Steve Hoffacker's Sales Quips

I finally saw gas break the $3 mark here in Florida today. That was for premium, but regular gas is propably only a couple of weeks away from getting back to $3.

I know this makes the gas station owners quite happy. Those "3"s were just taking up too much space in storage.

As long as we put up with the excessive number of local blends (57 currently I believe) instead of demanding that there just be one or two, these seasonal spikes are going to continue unchecked. A little local drilling and increased refining capacity wouldn't hurt either.

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To learn more about my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

You read right. It's our fault.

But you say we didn't have anything to do with it.

Here's my take on the oil and gas issue. First, oil is a commodity - limited supply and distribution. Gasoline is a product.

Can we have virtually a limitless supply of oil and gas? Absolutely. Can we make synthetic oil? We already do.

If we start treating oil as a product - that it can be produced at will, that it can be manufactured, that it can be obtained from more than one source, and that the game is wide open for competition - we'll fix this unbridled run-up and price instability. Oh, and don't forget offshore drilling because the Chinese won't.

Back to us. We - through inaction - permit Congress to allow states (and this is not a states rights issue) to determine gasoline blends for their states and as a result we have 57 (like Heinz) blends of gasoline throughout the year. We have one type of electricity (while we may produce it different ways). We need to have one type of gas. We don't let states choose different recipes for bread and milk. Set the standards if you like on that one blend and then go with it. Have 3 grades if you like, but even that's not necessary if all engines were designed to burn the same gas.

We allow gasoline to be taxed like there is no other source of tax revenue. That compounds the issue. Gasoline, as a product, is no different today - other than some additives - than it has been over the years. It should sell for under a dollar and has as recently as just a few years ago.

We act like imported oil is all we can get. We if act like we don't need it at all, see how rapidly the prices fall.

By inaction and default, it is our collective fault that gas prices sail right back up at 10-25 cents a day until it gets to a manipulated level that a few people want to achieve.

Unfortunately, too few people really understand this.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

It's been a few months since oil and gas has been much of an issue. Both prices fell, and gas was below $1.50 a gallon in many places (not in our area - not even close). Then gas prices creeped back up to the $2.00 mark, fell back, and surged ahead.

In the Tucson area, gas is still available in the low $1.80s and you can find it for over $2.50 a gallon in some markets.

When gas was bordering on the $2.00 mark it would go up a couple of pennies and then fall the same amount. or more I witnessed a 10 cent increase one day and a 10 cent decrease the next. This kind of market response is tricky if you buy on the day it goes up, but it's relatively stable. You know that market forces will prevail and gas prices will remain basically the same over time - rising or dropping a little.

Now, with no big runup in oil procing - but with the Memorial Day weekend just over the ridge, gas prices are really taking off. Oil actually fell back over a dollar today from its midday high and closed under $59 a barrel.

How can gas increse over 20 cents in one day? Where was the market force that caused this? Guess I missed it, but I long for the day in a couple of weeks when that price drops by a quarter in the same day.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Ever notice that the lowest price is not always the best deal? This afternoon I needed gas, and I had seen a place this morning that was reasonably priced so I figured I'd stop there on the way home.

On the way to place I was intending to go, I saw another station for a couple of cents less so I changed lanes and made my way into this station. It wasn't busy. The first pump had a bag over the nozzle. The next pump said that it wouldn't accept credit cards. Went to another island. That pump said "no gas" - as did the others I could see. No wonder it wasn't busy.

That trip to save a couple of cents a gallon actually cost me in wasted time - what appears to be a good deal may not be.

Well I got my gas at they place I originally intended to stop. On the way home from there, I saw a couple of more stations with gas a few pennies less per gallon than I had paid. Interestingly there were no cars. It was hard to tell from driving by if they were open - perhaps not.

The lowest price isn't always the best choice.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, sales tips, insights, or strategies, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my other blog homesalesinsights.com. © Steve Hoffacker, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Last week I had a post about the declining gas prices, and this morning I received comment on that post from Karl Peidl in New Jersey. He stated that gas prices had fallen to $3.17 in his area and was speculating about the possibility of gas going below $3.00. From what I hear, that is a distinct possibility. In our area we have a long way to go before that happens, however.

Some time ago, someone lead me to the gasbuddy.com site, and I include a map of their county-by-county pricing across the US on my Home Sales Insights blog. I've been watching the top category drop to near $4.00 a gallon, so I checked it after Karl's comment this morning. Sure enough, for the first time in many weeks, the top category (which mostly just is noticeable in California and the Northwest) is "$3,99 and above." $4.00 is no longer being shown!

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

This is a pleasant change of pace to be able to discuss gas prices as they are receeding instead of soaring.

I noticed yesterday in the space of just a few miles a difference in the range of gas prices of $.25. When the gas prices were way above $4.00 there wasn't much variation between stations. Yesterday I saw a low of $3,89 to a high of $4.14 (guess they hadn't seen the memo).

Back when gas was poised to go over $4.00 for the first time, hardly anyone wanted to be the first to break that barrier. As a result, many stations kept their regular at $3.99 while their other grades marched on past $4.00.

Competition is great. Isn't is great that people can determine a price that want to compete at? Free enterprise at work.

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

Last week, before the gas prices started to trickle down, I filled up my car for $4.08 a gallon – the lowest price I could find without driving all over town. Then I let my son take the car to Orlando for a few days. He got gas there for $3.89. When I drove my car last night it seemed happier, smoother, more energetic. I think it likes the lower prices, too.

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

As if Congress couldn’t foresee an energy management issue brewing and then just stood around and got in the way by continually denying ANWR exploration and not encouraging new refineries, off-shore drilling, wind farms, and nuclear plants, their current absurdity is to raise the federal gas tax by a dime – not a penny or two but a dime! Aren’t prices high enough already?

Read our lips: no new taxes!

I don’t know if this is one person, a group, or a large contingent of legislators, but this kind of indifference to our country harkens back to the Boston Tea Party days.

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

Wow, I filled up at the gas station today - or rather topped off - for the same price it's been now for over 2 weeks. I now fill-up after every trip of 50 miles or so when I used to let the needle get into the red zone before filling up. Part of my change in policy is a hedge against increasing prices - which remarkably haven't moved recently - and part of it is to avoid such a huge number of a complete fill-up.

Oil hit another record today, which I think is a record in itself - so many consecutive days of hitting new records.

Kind of numbing isn't it?

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.

Finally, I was able to find a gas station that would sell me gas for over $4.00 a gallon. It took a lot of looking. No actually, I ran out of stations that had it for under $4.00. Many stations tried to hold the line at $3.99 for several days, but they gave in and broke the $4.00 barrier.

I thought it would feel different than it does - maybe that's the problem here. We've already been conditioned that $4.00 is no big deal.

All I can say is look out for the day when oil breaks the $100 mark on the way down - and all indications are that this day is coming, and maybe even sooner than we might think.

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For more information on my coaching services or sales tips visit my website stevehoffacker.com or my blog homesalesinsights.com.