#754 Getting gas just before the price goes up

It's getting pricey out thereHere’s how it all goes down.

Well-dressed fatcats sit around a dark, mahogany table in the boardroom of a nondescript highrise deep in a dense metropolis on the coast of an exotic country. Anonymous and alone, they sip scotch, share pictures of new yachts, and make plans to jack gas prices for the long weekend.

Cuff links clinking on crystal glasses, celebratory cigar smoke filling the room, the gas execs laugh deep belly laughs, high-ten each other, and then file into limos to take them back to the airport. And of course, just before they leave, everyone does a shot of high-octane gasoline to keep the memory fresh and the evil juices flowing.

At least that’s how I imagine it.

After all, gas prices bob up and down and up and down and seemingly rise up whenever you cruise up to fill up for the weekend. We all know it’s a constant game and a constant battle.

But that’s why there’s something fun about watching those prices drip and drop ever so slowly throughout the week and then pulling in to fill your tank just before they zoom sky-high again.

Honestly, when you nail it just right you walk away laughing, patting the extra three dollars in your pocket and daydreaming of how you might spend it this time. Lottery ticket, windshield washer fluid, maybe some beef jerky for the ride home. Either way, you’ll be sitting pretty when you cruise by the station on a full tank tomorrow and notice the prices are hiked back up.

Bottom line, man: you came out to play the Gas Game this week.

And you won.

AWESOME!

Let's remind folks what we're playing for herePhoto from: here and here

27 thoughts to “#754 Getting gas just before the price goes up”

  1. Wow you have touched a nerve on this one with me. First of all you are so right. Victory is sweet when it in fact does happen this way. My problem is I always wait one hour too long and usually and up paying a cent or two more. Arrrg! I totally picture your opening scene though with all those millionaires sitting on their cushy rumps giggling as we pay more and more. So much sweeter when you do win! Great fun reading every day.

  2. Thanks for reminding me that I forgot to buy gas before the prices just went way up. Haha

  3. In the days before Lord Cheney and Emperor W forcefully took over the earth (or at least the part of it that contained the oil), the price of gas was determined strictly by supply and demand. And things were well. Prices jumped maybe 15-20 cents between Memorial Day and Labor Day (or, late May – early September for my non-American friends).

    But sometime around 2002 or so, the Lords of Evil started experimenting. Testing the limits of human stupidity. Prices in the US rose a dollar in the summer. Then two! Then 2.50! How high will prices go before people buy electric cars or ride bikes?

    And they still don’t know. Some people even got second and third jobs, that they had to have gas to get to, TO PAY FOR GAS!!! Man, people are dumb.

    But remember this time last year? There was a point where I paid over $4.40 a gallon. Today, I got it for $2.36. So things are getting better. A little.

    1. totally off topic, but it makes me incredibly happy that your username links to the BAWLS website. lol.

    2. theres a gas station that closed down in my hometown,the price of gas when it closed still remaining on the sign-$1.06- sometimes i drive past and see some old couple in an r.v. trying to fill up and looking around all confused. it cracks me up everytime.

    3. Thank you for that clear up for us non-americans. i dont think anyone does that! and $4.40!!! and thats in AMERICAN dollars too! Australia gets pissed if petrol prices go up 10c, and most petrol stations sit at around 1.35-1.40/litre at the moment. i cant imagine paying that much for fuel, although i am only 14, but still i have a pretty good grasp on community already :P coz i used to watch Today Tonight. anyone else from WA here? wait…. how many litres are in a gallon??? *facepalm*

  4. I don’t follow petrol prices so that never happens to me. But when I filled up yesterday it was 97p a litre. Is that good? I’ve no idea.

  5. Neil, this is brilliant. Gas is $2.39 in Cambridge today. Evil fat cats… I love beating the price hikes.

  6. Don’t depress me with prices going up cause they are not coming down once they do…they’re playing with us

  7. Cheap gas rocks!! 95cents/litre is making me think a Vespa would be an awesome thing.

  8. Once I pulled into a gas station just as the electronic price sign was changing – and going down! Sweet!

  9. I used to work at a gas station and the head office would call to tell us to raise the prices. We would all go get gas before we jacked the prices up… I felt like I knew an inside secret. Twas really awesome.

  10. I actually dont mind this cuz filling a gas tank here in Venezuela costs around the same as it does for a single liter in the US. Yes! I can fill the gas tank for less than two bucks on an SUV!

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  13. I’ve recently opted to only fill my tank when gas is under a dollar here and just put enough in to get by when it’s not … so this is triple-sweet ! =D

  14. agh… gas…

    Yesterday went to fill up and it was 128.9 cents a LITRE!

    For all you Yanks out there… That is 5 dollars, 15 cents a gallon..

    This pic is the thing of dreams, 233 a gallon? That would bring us to 58 cents a litre, a price I haven’t seen in about 10 years.

  15. This should inspire more “horse-power”, foot-paths, cycling, scooters, car pools and use of public transit systems wherever available.
    Meanwhile… I think your pseudo should be Zeus, father of the muse sister’s.

  16. You can expect gas prices to rise every spring. It seems to get earlier and earlier each year. That’s because oil futures traders know demand for gas rises in the summer. They therefore start buying oil futures contracts in the spring in anticipation of that price rise.,

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