If you don't already know, The Common Gear is a passion project of mine to transform how enthusiasts track their maintenance and investments in a hobby or classic car. I've been fanatical about record-keeping with all of my cars, even the ones barely worth the cost of a tank of gas. I like knowing how the car has evolved in my care, and I really enjoy sharing that story with whoever decides to own it after me.
Of course, as an entrepreneur, you're constantly wondering if you've made a bad bet or if someone else is going to eclipse you. I've seen this in my corporate work life where good ideas are quickly taken by your peers and passed off as their own. It doesn't typically worry me because my community - my local team - knows where those ideas bubbled up from. There are competitors in this space but I'm not terribly worried about them because flashy apps are often created with little thought given to whether there's a community out there that wants to use it. And as one digital auction site has proven, the community you keep matters more than almost anything else.
Bring a Trailer often gets lauded with praise for being the ultimate auction site. But many of us remember that is not how the platform got started. BaT is a WordPress site that was basically a glorified craigslist blog. There is no app. Yet according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the digital auction house is now a billion-dollar marketplace. In that same article, one of the well-heeled regular bidders on the site and a current University of Chicago business school professor cites two key reasons for BaT's success: building a community of interest and upending the economics of the auction business.
And there it is: community. The economics side of it is obvious but it's the social contract that's far harder to create. It's why in-person auctions have always been a thrill for attendees, who go as much to see the cars as to see old friends. Cars & Bids is approaching it from another angle, which is via the following Doug DeMuro has amassed thanks to his YouTube channel where regular "viewers" feel like they're watching a close friend build an auction business. If you didn't see the thousands of congratulatory comments he received when C&B received a sizable investment and he bought his dream car, a Carrera GT, you should. It's powerful stuff.
For anyone of you reading who knows me personally (or at least feel like you do), I invite you to share your project updates and log your visual records with The Common Gear, or TCG as we call it. We'll keep your data safe and give you a place to go when it's time to sit back and take stock of your project car progress. And when it comes time to sell it, just take your custom URL and drop it into the craigslist ad or the auction listing comments where everyone out there can see first-hand the incredible work you've done.
The shiny stuff matters, but so do the handshakes, fist bumps, and camaraderie that come standard with enthusiast car ownership.