Slashdot Mirror
Dot-com Liquidator
Stephen VanDyke writes: "The Lexington Herald-Leader has an interesting article on the day of a "repo man". Marty Pichinson doesn't repossess cars or homes, he goes after companies that flopped." Second in a series.
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
Kentucky must be slow on the draw
Are you from Kentucky by any chance?
It's almost certainly a file translation issue. What's missing aren't commas, they're dashes. Rather like the ? we sometimes see for apostrophes, except they disappeared completely.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Yep. Right here.
--
Well, actually pulling you over might not be allowed (I think there might've been constitutional questions about it), so what these states do is have roadblocks specifically to check if people are wearing seatbelts. Which is basically the same thing. In some states this program is called "Click It or Ticket."
Cheers,
How about doing crossword puzzles? That's how I pass the time while I'm driving.
About the article, it's nuts to blame the economy for guys like this knocking on people's doors. It's more about people getting realistic and seeing that quarter-after-quarter some of these goofy web ideas were losing tons of money. It's about one too many toothpaste.com-like sites getting millions of dollars in VC money before people started to finally get a clue.
Cheers,
What about the repo men who repossess cars?
My life has been skewed by TV
Karnal
Well, there is a cleaner in Pulp Fiction - Mr Wolf - he comes in to deal with The Bonnie Situation after Marvin gets his face blown off.
-- Do You Drive A Ford, Or Want To ? All Ford, All The Time - FordTalk
Anyone know of a website where us cash-poor entrepreneur/students can pick up one of these computers?
moderators: please mod this question up so we have a better chance at getting answers
The thing is that seatbelts reduce fatalities by 40% (even without airbags) in a crash. It's too huge a number to ignore.
The dot-com fire sale 'pennies on the dollar' is a falacy. Most of the equipment for auction is old and prices are higher than you would pay for ebay. I tried to add some equipment to our office, guess what there is even a shortage of good used furniture!
Given the lifestyles of so many dotcommers, I wouldn't be too suprised if some of them have the bodies of 4 aliens hidden in their car trunk...
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
IANAL, but I'm betting that this depends on the privacy agreements the failed company made. If the company was good about privacy (many are not), they would probably be able to sell the list only once, and with restrictions on the buying company with regards to how they use it.
just really hilarious. i'm just saying.
Judging by the lack of certain bits of punctuation, the Lexington Herald-Leader needs to use The Demoronizer. Badly. Not everyone uses Microsoft.
From the script:
Miller: See? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.
For the full script, see http://users.erols.com/bobcan/repo/script.html . One of the better Alan Cox films, by the way. Oops, I mean Alex Cox.
--Seen
"I used to be a dilettante. Then I thought I'd try something else for a while."
Not unless he raises a mess of money on a fantasy shot at the public equity market, like his "customers." His role helps keep business out of chapter, everybody out of court, and to maximize the return to the creditors. It's an honest business, if not a "specialty" I'd choose. The evil part is in the waste and foolishness he's seen, not his contribution to it!
Sherwood has used www.dovebid.com, an auction house; I also heard that the deals aren't that sweet, but it probably varies by the type of equipment. Aeron's have gone for 50 cents on the dollar at some auctions; you might be able to get something less famous for a better price.
yeah I noticed that.
how retarded.
oh come on, this type of speech is rampant in journalism and [american] liguistics today. Ever hear things like, "The Macedonian Government said Milosevic could be extradited ...", "The United States extends its deepest condolences to the families of the soldiers killed in action", etc, ad infinitum. Lots of journalists put words into non-existant (in that they only exist as an idea in someone's conception of reality) entities' mouths, this is only the same concept abstracted to a degree you haven't seen before.
---
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
I would. Why? I want to live. Fuck "the law", for me it's self preservation.
---
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
Remember the recent riots in Cincinatti? The ones that got started when police shot a black man who was running from them? Does anyone know why they shot him?
It boils down to this: he didn't want to wear his seat belt.
Read the rest of it here: "... Of course, it wasn't quite that simple. He had received several seat-belt violations and hadn't paid any of his tickets. He had refused to respond to court orders. So, when they pulled him over on that fateful day, all the police knew about him was that there was a warrant for his arrest. They didn't know at the time that it was for seat-belt violations.
As for the man, we don't know what he was thinking, exactly, but he clearly didn't want to be arrested by the police. He took off in his car and led the police on a high-speed chase, which ended in his own death when the police thought he reached for a gun and shot him. He died over the seat-belt law."
also check out http://www.politicshurt.com---
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
www.teslabox.com
We very much *do* have the right to stop him before somebody not only gets their car 'distroyed', but their kid run over.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
I had read the message wrong, my bad. :D
Too many dot-com flop stories
I don't get paid to write stories for a publication in a mid-major market. When I do, I'll consider checking my grammar.
Read my plan to save the Bengals
I'm a Lexington resident and that's a typical article for the Herald-Leader, unfortunately its one of the better papers in the state, other than a few of the Local papers. What's sad is that the college paper that feeds the Herald-Leader,The UK Kernel, is worse.
Read my plan to save the Bengals
Wow...
That was pretty funny how you changed the subject of the original post. (One that frankly made sense) In fact you are a comedic genius.
Or in all actuality.. AN IDIOT!
I am applying for one of those jobs tomorrow morning.
I expect the amount of components like this from dead dotcoms will accumulate en masse on ebay within the next coming months. Woohoo!
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
I hate to see stupidity
Well, as long as you keep your mirrors facing the ground, you should be all right...
Am I the only one here who can't stand all these pretentious fucking slashbots, without an iota of buisness knowledge in them, try and go around and spout shit like they're Alan fuckin' Greenspan? Wake up, asshole, you couldn't tell the difference between a successful buisness plan and one bound for failure if the Gods themselves painted you a fucking sign.
--
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
Dell Computers... Pentium 4 windows machines. AMD linux boxes must go for at least 40 cents on the dollar.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
From the movie: "That's why there ain't a repo man I know who don't take speed" (Or something to that dramatic and grammatically frightful effect)
Lurking in the desert
Is there a web page that tracks the web of companies and their officers/board members so you can see what the people on the board of a given company have left in their wake ?
It all works together. In Pulp Fiction, Harvey Keitel plays Winston (?) Wolf, who does manage to clean up the situation (read: car with dead body & splattered brain matter) Jules & Vincent get into. I forget which came first, PoNR or PF. Keitel's characters served the same function, but I liked Mr. Wolf much better.
Not A Sig
hope not...
Hello eBay. :-)
A lot of repossessed stuff ends up on eBay, because it's usually the fastest way to dispose of equipment from failed dot-coms.
What I don't understand is that we already have laws that cover cell phones. Anyone ever heard of Reckless Driving or Reckless Endangerment? These are what you are supposed to be cited with if you get into a wreck, be it because of a cell phone, a Big Mac, a CD Player, or your girlfriend giving you head. Why do we need more pointless laws, when we already have laws on the books that cover these violations.
btw...you are 8x more likely to get into a wreck adjusting your CD player than talking on a cellphone. How long before we aren't "allowed" to listen to music while we drive?
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
In Michigan, the law recently changed. The police can now pull you over and ticket you if you aren't wearing a seatbelt. Before, they could only ticket you for not wearing a seatbelt if they noticed it after pulling you over for something else.
Is there a site where this stuff is usually sold? Or is it just if you live in the surrounding area?
No, but that sounds like a great idea for a new Web-based company!
I'm gonna stay up all night writing a business plan!
Living better through chemicals
Well, unless you are in Brooklyn, OH (near Cleveland) or New York state, it isn't illegal. A few other places are thinking about outlawing it, but haven't yet.
Furthermore, It's not illegal even there to use your cell. It's illegal to hold it up to your ear while driving. Hands-free stuff is OK. Makes phone sex easier.
- Dan I.
The grammar in this article is atrocious. I wonder if he's reposessed all of the Herald-Leader's commas and parentheses.
This is not a Fugazi
Upon investigation of the original article printed in the Lexington Herald Leader on sunday, one will find dashes in their correct places. This is clearly a document translation issue as the article printed in the actual paper is punctuated correctly.
meta repo man is always intense!
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
IANAF (I am not a farmer), but I was a rancher for a few years before I got my start in computers. Ranching and farming is some of the hardest work on earth, starting at 4AM, and ending at sundown. The average rancher makes half of what the average dotcommer made, and works twice as hard. I don't pity myself for having to bail myself out of problems I created, I pity people who break their backs, only to have their living taken from them.
If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy
Believe it or not, many people can get by on catnaps. Two 2 hr naps interspersed between that 22 hr day could do it...
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
It's more about people getting realistic and seeing that quarter-after-quarter some of these goofy web ideas were losing tons of money.
That is not entirely true. Even the solid operators are having trouble getting funds these days. Also, many of the good operations relied on the bad ones as customers, and they are drying up like spilled bong water (the moisture goes away, but the stench hangs around if you don't get the mop out and clean it up). On the other hand, I do agree with your basic premise, and clearly the reason "the good ideas" are having problems is due to all the failures that sucked the wells dry before them.
I guess my major point is the economy IS bad, even the good operations are having trouble as a result.
The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon - Douglas William Jerrold
What's the use of the truth if you can't tell a lie sometimes?
You mean, stolen. If a repo man can do it without being seen, so can a thief. It must suck to have bad security. Normally repo men do not work in hiding, but officially ask whoever runs the place to be handed over the machine.
Harvey Keitel played The Wolf in Pulp Fiction. He was the guy in the tuxedo that went over to Jimmie's house to direct Vincent and Jules on how to clean up the bloody mess in the car and where to dispose of the remains. But then again, you probably knew that.
I imagine you could find their background with a search of, eg SEC filings and the like.
This isn't necessarily scummy. It's possible that directors are opting to wind companies down while there's still a chance of paying back creditors, staff redundancy, and maybe getting investors some pennies on the dollar, which is the most ethical decision the board of a failing company can take.
I can't really compare the hardships of farmers seeing their family business grow steadily downhill to the things happening with some of these dotcom chuckleheads.
Yeah, when farmers screw up there are crop subsidies to bail them out. How can that be compared with the dot-commers that actually have to suffer?
The first Slashdot story, which was about repossessing automobiles, was based on an MSNBC article, but the link to that is broken and searching MSNBC for "repo man" doesn't find it either.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Hundreds of failing companies, eager for revenge on the employee that aired their dirty laundery in public and anxious to block issuance of that severance check are currently frantically searching their employee records for "Coward, Anonymous NMI"
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
At least I got "severance" right.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I am almost sure that it was George Jr (aka Dubya) that was the head of it, but it could have been another son (Are ther any others besides Jeb?)
The FSLIC had not kept their insurance requirements strict enough, and it was actually the FSLIC playing some kind of games with the S&Ls to try to keep the FSLIC in business, but instead went belly-up and took the S&Ls down with it, which in turn took the Family farms down with them. Some even said that the big agricorps socially engineered these weaknesses into the FSLIC regulations to make them able to expand by assuming ownership of all the family farms for pennies on the dollar.
I know this happened, I remember the local (I lived in a small Nebraska town at the time this was happenning, so I am absolutely sure it was a Bush kid in charge) newspaper reporting on what was going on, and we had to report on it in High School. They didn't go into the conspiracy theories, of course. But it's way weird that finding info on this on the net (At least for me) has been pretty much undoable.
No, I do not have Internet access :)
Oh, BTW, I invented UFOs :)
C'mon, where in the song did they mention such vital-to-the-job things such as:
- golf clubs
- electric dart boards
- plastic helmets
- squirt guns
- "Zoho" wine
I can't really compare the hardships of farmers seeing their family business grow steadily downhill to the things happening with some of these dotcom chuckleheads.Cheers,
Why don't you read the article... its NOT the same guy, he's in a completely different line of work.
The only difference is that the banks were smarter than the VCs (lending instead of buying) and probably got a better return on their investments when farms had to be liquidated to pay off debts than the VCs get when these companies are stripped and sold for parts.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
When I took drivers ed. I remember that we learned the rules for when cops can pull you over. Randomly checking for seatbelts was listed as illegal. They have to have a reason to stop you and pull you over, and if they notice your seatbelt isn't on then they can give you a fine. (This was in WA, may have changed and may be different in other states).
As for your statistics: beware the semi-attached figure. Accident rates involving cellphones are going to be under-reported because nobody is going to admit to a policeman after an accident that they were breaking the law by using their cellphone at the time.
And remember, this guy was also tapping on a PDA on his leg, fielding a pager strapped to another leg, and fumbling with a clipboard of directions. All without enough sleep.
An accident waiting to happen.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
Okay, this guy is clearly a middleman; buying the assets in bulk and reselling them. I'd be interested who he's selling to. For example, I'd love a deal on a great office chair, but I'm only going to buy one of them. Who sells this lightly-used stuff? Thanks.
Kinda, it's complicated.
In Nikita, Reno plays a character called the cleaner, who is the expert called in to clean up a assasinations. Reno totally stole the scene and Besson expanded the character to make Leon.
Meanwhile, Keitel plays the same character in the US remake.
Then, Tarantino writes someone called Mr Wolf into Pulp Fiction whose job is the same - cleaning up botched crimes. And casts Kietel in that role, although the two characters are very different.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Ohhhh but I know a troll when I see one, and your not even a good one.
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
I go through the Globe looking all the time. We're small, and anything we can get cheaper lets us stretch our equipment budget. I ended up picking up a slightly used machine or two up on Ebay because you can't find these auctions listed anywhere.
It's a shame too, because as a startup in this climate, getting real hardware cheaply would be a Godsend...
Alex
If the company doesn't want to build its business on a dead company's business, they may not need to buy it. He may license the software to them (could even be in a BSD or more liberal license, a worldwide use license), then license to another firm, who knows. It's IP, not real property.
Nice of you to call someone a slimeball because of his profession. People extended credit to these companies that went under. He tries to get them their money, and gets paid for his service.
Not a slimeball, everyone comes out ahead.
Alex
he looks like Emilio Estevez, thrives on tense situations, and had some radioactive aliens in the trunk of his car.
I'm going to go get a "drink."
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Like the characters in the 1984 movie Repo Man, Pichinson is always intense. When he drives, he cradles his cell phone with his neck, taps on a hand-held computer on his right thigh and stares at a Blackberry e-mail pager between his legs.
*screeech* Crash!
air and light and time and space
You mean, stolen. If a repo man can do it without being seen, so can a thief. It must suck to have bad security. Normally repo men do not work in hiding, but officially ask whoever runs the place to be handed over the machine.
Yup, most repo men will be fairly upfront (especially with something "owned" by a company and not an individual) and present their "warrant of reposession".
Warren Buffett said it correctly: many of these "bubble companies" were designed to make money off investors, not for them. Serves them right that they're toast.
sulli
RTFJ.
Indeed. We pay $B every year to maintain severe overcapacity in the farming business, because of the sentimental attachment to family farms. Fortunately we are not doing the same for high tech (except aerospace). Let's keep it that way.
sulli
RTFJ.
Which is a scene-for-scene remake of Luc Besson's French file La Femme Nikita.
Also, Besson directed 'The Professional' starring Jean Reno and a [soon to be considered] attractive 12 year old girl named Natalie Portman.
Forgive me if there is a 'cleaner' in Pulp Fiction as I took this kharma-whoring opportunity to mention Natalie Portman in a post.
As long as we're pointing out similarities between farms going under and these companies, part of the reason that many family farms went under more recently is that for quite a while farm land was very seriously overpriced - to the point that you couldn't realistically buy a farm and then expect to farm it profitably and make your loan payments. This however, did not stop people from trying. Some bought it planning to hold onto it as an investment. After all, its gone up so far, why shouldn't it continue? This is somewhat parallel to the stock prices of these tech companies - overpriced beyond what could be justified, and when it finally came down it came down hard and a lot of people got burned.
Why?
If the day ever comes that the Repo Man has to sell off IBM's stuff, maybe I can pose as an employee and buy Big Blue off of him for cheap. Then, I will REALLY have bragging rights on SETI@home :)
Yea, we get an article about how some guy thinks he's hot shit and tops at his "biddeness". Like this guy's ego is somehow newsworthy.
To clue anyone in, when you hear someone brag like the repo man does in this article it is usually a sign of total incompitence not just being a jackass.
I was all sympathy for Marty and his sad, sad job, but when I read:
He leaves early and dashes toward his car. ``I feel like I've just started my day,'' he says. Actually, his day started at 3 a.m., and he will get home at 1 a.m.
I just had to think that, no, this is impossible without drugs. Who knows what kind of stuff you need to make the job enjoyable?
-- sigs are like parking spaces - all the good ones are occupied
No offense, but don't you have Internet access? A quick Google search ("FSLIC Bush son") confirmed my memory. Plenty of hits. No sign of a cover-up. I mean, yeah, the Bushes are dirty money, and I hate like poison the fact that the Shrub is in the Oval Office, but c'mon! There're plenty of *real* reasons to dislike him; why muddy the waters? If you want to spread conspiracy theories, you can make them a lot more credible by using the correct facts where readily available. Just a tip. Oh, BTW, I've got some great photos of Yeti and UFOs that I can sell you, if you're interested.
Hey, it's eVulture, from Doonesbury! :-)
I don't see why this should happen. Particularly if I am the shareholder of a company I want to know the background of the board members. I think it's reasonable to be able to find out which companies they've been on the board of in the past.
-- ;-)
Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
The ECONOMY leaves wrecked companies in its wake? I have news for the author: the internet has spawned the greatest percentage of *the stupidest* business plans in all recorded history. Even con-men were on better ground then alot of these internet firms ...
I hate to see stupidity
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
If not, he will be soon...
Our main offices were closing, and we had to pick up ALL the equipment from these people. It was sad, the only people left were a few admins trying to close up shop, and a few bean counters trying to inventory everything. It was easy to see why this office closed. I mean who the hell needs a 10 ft mahonany, and bronze plaque with your logo on it, in the loby when you're an internet company!? The equipment we got from them was top of the line. Their were many racks of stuff that was never even opened, and their were 21 inch monitors everywhere. Considering that most programers at our office use 17 inch monitors and p450 systems, we could see why this division had run out of cash so fast. It's funny, we always thought we were the red headed step child in the company, but it turned out that our division was the only one making money. I had no problems getting the equipment from those over paid, and over perked people.
The blueprint machine was in a room in the center of the engineering building. There were two entrances to the building. To go from the front entrance to the blueprint machine room, you would have to go past the office of one of the company owners, and the secretary, and a couple of engineer's offices.
To get to the blueprint machine room from the back door, you would have to go past my office, and the offices of four other programmers.
All the desks in all the aforementioned offices faced their doors, so anyone working could easily see anyone who went down the hall.
One day, the machine was repossesed. It happened between 11am (when someone last used it), and 1pm (when someone tried to use it, and found it was gone). During that time, none of the people in any of the offices I mentioned above went to lunch.
No one saw anything. Evidently, at least two people managed to walk in, go past several people, and carry the machine out, all without being seen.
"We all say so, so it must be true!"
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
By John Mellencamp:
The crops we grew last summer weren't enough to pay the loans
Couldn't buy the seed to plant this spring and the Farmers Bank foreclosed
Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land
He said John it's just my job and I hope you understand
Hey calling it your job ol' hoss sure don't make it right
But if you want me to I'll say a prayer for your soul tonight
-----------------------
-----------------------
Stay in school, kids! Peace out, Dubya