Straw Buying Gray Market Exports

Quote: Pacomartin

Your friend does not seem to have made a very sound decision. I can't believe that shipping a car is cheaper than leasing a luxury car in Europe for a few months.

If it is financed or leased it may even be forbidden.

Okay, so maybe this should go into that Side Hustle thread but I don't know how to find that thread so I'll just put it here:

There was this guy in Seattle who advertised extensively in German youth oriented publications. He basically ran a business that involved a German student buying a specialized VolksWagon Camper Van in Germany, finding a few friends to tour the USA with him. He handled all the paperwork for shipping the van to the USA, insuring it and insuring the drivers, international drivers licenses etc. The only requirement was that the students had to wind up in Seattle, sell that van to him and he would hand them their plane tickets home.

The key point was that this specific model of VolksWagon CamperVan/Truck type thing was not officially available in the United States from any dealer at all.
(No, I have no idea why this was.).
It seems it was a rather popular model and he had no problem selling these vehicles he was letting the German youth buy for him and drive around the country before they wound up in Seattle and formally sold it to him. Until then he was not the owner or the importer of it.

This made his business quite legal and apparently quite profitable, since he would repair and repaint and do some other minor stuff to them before he would quite legally sell it to US citizens.

Quote: Pacomartin

Your friend does not seem to have made a very sound decision. I can't believe that shipping a car is cheaper than leasing a luxury car in Europe for a few months.

Everybody told him that. I think his argument was that the car would have cost about double in Europe and he was considering just leaving it there. The US value of the car about about $100,000. He is like a rich gypsy in that he doesn't have a permanent home but spends a few months somewhere and moves on, making a big rotation between four or five places in the world he likes best.

Quote: Wizard

Everybody told him that. I think his argument was that the car would have cost about double in Europe and he was considering just leaving it there. The US value of the car about about $100,000. He is like a rich gypsy in that he doesn't have a permanent home but spends a few months somewhere and moves on,

Like Nicolas Berggruen who sold almost all of his possessions, except his jet, and lives in swanky hotels. I don't think he even owns a car.

Quote: Wizard

... making a big rotation between four or five places in the world he likes best.

Are any of those places in the third world?