eBay - everything under one roof

Today I removed the UHF radio from my car. This morning i listed it on ebay. A few hours later, it's already higher than I paid for it! It's one of those things that are great for when you travel with groups, but realistically, we do that less and less these days. Typically the radio banter is absolutely terrible, usually bringing out the worst in people. We have a great handheld UHF for these occasions - it performs equally well. We didn't use either radios even once on our Australia trip. I'd say in my next newer car, I'll get a nice clean integrated solution that is tucked under the dash with just the handset exposed - or just not worry about it.

I plan to sell my cargo barrier, but I'm a bit disappointed how little value they are fetching. I plan to also get rid of the rear seat, but only after I'm certain the car is not coming home. Thinking about it, I could just sell it after the car is gone. Better to put up with the wasted space then having to buy one just to sell the car.

Not only is eBay proving an effective tool for getting rid of stuff we don't need, it's the only tool for sourcing odd little tidbits.
I was toying with how we will use navigation. Taking some inspiration from Mick Hines's Parado (I think it was him), they had a laptop in an almost straight 160 degree configuration in front of the passenger. This had great advantage in the ability for the passenger/navigator to have good view of the screen and use mouse/keyboard inputs with ease. Downsides of this configuration was the loss of visibility for the passenger, complexities of mounting and supporting the laptop but fundamentally it was just in the way.

Compared to our past solution of having the screen centered, it gives better visibility for the navigator, (much less for the driver)' access to centre vents and gauge cluster.
I propose developing a hybrid solution with a nice high resolution, LED backlit 10" touch screen display centered on the 'Jesus bar' in front of the Passenger. As mentioned, I liked the keyboard input possibilities that Mick's solution offered, but realistically, you only need this functionality when keying in a street address for turn by turn navigation or at the end of a drive when you need to save the track file. I'm confident we could use a bluetooth or USB micro keyboard that is tucked away (perhaps even behind the screen) when not in use. My loyalty is to a hard-wired solution as the laptop is typically stored in a difficult to get at position, so dealing with wireless connectivity dramas doesn't sound like a holiday to me.
The laptop we have chosen for the task thankfully has integrated GPS which works really well, but we'll need to test this under the seat, with someone sitting on the seat.

The ongoing concerns remain around getting rid of the darn car. As mentioned in previous posts, we can't figure out how to get into the country with the car but leave the country without it. The expense of getting the car back from Vladivostok or Magadan will exceed the value of the car. I'm certainly going around in circles, but I somehow feel the more I write this out, some idea may come out of it.

Some suggestions from people:
-Torch the car - 'they can't make you bring it back if it can't be found.
Obviously I detest this option as it's wasteful, malicious and dishonest

-'Bring It back even though it's worthless'
Again, seems kind of wasteful but the complexities of shipping it from Magadan, then from Vladivostok with all of the potential complications due to language barrier, Australian customs, bribes etc. It would cost at least 5 grand.

-'Give it away or sell it at a wrecker'
I agree, it would be an elegant solution to give it away, but the reality is, they couldn't register it as it will have no documentation.

-'Park it in the street, it will eventually disappear'
Yes, I agree, this would buy us some time if we went to leave the country but were challenged about the car, we could at least go and get it again.
The fact still remains, we may get a knock at the door asking why our car was not exported as part of the terms of temporally importing the car. There would also be a sick curiosity that would come from parking it near a online webcam so that we could see how long it lasted!

Consider also that we will need to provide a security deposit of the value of the car, we will most certainly not get this back without exporting the car. So, not only would you loose the value of the car, but also the deposit (which from what I understand IS the value they place on the car)

We almost just need a single point of contact that will do everything from beginning to end. From Magadan to Sydney - I don't care how, for a fixed fee. This would take 90% of the stress out of it. I asked the UK shipping agent for a quote for Magadan back to Sydney, but they could not find the Magadan port. Ugh.

I think perhaps the largest complication comes from the destination being Magadan. There is a seaport... And that's about it. Even if we get rid of the car, we will struggle to get out of there. If we go to Magadan, then Back to Yakutsk, sure - we could fly out but we will be backtracking ~1000KM, but means we are then not able to ship the car back. I really want to pay some expert in Russia to give us concrete facts and solutions. How you would go about sourcing such an expert, I don't know.

Its so funny how I relish spending countless hours in my head building lovely solutions for IT, Communications & navigation with skills that I have... as opposed to spending 10 minutes dealing with some much more important details such as visas, vehicle imports, shipping, flights, accommodation etc.

Now thinking about it, would it be fair to have cassie take care of these details? She is no doubt better equipped to deal with this kind of thing.