobile.  They are only listing sites.  I offered the total package:  hosting, listing, selling.  That is what Pete Moore stole from me.  He stole my business and ruined my life.

2002 Business Appraisal