No Sale

The 1974 Carrera 2.7 had 83 comments, $73,000 on the table, and 2.5 hours left when I dropped the link, and the car didn't sell and the comment got two thumbs. It's the best test we've run.

The right comment

I'd been watching the thread before I posted. @marcoducati — 895 karma, PCA member, owner of one of the 528 matching-number cars — had already written the setup:

"As a PCA member and fortunate owner of one of the 528 matching number cars I am perplexed as to why there seems to be no registry for the US cars."

That's not the pitch for Bordmappe — that's the pitch for the reply.

I posted as a direct response: I'm building a registry like that, and here's this car as an example — factory spec, service records, a living profile tied to the VIN.

Twelve minutes later, @misaak replied. He's been compiling a list of 1974 and 1975 US Carreras for twenty years, has records for 52% of the '74 coupes and 67% of the '74 Targas, has been in touch with the PCA advocate for 1970s Carreras, and invited us to compare notes publicly, right there in the thread.

Two thumbs on our comment, three on his, and the auction closed no-sale — reserve not met at $104,000.

None of the metrics make it look like a win. It was the best one.

What BaT said

After the auction closed, I went back and replied to @misaak directly: would love to give your records an online address, drop me a line at badmotorfinger@bordmappe.com.

The comment didn't get approved.

But then BaT reached out. @marcoducati — the one who wrote the setup comment about the missing registry — had contacted them separately to ask if they could pass along his contact info to me. They did.

I've been wondering when BaT would weigh in. Turns out they moderated the solicitation and facilitated the connection. Both things, same day. That's not nothing.

The guy in Knoxville

One visitor from the test #3 traffic came back three times after that auction closed — six sessions total, just under two hours on the car page. The auction had already hammered, the car was gone, and he kept reading.

I don't know who he is. He didn't email, didn't comment, didn't sign up. That texture keeps showing up — people arriving, reading carefully, leaving without saying anything. The site is doing something. I can see the shape of it in the data, but the conversion events are mostly silence.

Silence from the right people starts to feel like something.

The billboard pitch

I sent the test #3 numbers to the consignor from episode nine and pitched the thing that's been sitting on my desk: a seven-day billboard run timed to one of his auctions, Portland screens while the car is live, Phoenix screens the week after near his shop. The creative is the car. Buyers are already on BaT — this would reach the ones who aren't.

He hasn't replied. The billboard idea isn't dead. It's waiting for the right moment, or the right car.

EmojiCowboy

The 1974 didn't sell at auction. Two days later it sold for $120,000 in a post-auction deal — to @emojicowboy, who had been the high bidder at $104,000 and who signed up for Bordmappe during an earlier test.

I linked the car to his account and sent him an email. The car page already had his name on it. He just didn't know yet.

The inbox I wasn't watching

Back in March, I sent a note on LinkedIn to someone senior at a large sports podcast network. Made the geographic argument for sports, dropped a shared connection as a PS, and then put my head down on Bordmappe for six weeks.

He'd replied the next day.

There's a meeting. It's just TBD.