Why Youtubers are always buying and selling cars

this video is going to be an open and honest look at why Automotive YouTubers are always buying and selling a bunch of cars and why I have to sell one of my favorite cars before we get into the meat and potatoes of this video yes the STI is for sale and no the carbon fiber roof does not leak after the last video that we had of this car Mark took the roof back off of the car and I've had two different body shops come by to give me their expertise on how to do this all properly and we've got it reinstalled better than OEM spec and this thing is sealed better than a submarine I can guarantee it we've poured water all over this car we've had it out in the rain and it does not leak so we're good to go there I feel like if I don't address that into a YouTube video I'm going to continue getting uh DMS on my Instagram we're good you can stop messaging me now thank you and with that being said the car is actually for sale live right now on auction on cars and bids click the link in the description below if you're interested in buying this car unfortunately I wish I could keep the car as it's one of the best cars that I think I have ever had but I just can't cars are kind of like tools for automotive YouTubers and I can't afford to keep this one in my garage anymore if you're curious on more about what I mean by that watch this video in its entirety okay so how are these cars considered tools obviously they're used in our videos but how do we make money off of them well let me break it down for you there's a few ways that YouTubers make money the first is probably the most obvious video ads we get paid indirectly through the companies that run the ads that you see in our videos so the more people that view the ads the more we get [Music] paid we work with companies that pay us to promote their products this is a tough one because we limit who we work with since we don't want to be promoting products that we don't actually think are good or products that might seem random I hope you notice that we don't do a ton of standard ad reads we try really hard to make sure the viewing experience is enjoyable for you so we try to integrate our sponsors as best we can like this video is sponsor cars and bids cars and bids cars and bids cars and bids cars and bids if you build up your brand enough and get good graphic designers you can sell products to your viewers that will obviously net you a profit from them because we don't like overly advertising we haven't done a ton of this so this isn't a big Revenue stream for us essentially a YouTuber's Revenue boils down to these three sources all of these sources depend on views the more views the more money it might look like The Grass Is Always Greener and it's cool that I have so many amazing cars in my garage and when you look at other YouTubers it can get even crazier but in reality I'm at the mercy of the YouTube algorithm with these cars and so are all the other Automotive YouTubers sometimes it seems like YouTubers buy and sell cars every day and here at gears and gasoline we've tried really hard not to do that we really like the cars that we have and we grow attachments to them but we're at the mercy of the YouTube algorithm because we're almost required to buy some of these cars in order to sustain the views that we need to make a living buying new cars on YouTube is almost guaranteed to bring in more views but why is that a lot of people find really good results with new cars Roman would actually talk to me about this man it must have been like 15 years ago at this point the analogy is like if if it's something that would have your neighborhood talking it's going to do really well as YouTube video so you think about like okay in your neighborhood what are the big moments in someone's life that would have the neighborhood talking if they have a kid if they're in the hospital if they get a new car if they get a new house if they get into a car accident there's like this thing inside of us where certain life events will strike an emotional cord and buying a new car is one of them so I think that's a big reason why new car videos uh have a lot of successes for people so new car videos typically do well but we're not all algorithm machines we're people just like you and we grow attachments to the cars that we buy which is why we end up with a lot of them because it's hard to let go all right no hey there well I'm Peter from speed Academy and I'm Dave from speed Academy and we own too many cars what is it about YouTube channels and and Automotive YouTube channels and why why do we all have so many cars that's a great question I I think we need cars to create content ultimately and it's uh you need to like have cars ready to go right so for me we're always shopping like maybe 6 months in advance sometimes and there is kind of I think the personal side of oh if you see a deal come up yeah you see that deal and you're like man you know that might make a good car for a future video series with YouTube you got to be you got to be on the ball there so it's actually kind of the opposite mentality from what you might think somebody that owns a bunch of cars looks Rich from the outside because look at everything that they have but it's actually a scarcity mindset for us we have these cars because we're worried about our content and worried about having the tools that we need in order to create the content that puts food on the table it's actually a bit of a cruel joke because we get the opportunity to own these cars for a small time frame but we know deep down that we can't keep them forever and we have to keep turning them over in order to make content I see you you're uh muted Ben Benjamin all right we're good how many cars do you have last time we talked it was like nine my issue that I'm running into now is I have too many I have too many cars that I'm passionate about and you know I am at the point where like I have to start deciding is it worth the space to keep this car or do I need to let something go to you know get something bigger and better in and where you know where I want to be in the future but you know now in the position that I'm in I have to start making space for content and you know building cars to you know keep what we're doing going videos with new car purchases always perform better it gets more views which means more ad revenue and more money new cars on the channel also means that we can do more with them we can go racing them we can modify them we can road trip them and that means more videos which means more ad revenue and more video sponsorships which means more money with what we do we have to keep things fresh whether it's doing a crazy new build on a current project or it's like bringing something new and fresh in I mean people are clicking everywhere and every app and whatever it's almost you got to keep it fresh over and over and over again that's what social media and what we do is all about it's just harder for us if we really appreciate cars and love cars s and you're buying what you really love it makes a little bit harder for us to let them go this is a business for us and a lot of people relate to us because they feel this like personal connection which is completely fair but they forget that this is our livelihood right so a lot of these cars people get disappointed like oh my goodness you're selling another car but they don't really get the concept of like insurance and everything space taking that up like that needs to be invested into the next project to create content right and I think that's where the the true cycle is like you need the capital the money to continue to do what we do right I mean as a car guy I know I personally enjoy experiencing lots of different things and that's part of the benefit of doing what we do is that we we have the excuse to do that and I mean you're in the same bow why not sell the STI and build something else and experience something else it just broadens your perspective on car culture makes you a better YouTuber if you've experienced more stuff cars don't actually cost that much to own if you're going to sell it again if you buy a car for $10,000 and sell in a year for $8,000 it really only cost you $2,000 cars are depreciating assets so I don't expect to sell cars for what I paid for them but the difference should still not be too bad for a $100,000 car it might depreciate to $80,000 so it would effectively cost me $20,000 to own with a lot of risk if I make 10 videos on that car and get 5 million views I'll earn a whole lot more than that $20,000 that it cost me to own that car so buying and selling cars is kind of my job this is my new to me 1993 Mazda FD RX7 I actually bought that car entirely for parts and how did I let you convince me to buy another Honda I'm back in a Subaru I try to sell as little as possible since I like the cars that I've bought but at the end of the day they're not really mine they're just the tools that I use there's really nothing left that I can do to this car I've already done everything that I can to make it the ultimate daily driver doing anything further would be really expensive and kind of ruin the whole idea of building the perfect daily driver and when the cars get to be super nice and super expensive like this STI with over $100,000 into it well then I get a lot of anxiety it's fun to drive these cars around but it's also stressful stressful to own because of the potential risk of something happening to it stressful to deal with the maintenance on them and parts breaking and stressful to deal with the toxic opinions that follow them in the YouTube comments so why don't we do a giveaway well in order to give away a car merch sales have to be high enough to pay pay for it when YouTubers give away a car it's because they know they can get more money off of selling the merch and the raffle tickets than they can on the car itself for sure I mean like I won't do a giveaway if it if I don't think that we can sell enough to pay for the giveaway car but depending on the car or what we're giving away I would say I've seen anywhere from 2 to 10x what normal sales would be during any given period I've noticed a lot of people uh that aren't in the YouTube space just feel like YouTubers are giving away cars now and that they just kind of expect any car that a YouTuber gets rid of is going to be given away the reality of it is is like we can't afford to do that it's not nobody's giving cars for free it's it's an exchange still happening yeah yeah yeah and it's I think you need to have a certain you know fan base that it's going to be a win-win situation you never want to really like lose your shirt on a giveaway car and I think channels like ours it would be like a 50/50 where you might you know it might make it there and it might not and then what's the point of that where it's for us it's always like look we can sell these vehicles we know what we need to get out of them and it's a much safer play that way I wish we could give away the STI but there's just no way that we could do it realistically I could list the car for sale on Facebook and deal with all the baggage that comes along with that but I'd rather sell the car on auction because I feel like auctions are a more pleasant experience for both the buyer and the seller and on the auction price the price is what it is the car sells for what it sells for and that's what it's worth not some random price that you set and then deal with people complaining that it's too much or too little cars and bids is the best place for this sellers can list for free and the buyers only pay a 4 1/2% fee there's almost half a million registered users with over 16,000 auctions completed it's the best- in-class speed to auction with great live auction moderation and post sale support they also have an 85% sale rate but with my car it'll be a 100% sale rate because I've got it listed with no reserve and it was also founded by a fellow car YouTuber Doug deuro I think that if you're a seller selling on the biggest benefit of cars and bids is that it amplifies your listing so if you put your car in Facebook Marketplace you're pretty much only going to be reaching like local buyers right and it's going to be the type of people who you're on Facebook Marketplace you know like I think we all know what happens but cars and business is National and and an enormous number of people who buy cars ship them and so you end up getting the possibility that someone will see the car somewhere else and be fighting with someone else who sees the somewhere else and then you know bidding goes higher etc etc before I got off the call with Doug we actually got a little distracted looking at the auction listing I'm excited to see the video and to see the auction go live I'm sitting here looking at it right now yeah what are what are your what are your thoughts on it I can't believe how modded this car is biggest regret is that roof that was such a pain and I end up spending over 10 grand just putting that in but it's an oem you know s29 Carbon roof but it was such a nightmare to put in we didn't realize we bought like a cut roof from another car the structure underneath is different cuz it bolts up but the regular s don't have the core support structure underneath for the for the bolts and everything so there's no way to seal it without the structure so we had to weld over all the new brackets and everything to get it to it was a nightmare suddenly we've learned why S 209s cost so much money there actually are there are some it's sad to see the STI go but someone else is going to be very happy to own it and the next owner will probably get more use out of it than I will I wish I didn't need the money for other projects but unfortunately that's reality the money from the sale of this car is going to go towards future projects that you're going to see on the channel so make sure you subscribe so you see those we've got some pretty cool stuff coming also thanks to cars and bids for sponsoring this video if you're interested in buying the car or if you want to see other cars for sale on cars and bids check out the link in the description below we'll see you on the next episode

Channel: Gears and Gasoline

Views: 183,147

Keywords: STI, Subaru, WRX, For sale, cars and bids, youtubers, sell, why, gearsandgasoline

Id: S0M5VUBxY4o

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2024