The Timeshare Beat: Jerry Sikes; With Regard to Reality

“The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.”

- Tom Clancy -

Back in the early 50’s my Pop owned and operated a filling station in our hometown. I am sure that many of you are asking: ‘What is a filling station?’ Well, it’s a cross between a Garage where you could get minor/major repairs done to your auto, have your gas tank filled and get your windshield washed. One side activity at Pop’s station was to ‘ready’ cars for the auto auction that occurred each Thursday about 2 blocks from our location on 6th street. By ‘ready’ I mean that cars were made to look and sound their best so that they would bring the highest amount possible when their turn came to be on the auction block.

The auction mostly provided regional car dealers a method of turning over their inventory, the price paid was considered to be wholesale and all sales were final. Cars for the auction would begin to assemble the first part of the week so that the public could check out what was going to be auctioned off. These inspections were superficial at best because the keys were never in the car thus they could not be started. They could, of course, raise the hood and look at the engine to see if it was clean, bounce up and down on the fender to detect the condition of the shocks and/or springs and kick the tires. (I never did figure out the significance of kicking the tires.) As one could imagine things were not always as they appeared with these vehicles. As they say: ‘looks aren’t everything!’

My uncle Roy Dunn had developed a profitable business buying cars and selling them at auction for substantially more than he paid. Uncle Roy has some associates located in Detroit, Michigan who would locate specific types of cars for him to purchase. These vehicles were always 3 to 4 years old with low mileage. After several of these cars were assembled they would be transported back to Paducah and Pop’s filling station. Upon arrival we would all inspect the load and sooner or later, someone would comment: “Looks like you got a good load this time!’ This observation was directly related to the condition of those cars and that condition could be noted from 10 to 15 feet away.

Uncle Roy would pay me to assist him in preparing these cars for auction. One of the first things I would do is drag the water hose out back, wash off the entire road grime and then really clean the interior. Then I would take an old cloth mop that had nothing left but the knob and go around the car time and time again taping the bottom edge of the body paying close attention to the places along the doors and the fenders. I would tap hard enough to detach any materials that were loose but not hard enough to dent the body with my mops’ knob. Once I had got most of the loose stuff detached from the body I would drive the car around to the front of the garage and place the car on the service lift where I could get at the stubborn stuff with a chisel or a steel brush. Sometimes the muffler and the exhaust pipes needed to be replaced and quite often we had to acquire replacement hubcaps. The idea was to do everything inexpensive to make the car look and sound good; however, most of the effort was directed toward the ‘Detroit Cancer’.

What? You have never heard of Detroit Cancer? Detroit has always experienced long, hard winters and lots of ice on the roads, streets and highways. Back in the early 50’s salt was spread on those by-ways to melt the ice and improve the driving conditions. After enduring these conditions for months each year, even the newest cars began to display the symptoms that salt and moisture will have on metal. Sooner or later little bubbles would appear along the lower edges of the car’s body and on almost all the exposed unpainted metal parts. Shortly thereafter the rust would break through the surface and begin eating away more and more of the car’s body.

In reality there was no cure for this ‘Detroit Cancer’ without replacing most of the lower body. Needless to say that would have been quite cost prohibitive thus my uncle became an expert in the use of body putty. After I had cleaned these rusty areas as best as I could with some water spray, my mop head, scraper and the wire brush, he would use a power grinder and work around the edges until he got to raw metal. Then he would begin filling the holes out the body putty. If the holes were large he would also incorporate some screen wire to provide something for the body putty to adhere. This process would continue until all the rust damaged surfaces on the car’s body had been cleaned, sanded and covered over.

After the body putty that had been applied was smoothed with the grinder and sandpaper, then buffed until one could not detect its presents by feel, Uncle Roy applied the Coup de grace. Somehow he had obtained the original manufacture’s color formula for the paint color and after mixing it he brought out the paint spray equipment and proceeded to paint the entire car body. Once this new paint job was completed and all the surfaces were buffed and polished it was almost impossible to detect where the rusty holes had been. This process was repeated until each of the cars in the latest shipment was ‘ready’ for auction. On the day of the auction these reconditioned creampuffs were delivered to the auction lot about 10 to 15 minutes prior to the cut off thus limiting the time for inspection prior to the actual sale.

Uncle Roy had made these cars look and sound their best, however, over time the body putty would loose all its moisture and become very brittle. A few weeks or months later the owner of this reconditioned car would hit a pothole and the jar would cause the patch or patches to fall out and the subterfuge would be exposed for all to see.

Final Thought

Uncle Roy’s subterfuge was an elaborate effort to disguise the reality of the damage caused by the use of salt on the roadways in Detroit and to maximize the greed factor of the buyers’ acquiring great looking cars at wholesale prices. The old rule ‘Buyer Beware’ clearly applied in this situation.

This type of subterfuge is unfortunately a staple in the Timeshare Industry. Every effort imaginable is used to direct the prospect (be they a new buyer or a conversion prospect) away from reality. Even basics such as the name of the industry have been modified so that the reality of what the product is becomes distorted. What is the real difference between Timesharing and Vacation Ownership?

What we mostly do is play an intellectual shell game with everyone we come in contact with. The following was taken from an article by David Langstroth:

“Have you ever seen the shell game being played? A man sits behind a table shuffling walnut shells and when he stops another must predict under which shell the pea is to be found. It is a very simple game, or so it appears on the surface. It succeeds through the skill and seight of hand of the operator and through the victim’s faith in his ability to follow the movement of a shell without being deceived. There is little profit to be had anymore for the operators of the shell game.

In the world of ideas, however, the game flourishes. The profits can be huge, and the victims are still unaware that there is any trickery about; are unaware in fact that they are even playing the game. It is not shells that are manipulated and shuffled by the operator, but ideas, words, arguments, concepts, statistics. And the trickery is similarly hidden in a smooth and seamless flow… Statistics are massaged, the meanings of key words are tampered with, other positions are subtly misrepresented, related (but not necessarily compatible) arguments are introduced from other areas, digressions abound, and the whole becomes more and more complicated until the operator has baffled his victim.” The article in its entirety can be found at http://www.alexandertec.u-net.com/shell.htm

One of the recent trade journals featured a Question & Answer format article about the conversion process from owning the traditional timeshare week to becoming a points participant. The following are direct quotes from that article.

Q - “What is the key to success at conversions?” A -“We ask current owners questions to update their information on our database and give them a quick survey about their usage. Then, we transition into a conservation that educates them about points. We come across as consultants rather than salespeople.” Q – “How do you overcome objections?” A - “That’s where we come in as consultants – by giving them suggestions on how best to use the exchange system and what type of products they should own to fit their lifestyle.” “Most people say they’re not using their week now because of a lack of flexibility. That leads nicely into explaining how points is the solution to that problem.”

If we must play the shell game then try it at this site: http://www.blackmustache.com/shellgame.html