ERICOPOLY

I wouldn't feel comfortable owning the stock, but I like the idea of owning the car. Other ways of making money with less chance of failure (like my BofA shares).

Well, if Eric likes the car that must count for something. I just keep getting lazier and lazier. I had to take two of our cars in to get serviced and it's just a hassle when you get to three or four cars. In this neighborhood you regularly see Maseratis and Bentleys. It's a very strange neighborhood. But now I see Tesla S cars quite frequently. It has rapidly gained acceptance here as a luxury car, where the hoity toity crowd buys cars like shoes. I have a front row seat to see what the luxury vehicle trend is. Sort of like counting rail cars.

You might consider stiffing us on the tip and post a bad review on Yelp.

On what timeframe? I can make 4x just letting the cash compound in my bank savings account.

Justification for buying more SHLD in my opinion. I'm going to buy a lot more now. Yeah, I've been buying too, but I started to do that after the quarter was released and the stock tanked. I'm the dummy that paid $60 right before it tanked. My position is only 4% though. I'm going to ratchet it up quite a bit. 18 million sq ft seems relatively small when they have ~250 million (slightly less given recent sales and spins). I know a lot of the thesis is that 80% of the value is in 20% of the real estate but still seems small 10 million is 7.2% of 250 million, or 36% of the valuable 20% (assuming they are focusing on developing the valuable real estate). So if redevelopment is extracting value, then they are extracting 28.8% of the total value (36% of 80%). I'm not sure how accurate it is to assume 80% of the value is in 20% of the properties. But perhaps there is also wide variation of value within that 20% bracket. Like maybe 50% of the value is in 7.2% of the properties (perhaps they are developing the top third most valuable properties of those 20%).

The first DeLorean rolled off the production line in January 1981, and production was halted in late 1982. Approximately 9,000 were made. (source Wikipedia) The Model S is vastly more successful than this. (EDIT: besides, the DeLorean was a 2 door coupe, and it wasn't reviewed as hands down the best car ever made by Consumer Reports.). That's really the crazy thing. You can put 5 adults in the Tesla, plus 2 more kids in the optional 3rd row seats. This still leaves you with that trunk in the front. And yet the Model S Performance is faster off the line than a Porche Carrera 4S. This is subjective, but I've always found the DeLorean to be very ugly. And no paint options -- only in stainless steel. Some people only buy black cars, some only white. Few would only want stainless.

Care.com We are currently in the same process. We had 4 responses on the first day, interviewed our first today. She had about 10 years of experience, with three solid references from local families. We're interviewing the second tomorrow. So it's all about checking up on those references -- making sure the person is reliable and trustworthy.

By servants, I was referring to a full-time housekeeper, plus a nanny, plus yard workers. People who basically are your full-time employees (the maid and the nanny). $500,000 a year... well, let's say this is in California. Your effective tax rate is probably at least 40%, so you only have $300,000 to spend. Next up, rent is $150,000 in Montecit0 for the house that big enough to include maid's quarters. So you have $150,000 left to spend on your wife, your kids, your servants health care for all, your kids' educations, cars, groceries, vacations. Good friggin' luck!

I think the stock went to $60 recently based on perception that Eddie would make an announcement regarding redevelopment of the properties, then I think that money disappeared rapidly when Eddie made no such comment. I think the stock dropped more because of his giving no information, rather than dropping for telling us something we already all know (that the retailing sucks). This Seritage Realty Trust website make me feel like the wait won't go on much longer. But I'm not thinking I terms of weeks, but rather over the next year.

Justification for buying more SHLD in my opinion. I'm going to buy a lot more now. Yeah, I've been buying too, but I started to do that after the quarter was released and the stock tanked. I'm the dummy that paid $60 right before it tanked. My position is only 4% though. I'm going to ratchet it up quite a bit.

Andreesen: 1) gets started building first web browser: NCSA Mosaic. It's a free web browser. 2) Founded Netscape which builds it's market share by giving away the browser for free 2) Cries foul when Microsoft builds a web browser and gives it away for free to build share. What an asshole indeed!

I like Elon Musk's argument. He basically stated that if the dealers add value (as they claim) then "obviously" Tesla does not have an unfair economic advantage in selling direct. Imagine making Amazon.com illegal because they sell direct to consumers without a brick and mortar store.

No cost advantage in buying from Panasonic? Hmm... does Panasonic have a monopoly in batteries, or is the battery a commodity? What pricing power does Panasonic have? My understanding is that a battery is a commodity and prices will come down. You can make your own, but isn't it more important to make the best car, since they are selling cars and not batteries? Tesla makes the best car. Best electric car, but also the best car of any variety. The absolute best. Someone will come along and sell them a cheaper battery if Panasonic rips them off. Maybe they'll begin making batteries themselves -- but why not let somebody else make the battery to their specs?

I hear what you are saying. But wealth is more of a social status thing. The farther ahead of the crowd you are on a relative basis, the wealthier you are. So if everyone has exactly the same thing (first class healthcare, first class internet), then nobody will feel wealthy. And nobody will have the social power/status of the wealthy person. Take away Buffett's money and he's not a household name, doesn't get invited to the white house, nobody will want his opinion on TV, etc... Wealth is a relative thing. Like it or not, a lot of people are impressed by money. But money doesn't impress anyone unless somebody is obviously head and shoulders richer than the average.

That article makes the important point that tax rate was only 5.5%. More importantly though, servants were cheap. The inflation for labor has far exceeded the CPI. The $500,000 income is adjusted for the CPI to make it "today's dollars". I think they need to adjust it for the cost of hiring a servant, and then we'd be talking about a number well into the millions.

Except that the battery is 50% of the cost of the car so having cost advantages in battery production actually DOES matter. Maybe you believe I said somewhere that cost of battery does not matter? Do you believe Tesla is unable to lower their cost of battery pack?

Justification for buying more SHLD in my opinion. I'm going to buy a lot more now.

Toyota and Daimler are big Tesla investors: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2013/06/01/what-do-toyota-and-mercedes-see-in-tesla-a-bit-of-themselves/ Daimler, for instance, uses a Tesla battery in the electric version of its Smart city car. And its upcoming Mercedes B-class EV, which goes on sale in 2014, will feature a Tesla powertrain. Toyota, meanwhile, gave Tesla a $100 million contract to supply the electric motor, power electronics, battery, gearbox and software for the new $50,000 RAV4 EV. The SUVs are made alongside Tesla’s Model S sedan in a Fremont, Calif., factory formerly operated by Toyota and General Motors GM -2.17%. Toyota sold the plant to Tesla in 2010 for $42 million.

Oh, they don't make the Michelin Pilot Sport tires that go on the performance plus vehicle. So they're not vertically integrated. That's another one to bring up.

- Tesla does not make batteries - these are from panasonic. It continues to come up in arguments as a feature of Tesla's "vertical integration" which is just not true Look at BYD they own the Lithium mine and control the entire chain of production of their batteries- now thats vertical integration. BYD does not make the picks and shovels used to mine the lithium. Nobody is vertically integrated. Tesla makes: Battery packs Vehicles Superchargers Direct sales of cars to consumers (no dealer network) They are vertically integrated. EDIT: Oh whoops,SolarCity builds their supercharger stations, and they buy the photovoltaic components from other suppliers. I guess that's also evidence that they're not vertically integrated.

Their strategy is good. First release the Model S where the competition is at similar price points, and where your customers have multiple car garages. Meanwhile, expand your supercharger network. Later, release the mass market model at 1/2 price when the superchargers network is far more expansive and your target audience has fewer stalls in the garage. I'm a little disappointed in the government. They did the space program, the internet program, and they spend trillions on the military to defend our supply of cheap gasoline. But why not stimulate the economy by using government money to build out the supercharger network under the "if we build it, they will come" mantra. Meanwhile, the supercharger station produce solar electricity -- if they don't come, the electricity can be sold wholesale and the costs will be recovered. So it's zero risk to the taxpayer -- stimulus package that would actually pay for itself even in the event of total and complete failure. Now that would be refreshing for a change. Meanwhile, if it succeeds in jumpstarting electric vehicle industry, we can scale back on military spending.

The issue is that you almost never drive more than 200 miles in a day. Only on road trips. But day in day out, dropping off kids, going to your job, those days you never do more than even 100 miles. So you plug in your car and almost never go to the gas station. Always a full "tank" in the morning" Road trip? Either own a second car (gasoline or diesel) or rent one. And no visits for oil changes and no need to have the vehicle serviced. It's kind of a hassle having multiple cars and keeping up with the oil changes and service visits. The Model S is also the fastest of the sports sedans (faster than BMW M5 to 100 mph) and has incredible storage capacity (due to not having an engine in the front, there is a second trunk in the front). And faster than Porche Carrera 4s to 60mps. And that's a little wimpy car with no seating capacity and no trunk space. The Model S can haul 7 people around (two kids in the rear facing third row seats).

The founder of Netscrape pontificating on Sears.

They have sold zero, zilch, nada in Europe and Asia thus far. (I was trying to be as sarcastic as possible in the original post. ). Supercharger stations only cost $250,000 to build. They just sold a ton of stock to the public. They can build this network!

Incidentally, SolarCity sells a battery backup system for homes to their residential consumers. The batteries they sell are made by Tesla. I wonder how much they cost: http://www.solarcity.com/residential/energy-storage.aspx