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panaloko 0h RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Jaden Green and Geoffrey Jamiel scored on long plays in the fourth quarter and unseeded Lehigh rallied to defeat No. 9 Richmond 20-16 on Saturday in a first-round game of the FCS playoffs. Lehigh advances to a second-round game at eighth-seeded Idaho on Dec. 7. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week

The entire five-senior member class that helped Wicksburg’s softball team to a state title this past spring is now college bound to play softball at the next level. The final three seniors – pitcher Natalie Cole, shortstop Tylaya Lingo and first baseman/outfielder Ella Grace Kelley – made it official Thursday during a signing ceremony at the Wicksburg High School gym. All three are headed to Gulf Coast Community in Panama City, Fla. Earlier this week, Dahlia Ganz signed with Chipola College in Marianna and Sarah Turvin with Wallace College in Dothan. “They made a huge difference (for us),” Wicksburg head coach Josh Cox said of his seniors. “It is a great class coming through and all are great kids too.” Wicksburg softball players (left to right) Ella Grace Kelley, Tylaya Lingo and Natalie Cole smile during a signing ceremony on Thursday at the Wicksburg High gym. The three have all signed to play softball at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla. While good friends and teammates both at Wicksburg and with the Alabama Fury travel ball team, Cole, Lingo and Kelley didn’t plan to go to the same college for their academic and athletic careers. “It just happened,” Cole said. “It was just God’s plan for each of us.” Lingo said the three going to the same school helps alleviate anxiety in going to a new program. “Going down there with both of them doesn’t feel so scary because you will have two teammates that you played with before,” Lingo said. “Going down with both of them is amazing.” Kelley added, “We are so super excited to go down there and play together.” The three played key roles in Wicksburg’s state title in the spring. Cole was the winning pitcher during the 10-0 state championship game win over Thorsby, firing a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and one walk over six innings. Kelley had two hits and Lingo reached base twice – on a bunt and a hit by pitch – and scored two runs during the title game. The three had strong seasons overall. Kelley and Lingo sparked the offense as the No. 1 and No. 2 hitters in the lineup, while Cole was one of Wicksburg’s dominating pitchers. All three received postseason accolades. Cole was named the Class 2A Player of the Year in the state by the Alabama Sports Writers Association and along with Lingo was named first all-state team. Lingo was a Dothan Eagle Super 12 selection and both Cole and Kelley were honorable mention Super 12. The three, who helped Wicksburg to a 42-12-1 record in winning the state title, go to a Gulf State program that has a history of winning. Last year’s team, led by head coach Scott Thomas and assistant coach Brittany Crowson, went 40-15. Kelley ready to focus on softball A three-sport athlete and a cheerleader at Wicksburg, Kelley is ready to focus on one sport in college. Kelley “While it is super hard to hang up my volleyball shoes and basketball shoes, I am super excited to go there and be able to focus on softball,” Kelley said. “I think it will help me get better.” Located a few miles from the beaches of Panama City, Gulf Coast was always a point of interest for Kelley, but said the decision to attend was sealed during a campus recruiting visit. “Growing up, I loved the beach – it is my favorite place to be,” Kelley said. “It had always been at the top of my list of where I wanted to go, but the moment I went down and met Coach Thomas and Coach B and (saw) the program they have built down there, I knew it was meant to be for me.” As Wicksburg’s lead-off hitter, Kelley batted .414 last year over 55 games and had a .494 on-base percentage plus four homers, 53 runs scored and 36 runs batted in. She also drew 22 walks and struck out only three times in 160 plate appearances. “I go into the box with a mindset of helping my team out whether that is moving a runner or getting a bunt down,” Kelley said. “Anything I can do to help them is my goal. I don’t up there for myself, I go up for my team. The strongest thing about me is I am able to put the bat on the ball more times than not. I don’t strike out a bunch.” Consistency and leadership have been two traits of Kelley, said Cox. “Ella Grace has been a consistent player,” Cox said. “She is a senior who has been at Wicksburg all of her life. She is a leader by example. She will always try to do things the right way when we are between the lines.” Kelley said she was thankful for the Wicksburg community. “This is my home,” Kelley said. “I have always said it was going to be super hard walking away from here. This place is everything to me. The people here are better than anyone you will ever meet – the families, the community. It makes me super happy to give back to them. Everything they did for me was noticed and I am thankful for it.” Family feeling key to Lingo Lingo said a family atmosphere at Gulf Coast helped sway her decision to play for the Commodores’ program. Lingo “The campus is beautiful,” Lingo said. “The coaches are really great coaches – coach Thomas and coach B – in how they act like family made me fall in love with them.” Lingo admitted signing to play college softball was a special feeling. “It feels surreal,” Lingo said. “It doesn’t feel real right now. It is probably one of the most exciting things that could happen to me.” In addition to softball, Lingo also plays volleyball and basketball and is a cheerleader at Wicksburg. She transferred to the school from Houston Academy prior to her junior year. “It wasn’t hard fitting in because they were so loving and caring,” Lingo said of her teammates. “They always are working to get better with each other. If we are competing, it is more like family competing together.” Lingo is a dual threat at the plate as the team’s No. 2 hitter. “My bunting and my speed are my top things,” Lingo said. “Usually, I see how everybody is playing (defensively), and I will lay down a bunt or do whatever the team needs to get a runner over. I will try anything to get on the bag and use my speed.” Over 47 games last year, Lingo hit .547 (58 hits in 106 at-bats) and had a .602 on-base percentage with four homers, 48 runs scored and 33 runs batted in. She also stole 21-of-21 bases and was hit by 11 pitches. “She is really good at small ball and she can also hit the deep ball, so she can take that big cut or lay down that bunt,” Cox said. “She played shortstop and that was a spot we needed. She came in at the right time to fill that void. She is a great all-around athlete.” Cole delivers as pitcher Following a state runner-up season in 2023, Wicksburg’s Cox was concerned about pitching with two main starters back – Ellie Cox and Ganz. Cole, a transfer from Providence Christian, eased his concerns. Cole “When you are trying to eat up innings and get there (to the state tournament), you have to have that extra (third) arm and Natalie filled that spot,” Cox said. “She came in and was a great pitcher for us. Her and Ellie (Cox) are great friends and it just really clicked.” In 25 pitching appearances, Cole amassed a 17-3 record, 1.10 earned run average, 0.67 WHIP (9 walks/68 hits in 114 2/3 innings) plus 200 strikeouts to only nine walks. Cole hit .279 and an on-base percentage of .409 on offense, but pitching, though, is her forte. “That is what I love the most,” Cole said. “I have worked hard with pitching all my life. “My best pitches are definitely my curveball and probably my rise ball.” Like her teammates, Gulf Coast’s proximity to the beach as well as the Commodores coaches were reasons for her choosing the program. “Well, it is at the beach,” Cole responded when asked about her decision. “When coach Thomas and coach B talked to me, I really felt that was the place that I needed to be. After a lot of prayer, I knew that was where I was supposed to be.” Though a transfer, Cole said she immediately felt at home at Wicksburg. “Everybody welcomed me like family,” Cole said. “It felt like I known all of them. Everybody was so sweet to me. I just love it.” Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter Sent weekly directly to your inbox!‘Gladiator II’ review: Are you not moderately entertained?

DENVER — Amid renewed interest in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey triggered in part by a new Netflix documentary, police in Boulder, Colorado, refuted assertions this week that there is viable evidence and leads about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old girl that they are not pursuing. JonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family's home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note was left behind. The gravesite of JonBenet Ramsey is covered with flowers Jan. 8, 1997, at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Ga. Andy Sharp, Atlanta Journal-Constitution JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet's killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series "Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey." In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. "What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come in to detectives," he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the "media circus" surrounding the case. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack A police officer sits in her cruiser Jan. 3, 1997, outside the home in which 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered Dec. 26, 1996, in Boulder, Colo. David Zalubowski, Associated Press Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet's clothing that pointed to the involvement of an "unexplained third party" in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys "victims of this crime." John Ramsey continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado's governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he advocated for several items that were not prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that DNA hadn't been ruled out to help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be "consumed" if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review ended but police continue to work through and evaluate a "lengthy list of recommendations" from the panel.

CarMax ( KMX 3.45% ) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Dec 19, 2024 , 9:00 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the third-quarter fiscal year 2025 CarMax earnings release conference call. [Operator instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, David Lowenstein, VP, investor relations. Please go ahead. David L. Lowenstein -- Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings conference call. I'm here today with Bill Nash, our president and CEO; Enrique Mayor-Mora, our executive vice president and CFO; and Jon Daniels, our senior vice president, CarMax Auto Finance Operations. Let me remind you, our statements today that are not statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the company's future business plans, prospects, and financial performance are forward-looking statements we make pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current knowledge, expectations, and assumptions and are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. In providing projections and other forward-looking statements, we disclaim any intent or obligation to update them. For additional information on important factors and risks that could affect these expectations, please see our Form 8-K filed with the SEC this morning, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year 2024, and our quarterly results on Form 10-Q, previously filed with the SEC. Should you have any follow-up questions after the call, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations Department at 804-747-0422, extension 7865. Lastly, let me thank you in advance for asking only one question and getting back in the queue for more follow-ups. Bill? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Great. Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We're very pleased with the continued positive trends across our diversified business during the third quarter with retail, wholesale, and cap all posting year-over-year gains. Our solid execution in a more stable environment for vehicle valuations enabled us to deliver robust EPS growth as we drove unit volume increases in sales and buys, maintain strong margins, stabilize the provision for loan losses, and realize cost efficiencies. Our results reflect the strength of our business model and we're excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. Our best-in-class omnichannel experience is and will continue to be a key differentiator that gives us access to the largest total addressable market in the used car space and provides a strong runway for future growth. In the third quarter, we grew retail and wholesale unit volume year over year. We delivered strong retail and wholesale GPUs, expanded EPP gross profit, and improved service gross profit year over year. We bought more vehicles from both consumers and dealers year over year, achieving a third-quarter record with dealers. We grew cap income year over year and continued to advance our full credit spectrum underwriting model. We materially levered SG&A as a percent of gross profit and we achieved double-digit EPS growth. For the third quarter of FY'25, our diversified business model delivered total sales of $6.2 billion, up 1% compared to last year, reflecting higher volume partially offset by lower prices. In our retail business, total unit sales increased 5.4%, and used unit comps were up 4.3%. Average selling price declined approximately $1,100 per unit or 4% year over year. Third-quarter retail gross profit per used unit was $2,306 in line with last year's $2,277. Wholesale unit sales were up 6.3% versus the third quarter last year. Average selling price declined approximately $500 per unit or 6% year over year. Third-quarter wholesale gross profit per unit was $1,015 up from $961 a year ago. We bought approximately 270,000 vehicles during the quarter, up 8% from last year. We purchased approximately 237,000 vehicles from consumers with more than half of those buys coming through our online instant appraisal experience. With the support of our Edmunds sales teams, we sourced the remaining approximately 33,000 vehicles through dealers, which is up 47% from last year. We continue to see increased adoption of our omni-channel retail experience. For the third quarter, approximately 15% of retail unit sales were online up from 14% last year, approximately 56% of retail unit sales were omni sales this quarter up from 55% in the prior year. Total revenue from online transactions was approximately 32%, up from 31% last year. All of our third-quarter wholesale auctions in sales were virtual and are considered online transactions, which represents 19% of total revenue for the quarter. CarMax Auto Finance or CAF delivered income of $160 million, up 8% from the same quarter last year. In a few minutes, John will provide more detail on customer financing, the loan loss provision, CAF contribution, and our progress on full credit spectrum lending. At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Enrique, who will share more information on our third-quarter financial performance. Enrique? Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. The momentum that we have been building over the last several quarters carried into the third quarter, as we delivered on all key financial fronts, positive retail unit comps, growth in wholesale unit volumes, robust vehicle margins, material growth, and other gross profit per retail unit, growth in CAF income and strong flow through to the bottom line. Third-quarter net earnings per diluted share with $0.81, up 56% versus a year ago. Total gross profit was $678 million, up 11% from last year's third quarter. Used retail margin of $425 million increased by 7% with higher volume and relatively flat per-unit margins. Wholesale vehicle margin of $138 million grew by 12% due to increases in both volume and unit margins. Other gross profit was $115 million, up 25% from a year ago. This was driven primarily by a combination of EPP and service. EPP increased by $15 million, as we continue to benefit from higher Max care margins per contract. We expect margins per unit to be up slightly year over year in the fourth quarter, not by as much as we've experienced year to date, as we will be lapping over the initial rollout of margin increases that took place in last year's fourth quarter. Service margin improved by $10 million over last year's third quarter, recording in $11 million less. We achieved this performance improvement through successful cost coverage and efficiency measures and positive sales growth. We expect continued year-over-year improvement in the fourth quarter as governed by sales performance given the leverage deleverage nature of service. On the SG&A front, expenses for the third quarter were $576 million, up 3% or $16 million from the prior year. SG&A leveraged by 640 basis points driven by the growth and gross profit and our continued expense efficiency actions. SG&A dollars in the third quarter versus last year were mainly impacted by two factors. First, total compensation and benefits increased by $28 million. This was primarily driven by our corporate bonus accrual, which had been reduced in the last year's third quarter. Second, advertising was favorable by $9 million due to timing. Regard advertising, we expect that our spend in the fourth quarter on a total unit basis will be higher than our year-to-date rate and last year's fourth quarter, which was $219 per total unit. This aligns with the previous guidance we have given on advertising that we expect full-year spend to be approximately $200 on a total unit basis. I also want to point out one noteworthy item. As discussed last quarter, as part of our focus on efficiency, we have been evaluating our logistics operations. This quarter we incurred a one-time charge of $5 million related to equipment and leasing arrangements that hit the other expense line. This is more than offset by efficiencies gained in our logistics operations. Regarding capital allocation during the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.5 million shares for a total spend of $115 million. As of the end of the quarter, we had approximately $2.04 billion of repurchase authorization remaining. Now I'd like to turn the call over to John. Jon Daniels -- Senior Vice President, CarMax Auto Finance Thanks, Enrique, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter, CarMax Auto Finance originated approximately $1.9 billion resulting in sales penetration of 43.1%, net of three-day payoffs as compared to 44% during last year's third quarter. The weighted average contract rate charged to new customers was 11.2%, decrease of 10 basis points from a year ago. Third-party Tier 2 penetration in the quarter was 17.9% in line with a year ago, while third-party Tier 3 volume accounted for 6.5% of sales compared to the 6.9% seen in last year's third quarter. CAF income for the quarter was $160 million, which was up $11 million from the same period last year, and was predominantly impacted by our net interest margin, which increased 35 basis points a year over year to 6.2%. The provision for loan losses was $73 million versus last year's provision of $68 million and results in a reserve balance of $479 million. While the $113 million provision for losses in the second quarter of this year was outsized and included a significant adjustment for the pre-existing receivable base, this quarter's $73 million provision represents our belief that based on observed performance within the quarter, our adjustment in Q2 adequately accounted for future lifetime losses. The $479 million reserve balance results in reserve to receivables ratio of 2.7% as compared to 2.82% at the end of Q2. This 12 basis point reduction is due to the combined effect of the more normalized provision within the quarter and the previous credit tightening still in place. As a normal course of business we are continuously exploring opportunities to help our customers through adjustments in our account servicing strategies. One such example is with payment extensions, which have historically impacted less than 1% of our portfolio in any given month and have been below industry levels. This tool has proven successful in helping customers navigate temporary challenges. During the quarter, we began testing an enhancement to our policy that further empowers delinquent customers to take advantage of a payment extension and more aligns with industry levels. While early performance results are encouraging and similar to those witnessed under the existing policy, we recognize that some customers will eventually return to delinquency and result in a charge off. And for this we have reserved accordingly. Regarding our full spectrum lending initiative during Q3, we continued to test our new credit scoring models and corresponding strategies across the entirety of both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 spaces. And in November, we began initial testing of our new Tier 3 model. During the quarter, we also successfully executed our second higher prime ABS deal. In the next several quarters we will remain disciplined in our testing plan, but we are excited for the significant growth opportunity that lies ahead for CAF. Now I'll turn the call back over to Bill. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Jon and Enrique. As I mentioned at the start of the call, I'm pleased with the continued momentum we're seeing across our business. The differentiated omni-channel capabilities we've built over the past few years have strengthened our business model and our key to our performance. With these core capabilities in place, we are focused on refining the experience for associates and customers and are well-positioned to leverage, what we have built to support future top and bottom-line growth across our diversified business. Some examples include this quarter, we completed the nationwide rollout of our customer shopping accounts. As a reminder, these make it even easier for customers to see the steps they have taken on their shopping journey, whether on their own or with help from an associate. In addition, these accounts guide customers' next steps and create operational efficiencies by empowering associates to seamlessly search and update customer records regardless of where they originated. In addition to the customer shopping accounts, tools such as Sky, our AI powered virtual assistant are creating operating efficiencies and providing help when consumers need it. Our data show that customers are completing more remote steps year over year and this increase in remote steps is also improving conversion across all of our channels, online, in-store, and through our CECs. We continue to add helpful shopping information tools to our website. For example, now we show vehicle specific battery health information on most EVs. We also highlight tax credit eligible vehicles and allow customers to filter searches by cars that are eligible for the used EV tax credit. For supply, we've enhanced our industry leading online appraisal experience. We are now able to give digital offers to approximately 99% of the customers, who come to carmax.com for an appraisal. For finance as Jon mentioned, we recently began testing our new Tier 3 origination model. We're now testing new credit scoring models and the corresponding strategies across the full credit spectrum, which positions us to further grow cap income over time. And finally, we continue to focus on cost efficiencies, for example, we expanded our test of new transportation management process that leverages data science algorithms and AI to provide new planning and execution capabilities. The process essentially dispatches moves and automates communication between drivers and stores. We're pleased with the results and expect to see benefits to cost of goods sold over time. In closing, we're excited about the future and our ability to grow sales and earnings. Our best-in-class omni-channel experience, which is enabled by our great associates, physical footprint, technology, and digital capabilities all tied seamlessly together is a key differentiator that strengthens our competitive mode and we believe will be increasingly important to win consumers going forward. We're excited to be in a position to pivot from building capabilities to leveraging and enhancing them to drive growth through better execution, innovation efforts, and experiences. With that, we'll be happy to take your questions. Todd? Questions & Answers: Operator [Operator instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Brian Nagel -- Analyst First off, congratulations, nice quarter. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Brian. Brian Nagel -- Analyst So I'm going to -- I have two questions about merger into one. Just to comply with David's rules. But I get the first question. So here look here, now we have the second consecutive quarter of solid positive used car unit comps. The question I want to ask there is, I mean, if you're thinking about the model and recognizing you don't give -- you don't provide guidance. But as you look at it, the model flex now, I mean, what should we consider to be like a normalized used car unit comp for CarMax? And then the second part of the question, look, we're seeing now starting to see really nice expense leverage as these comps have turned positive. How should we think about the path forward on that assuming comps now are on a better trajectory? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer OK. On the first part of the question, Brian, as far as the normalized unit comp. I think it's a little hard to say at this point. What I would tell you is we're really pleased with the sales momentum. If we look at the comps during the quarter, and you go back to some of my commentary at the end of the second quarter where I said, we were running a little bit lighter. We actually performed better throughout the quarter. And even if you normalized for the day of week adjustment that I talked about last quarter sequentially each month got better. And quite honestly, as we're going forward, obviously December's a little early on, but December's performance month to date has accelerated as beyond the comp of the third quarter. So we feel good about that and we feel good about the trajectory of sales and all else equal, I would tell you as we think about the fourth quarter. What I would tell you is we think the fourth quarter what I will tell you we think the fourth quarter will be stronger from a comp performance than the third quarter. And that's despite having some headwinds of a day a week. We lose a Saturday in the fourth quarter. We also lose leap day, which we had last year. So again, we feel good about the momentum going forward. And what was the second part of your question? Brian Nagel -- Analyst It's on SG&A and the leverage. I can check in. Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer So now Brian, we continue to make progress on our goal of hitting a mid-70% SG&A to gross profit. And that's going to require continued improvement in sales volumes. And Bill has talked about our recent trends here, in addition to the cost management efforts that we have been undertaking now for a couple of years and just to point you back to what some of Bill's prepared remarks, we're past the heavy investment phase of our evolution. We're at a point where we're pivoting from building capabilities to leveraging and enhancing them to drive growth and efficiencies. What this means is lower gross profit growth to leverage SG&A as compared to our heavy investment phase. So we feel really good about our ability to leverage. At the same time, we're going to take a look at investment opportunities. We're not going to leverage just for the sake of leveraging. If there are opportunities to grow the top line and bottom line robustly, we will do that but yet we remain committed to our mid 70% SG&A leverage ratio as well. So we're encouraged by the trends. Brian Nagel -- Analyst I appreciate all the color. Thank you. Congrats again. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Brian. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Sharon Zackfia with William Blair. Please go ahead. Sharon Zackfia -- Analyst I guess, when you think about the improvement you've seen over the last, six, seven months. Has it been a reflection more of conversion than traffic to the web or the stores? I guess if it has been more conversion, how much of that would you attribute to kind of prices coming down industry wide versus what you've been doing internally to kind of lessen the friction of the consumer experience? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. Good morning, Sharon. Look, when I think about it, like if I look at this quarter for example, I would tell you I think that the performance is primarily driven by conversion, because if you look at our web traffic, it was fairly flat and it's conversion both looking at remote, engaged customers, but it's also conversion improvements in the actual store when customers are coming into the stores. And I think at the heart of your question is really, what's driving this? And what I would tell you is I do think it's a combination of internal and external factors to your point. Obviously, this is, I think our eighth quarter down our eighth quarter in a row where we have sales prices actually down a little bit year over year. So certainly as prices come down, I think that's a tailwind for us. I think having price stabilization, not a bunch of big price swings from an appreciation or depreciation, more specifically depreciation. I think that's a tailwind. But I would tell you equally important is the focus internally on execution through like experiences and efficiencies. And when I think about remote progression conversion or in-store conversion improvements, it's because we've improved the experience. I mean, even this quarter, talking about the customer shopping hub that's helping us, convert more customers by taking out friction. The CECs, we've been rolling out some tools there, knowledge management tool, which we'll finish rolling out the fourth quarter, helping our CECs to provide better experiences. It's the work we're doing on our cost of goods sold and taking waste out of the process there so that we can take that and make sure our prices continue to be more competitive. It's the inventory management and the quicker turns that we're doing, there's just a lot of different things that we're working on internally that I think are also complementary to some of the tailwinds that we see externally. So I wouldn't say it's all one or the other. I think it's somewhere in between. Sharon Zackfia -- Analyst Thank you. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Sure. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from John Murphy with Bank of America. Please go ahead. John Murphy -- Analyst Good morning, guys. Just to ask about the same store sales comp in a different way, everybody in the industry, including folks at the auction houses are saying that there's a real shortage of used supply and it's tough to get vehicles, but you're putting up good numbers. Obviously you're doing well on the sourcing side. But one thing that's interesting, I think the average price was down about $1,000 year over year. So I'm just curious if you're making a concerted decision on sourcing to maybe go down market a little bit in age and maybe trim to open up the market to yourselves and get away from some of the competition where things are tighter sort of at the high end. And is that something that might be able to continue going forward to support same store sales comp? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, John. It's a great question. First of all, we feel great about our diversified sourcing, both from consumers and dealers and specifically to your questions, when you think about the age, if you look at year over year mix, like 0 to 5, 5 to 7, 8 plus year over year, they're very similar. I mean, 0 to 4 is up a point. It's actually up a little bit, a little bit newer vehicle. So there really wasn't a big mix shift in age of vehicles. And I think from a supply standpoint for us, because we're buying so many vehicles both from consumers and dealers directly, I think that's a nice benefit and helps to allow us to source vehicles that are just hard to find out there. To your point, if you're having to rely on third party. John Murphy -- Analyst Got it. So no change -- but no change in what you're doing as far as age, obviously, as you just mentioned or trim. I mean, are you able to kind of go down trim levels to try to open up a better pricing? Because I mean, usually go pricing sequentially is not actually going down. It's actually going up a little bit in the industry. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. I wouldn't say there's anything remarkable there. I think the only thing to note is the team has done a great job. If you look at our under $20,000 vehicles, we've done a great job bumping that number up kind of year over year, quarterly, sequentially, it's pretty similar. But year over year, it's a nice little bump up. And again, I think that goes back to the work that the team's doing on sourcing. Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Yes. 30% of our sales were cars less than 20 grand. So tremendous work there. Last year 25%. So pretty material. John Murphy -- Analyst That's good focus. Thank you very much guys. I appreciate it. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities. Please go ahead. Seth Basham -- Analyst Thanks a lot and good morning and nice quarter. My first question is on your GPU performance in retail and then wholesale. Within retail, can you give us an update on your cost out initiatives? Are you still on track for $200 per unit? How much have you achieved so far and what are you doing with that savings? How much are you reinvesting in price? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yep. Great. Good morning, Seth. Yeah. The $200, just to remind everybody that's really being driven by two large buckets, our reconditioning and our logistics. And I've spoken previously about the fact the way to think about it is probably 50-50 split $100, $100. And I tell you, on that journey, we're probably realizing about half of that. And I would split it up about half on reconditioning and half on logistics with the remainder coming in the upcoming quarters. We got a lot of good work going on there, feel really good about it. And so far what we're doing is we're passing the bulk of that on to the consumers, but it also allows us to make sure that we've got solid margins as well. And I would think that you should think about that going forward. I mean, we'll continue to look at it and we'll have decisions to make as we find it. But right now the bulk of that's going to the consumer. Seth Basham -- Analyst And then as a follow-up on the wholesale side, how much of the improvement there do you think is because of market conditions relative to some of the things you're doing, like Max offer? You posted some really good numbers this quarter. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes. I think similar to the response Sharon, I think it's a combination. I mean, certainly this is a better environment than a year ago. You can remember there was some big depreciation. And you know, when depreciation -- steep depreciation happens like that, we're generally ahead of the curve marking down our offers. So that impacts your buy rate. So you certainly can't discount that. And having a more stabilized price environment has helped. But on the Max offer, I tell you, the team, the Edmunds team's done a phenomenal job with that product. And as I look at it, we increased our active dealers on that pretty substantially from where we were before to where we are now. I think our active dealers are up probably close to 40% or so year over year. And so, when you have more dealers in there, doing Max off, you can also buy volume. So I think it's a combination of the two. Seth Basham -- Analyst Thank you and happy holidays. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer You too. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Chris Bottiglieri with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Chris Bottiglieri -- BNP Paribas -- Analyst Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to and just go through the allowance a little bit more detail. Hopefully just give us a sense like, you know, what your -- I think in the past you've given like the expected loss on new originations and get a sense like what kind of led the cut to the allowance. Is it more just the remaining vote or are you cutting the provision on new originations as well? Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer And just to clarify, you know, the cut to provision, I just want to clarify how to think about that. Our provision, as we've laid out is going to be obviously on new originations. Chris, you referenced that new originations, what our expected loss or the life of those receivables are and then any true up that we need to do on the existing receivables based on observed performance in the quarter. Again, we said there's always going to be some form of a true up. Obviously, we said last quarter there was a sizable true up, no doubt that brought the total of the provision to $113 million. But there's always going to be a composition of those two things. If you look at our provision this quarter of those two things, again it's a much more normalized level, which suggests that to your point, the originations plus the true up, our true up was just not to the size that it was before, which is really ideally, what we want to have happened. To your question of origination, how we did $1.9 billion this quarter, remember that's against Tier 1 and the testing that's happening in Tier 2 and Tier 3. If you can assign some loss rate to that, you could see where it'd be maybe in the $60 million range from an origination standpoint. Again, we've tightened, remember in Tier 1, so that's helping us to some degree but we are testing in Tier 2 and Tier 3, it's going to offset that a little bit. And then the remaining obviously is going to be the true up. But again, a true up in a reasonable level, very different than last quarter and probably again that's why we refer to it as a normalized level of provision. Chris Bottiglieri -- BNP Paribas -- Analyst OK. Thank you. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Craig Kennison with Baird. Please go ahead. Craig Kennison -- Analyst Hey. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Bill, I know you like to measure market share annually, but I think perceived market share has probably been something that held back your stock relative to peers at least this year. I'm curious, has prices stabilized? Do you have any evidence that you are back to gaining share? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, Craig, would I tell you, the last two quarters I've said, look, market share, I want to get back onto the annual cadence. Barring any type of big price swings and we just haven't seen any big price swings. So we'll update it at the end of the year. What do I tell you is we feel great about our sales momentum and we feel great about our ability to gain market share. Craig Kennison -- Analyst Thanks. Operator Thank you. Our next question will come from Scot Ciccarelli with Truist. Please go ahead. Scot Ciccarelli -- Analyst Good morning, guys. Two-part question. First, outside of the price stabilization, what else would you attribute the magnitude of industry improvement too. Bill, just given your long experience in the industry? And then kind of part two there is, can you guys provide some more color around the payment extension? Like how's that process work and how's it reflected in the P&L? Thanks. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Sure. Scot, on your first question, as far as the market, I mean, I think there's conflicting numbers out there as far as the growth of the overall used car market. I think, it's very volatile from a month-to-month standpoint. But outside of price stabilization and I assume what you're talking about there is kind of how I refer to it, you don't see a lot of appreciation or depreciation, which that's in fact kind of if you look at the depreciation curves historically for this time of year, they line up fairly nicely, which we haven't seen that in a while. I think, the other thing is just something I talked about earlier, it's just the prices continue to moderate and I think having a gap between a late model used car and a new car, I think that has continued to expand a little bit. I think that helps the industry, especially on the late model used cars. The only other thing that I would tell you is I think consumers are still pinched from an inflationary standpoint, so they're looking for alternatives and used cars, whether it's a two year-old used car or 14 year olds used car. I think that helps the industry as well. Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Scot and I'll take your payment extension question first. I'll level set on kind of how we think about extensions and then specifically what we did. So we really wanted to cite an example of where we're continuing to look for opportunity to help the consumer navigate. Again, temporary hardships. It's something that we've always done. It's very standard in the industry. Historically, as I said in my prepared remarks that's generally less than 1% of our units in any given month, and we've done some testing, that has brought it just slightly above that level. But we think this is a really good opportunity to help the consumer and ultimately lower loss. That's the goal that we're trying to do, help people stay in their car. So specifically, what happened within the quarter is if you look at our extension policy historically, it's been and we really kind of targeted that customer. That's a couple payments behind. So if there are a few payments behind, historically we've said, look I need you to make both of those payments and then we can give you a payment extension. In this environment, certainly higher payments, people weren't able to take advantage of those opportunities. So we looked at customers who said, if you cannot make two, we tried to see if they could make both, but if they can't, can you make one payment? And there were incremental customers that were able to do that. And so that allows them to take then a period to kind of get their finances in order. Now, we've started that at the beginning of the quarter. We've been able to watch people come out of that extension period and then see how they're behaving. And we're very pleased with what we're seeing. It's very much in line with our previous policy. And so, we feel really good about this action we've taken for the consumer. Now that being said, we know that some customers may unfortunately revert back into delinquency and loss. So that being said, we need to make sure that we have reserved accordingly for the actions that we've taken. And that's how placed on the P&L it's embodied in our provision and in our reserve. And we know that will happen, but we feel good about what we've done. We like the early results. Again, a relatively small number of customers we've impacted but we like what's occurred. Scot Ciccarelli -- Analyst Understood. Happy holidays. Thanks. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer You too. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Jeff Lick with Stephens. Please go ahead. Jeff Lick -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst Good morning. Congrats on a second consecutive positive quarter in the progress. The question revolves around the wholesale biz. Some pretty interesting growth dynamics 73 or 74 units of wholesale per retail, 50% growth in dealer buys, and with gross profit margins up as well. I'm just curious where you think you can take that. I think that's kind of a hidden source of gross profit, dollar growth for you. I'd love to know where you think this is going and how sustainable these games are? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, Jeff. Well, look, I want to take it as high as we can get it. I mean, there's a big focus internally. We've had it for a while to continue to buy more cars, whether they're retail cars or whether they're wholesale cars. And like I said earlier, this is a focus Edmunds has been able to really get more dealers signed up for this. I kind of think about the product. The product is in, let's call it a majority of the population but in that majority of the population, there's a lot more opportunity with dealers out there. So we'll continue to push this as hard as we can because again, we want every single car, whether it's a wholesale car or a retail car. Jeff Lick -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst And who do you think you're taking share from? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Well, I think it's just a nice alternative for dealers. You know, they have different avenues of getting rid of unwanted cars, whether it's through your traditional brick and mortar auctions, whether it's through virtual auctions with other wholesalers. This is just one more tool that they have in their toolbox to leverage. And we see where a lot of dealers, they like using it and so we don't expect it to replace those other things, but it just gives them another opportunity to look at a different valuation. Jeff Lick -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst Awesome. Well, congrats again and look forward to speaking. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Jeff. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from David Bellinger with Mizuho. Please go ahead. David Bellinger -- Analyst Hey. Good morning. Thanks for the question. In terms of the operating environment, any noticeable differences lately or change in tone from your lending partners? Have they turned more aggressive post-election and willing to take on additional volume, maybe even those down the credit spectrum? Any additional color you can add as we gauge some of the lending appetite into 2025? Thank you. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. Thanks for the question, David. I think short answer there is, I think they're kind of steady as she goes right now. They really haven't made significant adjustments. I think that plays through in the penetration that they see. And again, that's going to be a function of the lender and also the consumers that are coming to shop. But yes, I think generally, our partners love the CarMax business. They're supportive in tough times, and they're obviously supportive in good times, but they're being as careful as any lender should be right now. So I don't think a lot has changed over the quarter. David Bellinger -- Analyst Great. If I could just add one other quick one. You had pretty significant earnings growth this quarter on the 4% comp. Maybe a bigger picture question. But as you begin to leverage and harvest a lot of this investment spend in the past few years and pushing more volume through the system. Should we expect a comp in that low single-digit, mid-single-digit type range to yield double-digit earnings growth from here? And then maybe the buyback is an accelerant on top of that. How should we think about the earnings growth and the sustainability from here? Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer I mean our objective is for robust top line and bottom line growth. And I think that's the position that we put ourselves in with the investments that we've made. The operating environment out there has been challenging for the past couple of years, which has kind of hit some of those benefits. But I think as we come out of that here, we've had two positive quarters of comps. And as Bill talked about, that accelerated our comps have accelerated here into the fourth quarter. And I would expect moving forward that, like you said, we're in a position to harvest the investments we've made. So we're excited about where we are today and kind of our path moving forward. David Bellinger -- Analyst Great. Thank you. Operator Thank you. Your next question will come from Michael Montani with Evercore. Please go ahead. Michael Montani -- Analyst Yes. Good morning. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking the question. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Good morning, Mike. Michael Montani -- Analyst Just wanted to ask -- follow the two parter trend. First, Bill, can you just talk about, I think 245 stores today? Is there opportunity to get that to 300 stores again? And how should we think about the cadence of build-out? Or can you lever multichannel at this point? And then I guess the related question is on the labor compensation and benefits growth now given that the model is more fixed cost structure, should we assume that compensation and benefits will grow slower than kind of top line units at this point for some nice leverage? Or how should we think through that? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. I'll take the first part, and then I'll let Enrique weigh in on the second part. So yes, we actually, 249 stores. So Michael, I want credit for there's other four. So 249 stores. And look, we think we can go beyond for the long term, we say 200, 300 stores. Obviously, we well back to 200 stores. We can go past 300 stores. And I think the way we think about it is every year, we're evaluating the pipeline and there's plenty of stores out there to go. And although, we're reaching a lot of the population, there's a lot of opportunity to still put some stores even in markets that we're in. And then there are some markets that we're still not in yet. So the way we think about it is we look at that pipeline every single year. Sometimes stores get added in pipeline, time stores get taken off of the pipeline. And what I would tell you is I think we've got a strategic footprint and as we continue to go in the progress with the omni-channel experience. If consumers are continuing to do more and we can sell more out of the existing footprint than we have and we end up taking some stores off of the end of the pipeline have been great. But I think you should feel pretty good about getting beyond the 300 stores even with improvements of the omni because I think having a strategic footprint is critical. Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer In regard to comp and benefits in terms of leverage, we would expect to lever more strongly than we had in the past on that line item as we've been lowering the variable cost of our business. We've certainly been talking about our direct selling model, the omni-channel model, right? And what I'd tell you is that we're in the very late innings of efficiency relative to having that direct selling model. It's more efficient than the previous model. This quarter previous pre-omni model. This quarter, we were more efficient year over year when it came to per retail unit, total unit gross profit as well. And I'll point to a couple of things here that can really give you a sense of what's driving that. This quarter, year over year, our web chats through Sky were up 10% year over year. So that's driving, again, the consumer doing more of those activities on their own less need for labor. Containment rate was up 50% to 51% from 41%. That's more than a 25% increase in containment rate. Again, customer being able to do more of the work on their own. At the same time, our SLAs on the web and phone were up year over year. So from a customer service standpoint, it's getting better. So you can see we're really fine-tuning that model. We feel really good and what that means at the end of the day is less labor, but more effective labor and that should help us drive down our comp and benefits relative to where we had been on a leverage standpoint moving forward. So we're really excited about it. Michael Montani -- Analyst Thank you and good luck. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Thank you. [Operator instructions] Your next question will come from Chris Pierce with Needham. Please go ahead. Chris Pierce -- Needham and Company -- Analyst Hey, Bill. You sort of mentioned it on your -- one of your remarks to a prior question, but do you guys keep data on pay the consumer has pinched they're transferring from -- they're shifting from new to use? Like do you have data that you're picking up new customers and that's why they're preferencing used and could debut by these markets been strong? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes. The data, if I think about it, we look at kind of overall used -- the overall used industry. So if I go back to last calendar quarter, traditionally, million -- 40 million used cars based on exchange hands. Last year -- last calendar year, only like 35.5 million exchange hands. And so when you think about that decline, the biggest part of that decline was in the 0 to 4%. So while the whole decline was down, whatever that is 12%, I think the 0 to 4%, 0 to 6% was down more like 18%. That's obviously a sweet spot for us. So I think just overall, consumers have been pinched. I think the fact that the used car industry has been depressed a little bit and I think it's impacted anybody that sells late model cars a little bit more over the last couple of years has been something to navigate. But I also look at this as an opportunity that look, consumers will come back. We will get back to the $40 million plus. I just think at this point, consumers have been managing their own pressures that they're realizing from an inflationary standpoint and everything else that they basically have to deal with on a daily basis. Chris Pierce -- Needham and Company -- Analyst OK. Thank you. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Sure. Operator Thank you. Your next question comes from Rajat Gupta with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Rajat Gupta -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst Great. Thanks for taking the questions and good execution on the cost side here. I just had one clarification on the comps and then had a CAF question. On the comps, I mean, just to tap in a bid on some of the comments that you made the industry acceleration that you've seen in November, it looks like it's continuing into December. Clearly, your results are benefiting as well. John mentioned earlier, like used car prices have actually probably gone up recently. So I'm curious like what do you think has really changed in terms of just the consumer mindset here? Is it just pent-up demand being unleashed somewhat both election anxiety, I don't know was there some hurricane benefit? Just curious if you could just add some color on those aspects? And I just had one quick one on the cash reserves. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes. I don't -- I can't necessarily say that something has changed in the consumer mindset. I would go back to some of my comments that I said earlier about the things that we've done internally to make the experience better, make friction, less friction, improve conversion. The fact that our prices are down year over year, I think that certainly helps as well. I mean, there's still some consumers that are pinched out there. For example, the consumers, I've talked about this in the past that make less than $3,000 in a monthly household. They're still half of what they used to be for us. And so they're still struggling. So I'm not sure that the consumer mindset has necessarily changed. I think it's more being driven by things that we're doing and just overall bigger kind of macro factors. As far as hurricanes go, I mean, it was immaterial. I mean, you are less than 0.5 point, I would think it's small. Rajat Gupta -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst Got it. That's helpful. So clearly, there was like some meaningful shift around just the omni experience this quarter. I know you mentioned at the analyst event in October that you had the later innings getting the fruit service investments. It does look like that kind of had a big benefit, would you say this quarter relative to just the last quarter? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Well, I think we've been -- it's not like it just happened this quarter. This is a build. And I think we saw some of the nice benefits last quarter. I think in the second quarter and now this quarter, third quarter, I think we just see a continued building here. I mean when you look at conversion, especially like the remote, if you can give customers to do more things from they're going to convert better. And when we look at remote activities, like a vehicle reservation or a pre-qual or an appointment, an instant offer. The more customers that do that, the more are going to convert. And we saw a nice little continued improvement in customers doing remote progression. And then like I said, we also saw nice conversion improvements in the stores, where the stores are doing a great job just executing, leveraging some of the tools that they've been giving some of the seamlessness between working with customers that may start in the store, maybe they go online later, having that information for our sales folks. There's just a lot of goodness. Once we got past building the capabilities, we've really been focused on now removing that friction. And I think last quarter with order processing being rolled out everywhere. This quarter, you had to have order process anywhere. We have the shopping count this quarter, getting the shopping account out there. There's just a lot of good momentum here and we're going to continue this. And like I said in our in my opening remarks. I think this is going to matter as we go forward. I think consumers are going to -- they're going to want this type of experience. And the more that you can have it seamless and frictionless, I think that's who's going to win. Rajat Gupta -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst That's great color. And I think you probably answered like my CAF question as well. I mean it doesn't seem like there was a big change in the macro backdrop. So the reserve -- the lowering of the reserve in CAF, was just based on just recent tightening in your initial observed performance. Is that fair? And then nothing has changed in your macro outlook to drive that reserve lower? Jon Daniels -- Senior Vice President, CarMax Auto Finance Yes. And again, I probably wouldn't think about like the reserve as being cut. I know that you're looking at a benchmark from like last quarter, but I'd probably reverse the thinking and say, you look last quarter, we looked at the overall performance and we made an adjustment that really kind of refilled that reserve bucket significantly and we feel that was adequate and it's kind of what we said in our prepared remarks. So I think about this return to normal, if you will, is just a recognition that, that volume that we put aside at the end of Q2 was adequate for the receivable base that we have. So that's just how I just ask you to rethink about it. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes, I would definitely -- I echo what Jon said because let me just put it a different way. If we didn't get that adjustment last quarter, then it would have been higher. Like we would expect it to come down because last quarter, we thought, hey, this is what we need. But sure enough, Jon and his team did a great job on estimating that. So you would expect it to come down. So I agree with Jon. Don't think about it as a cut because if it went the other way, that would have been -- we just didn't get it right last quarter. So I think that this is -- and really, year over year, it's actually up a little bit. Rajat Gupta -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst So got it, got it. Great. Thanks for all the color and good luck. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Thank you. Your next question will come from David Whiston with Morningstar. Please go ahead. David Whiston -- Morningstar -- Analyst Thanks. Good morning. It looks like inventory was a free cash flow drain for the quarter. I was just curious, is that building up for tax season? Or is there something else going on there working capital-wise? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. So inventory -- total inventory was up a little bit. And yes, that's really all that is, is just built we're in production mode right now, obviously, with the upcoming tax season and all. That's a normal seasonal thing that we do. I think the team has done a phenomenal job on inventory management this year. They really focused on it. I think our turns are improved for the quarter year over year and we feel like we're in good shape for the upcoming tax time. David Whiston -- Morningstar -- Analyst And EPP penetration or EPP growth, was that penetration growth? Or did you raise prices? Jon Daniels -- Senior Vice President, CarMax Auto Finance Yes. We raised prices starting in the fourth quarter of last year. We fairly price inelastic product that we have and we raised prices last year. So we'll be lapping over that in the fourth quarter here. And so we'd expect less of an increase year over year. I actually expect a slight increase year over year when it comes to the rate, but that was basically a margin increase that we took last year. Commensurately, penetration has fallen but at the end of the day, we're making -- again, making more money there. David Whiston -- Morningstar -- Analyst OK. Thank you. Operator Thank you. You have a follow-up question from Michael Montani with Evercore. Please go ahead. Michael Montani -- Analyst Hey guys, thanks for letting me sneak back in. Just wanted to get some early thoughts that you might have around the upcoming tax season and how you're thinking about and planning for that? And then also, we did notice some uptick in pricing recently that was alluded to before. So as it stands early in the quarter, are you starting to see your prices rise year over year as well? Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. So, Mike, on the tax season, look, I think tax season for us is all about flexibility. We're planning on having a decent tax season. You just kind of do a baseline well, think about what it was last year and make sure you're prepared for that. But I think more importantly is make sure you have that inventory that you need, but have the flexibility to go up or down depending on what you see. And I think the team has put us in a great position there regardless of if it materializes like last year, if it's better than last year, if it's softer, I think we're in a good spot. As far as prices, again, I think some of the durable actions we've taken and the diversification of sourcing, I feel good about our pricing right off the top of my head, I can't tell you for the December, how we're running, but I think we're probably a little bit lighter year over year. So we'll see how it pans out. Michael Montani -- Analyst Thank you. Operator Thank you. We don't have any further questions in queue at this time. I will now hand the call back to Bill for any closing remarks. Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Great. Thank you, Todd. Well, listen, thanks for joining the call today for your questions and support. As always, I want to thank our associates for everything they do, how they take care of each other and the customers and the communities. I want to wish all of our associates and all of you a great holiday season, and we will talk again next quarter. Thank you. Operator [Operator signoff] Duration: 0 minutes Call participants: David L. Lowenstein -- Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations Bill Nash -- President and Chief Executive Officer Enrique Mayor-Mora -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Jon Daniels -- Senior Vice President, CarMax Auto Finance Brian Nagel -- Analyst Sharon Zackfia -- Analyst John Murphy -- Analyst Seth Basham -- Analyst Chris Bottiglieri -- BNP Paribas -- Analyst Craig Kennison -- Analyst Scot Ciccarelli -- Analyst Jeff Lick -- Stephens Inc. -- Analyst David Bellinger -- Analyst Michael Montani -- Analyst Chris Pierce -- Needham and Company -- Analyst Rajat Gupta -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst David Whiston -- Morningstar -- Analyst More KMX analysis All earnings call transcriptsNebraska should be ready in early 2025 to apply for federal permission to revive and complete the 1894 Perkins County Canal from Colorado, the state’s acting top natural resources official said. The canal’s inclusion in the two states’ 1923 South Platte River Compact should help the state navigate the federal bureaucracy more quickly, said Jesse Bradley, interim director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. A one-time wall of the partly dug but abandoned 1894 Perkins County Canal runs right in this January 2022 photo to just under the bare tree. The photo was taken in Sedgwick County, Colorado, between the South Platte River and Interstate 76 between the the latter’s Ovid and Julesburg exits. But Bradley and DNR Perkins canal project engineer Matt Manning acknowledged that Nebraska remains in something of a race to complete the long-abandoned canal before Colorado can siphon off South Platte water its neighbor long has counted on. “They appear to be moving forward with their stated intention to capture as much water as they can before it enters Nebraska,” Manning said. The two Nebraska officials spoke with The Telegraph a month after the end of the annual April 1-Oct. 15 “irrigation season” under the 1923 compact. Statistics from the compact’s official South Platte gage at Julesburg, Colorado, show river flows were lower than the 2023 season but still would have put water into a completed Perkins canal 51% of the time. That’s considerably less often than the previous spring and summer, when flows were high enough to supply a projected canal 86.4% of the time. But that 2023 performance ranked No. 11 for the irrigation season since Congress ratified the two-state compact in 1926. The South Platte since then has exceeded the compact’s stated minimum flows just over 40% of each year, based on Julesburg gage flow records The Telegraph first analyzed in 2023 and continues to update. Since ratification, the South Platte Compact has required Colorado to deliver at least 120 cubic feet per second to Nebraska during the irrigation season. Nebraska also has the right to any “excess flows” that reach Julesburg. During the “nonirrigation season” of Oct. 16 to March 31, the compact requires Colorado to supply Nebraska at least 500 cfs when possible — but only if the Perkins canal is built. Nebraska also would be entitled to any “excess flows” at Julesburg during that period. The Legislature set aside $629 million in 2022 and 2023 to revive the canal. As now conceived, it would cross southern Keith County after following the 1894 canal’s original route from near Ovid, Colorado, across Sedgwick County. But Colorado held December 2022 that Nebraska’s plans by themselves don’t trigger its compact rights to South Platte water, Bradley noted. “Because Nebraska has not constructed the Perkins County Canal, there is no basis for Colorado to administer” Nebraska’s 1921 water right before that point, then-Colorado Division of Water Resources State Engineer Kevin Rein wrote then-Nebraska DNR Director Tom Riley. Evidence that Colorado was mulling multiple projects to use every drop of South Platte water within its borders prompted then-Gov. Pete Ricketts to advocate the Perkins canal’s revival in early 2022. Its first 16 miles from Ovid were dug in 1894 before early Perkins County settlers ran out of funds. After initially downplaying its state’s proposed projects, Bradley said, Colorado’s “message has changed to ‘We are going to do all these things, and we’re going to accelerate them.’” Possible Colorado projects differ in scope, he said. But the largest one remains the Platte Valley Water Partnership’s proposal to tap the South Platte in northeast Colorado and pipe water back west to Parker and other fast-growing suburbs south of Denver. That system’s closest storage reservoir to Nebraska would be built near Iliff, Colorado, less than 40 miles southwest of the Perkins canal’s starting point. It’s also about 25 miles northeast from the South Platte’s “Lower Division” compact boundary at the Logan-Washington county line. Much of the river’s water past there first was used upriver, seeped below the surface and re-entered the South Platte downstream as “return flows.” Even if Colorado disrupts the return flows with more water projects, Bradley said, Nebraska has to secure as much of its historic South Platte supply as it can. “It’s difficult to say what will happen two years from now with a Parker-type project, but we’ll keep an eye on what’s going on up there,” he said. “The whole compact is premised that water will be used and returned for Nebraska’s use.” Bradley estimated it’ll take about two years to win federal officials’ blessing to build the Perkins canal. He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been designated the lead agency for Nebraska’s permit request. The Corps will consult with other interested agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Two 1980s explorations of reviving the canal — one by the North Platte-based Twin Platte Natural Resources District, the other by Imperial’s Upper Republican NRD — were choked after several years by state or federal red tape. This time, “we’re obviously talking about a state-run process,” Bradley said. “We want to protect (South Platte) flow and not use it.” Meanwhile, Perkins canal design work by Nebraska DNR engineers is nearing 30% completion. “Elements of the design are coming into pretty good view now,” Bradley said. DNR leaders held an open house in Ogallala last Dec. 17 so Keith County residents could ask questions about the canal. They’re likely to return next month for another update, Bradley said. It’s too early to pinpoint the canal’s precise Keith County route, he said, except that it’ll run south of Interstate 80 and link up with the South Platte before the river enters Lincoln County. The 1923 compact requires Nebraska to build on or close to the canal’s 1894 survey route west of the Colorado line. Nebraska closed as 2023 ended on the first piece of Sedgwick County land it needs. The 1894 route essentially crossed the Interstate 76-U.S. Highway 385 interchange south of Julesburg, then skirted the Julesburg Cemetery south of the interchange before turning north. The two states have “agreed in principle to try to work around today’s infrastructure,” Bradley said. “We’re looking at a local alternative (to) the route where we’d go under the interstate.” Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

NEW DELHI, Nov 23 — Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju broke new ground to reach the World Chess Championship and the 18-year-old “Friends” fan is now hot favourite to win the title and make more history. Gukesh will be the youngest player to take home the undisputed world crown if he beats reigning champion Ding Liren of China in Singapore from November 25. Most pundits and players believe Gukesh will prevail against the 32-year-old Ding, who has not won a game in the classical format since January. The modest and bearded Gukesh is having none of it. “I don’t believe in predictions and who are the favourites,” he told reporters ahead of the title match, where there is a total prize fund of US$2.5 million. “I’m just focusing on the process and I try to just be at my best every day and play a good game. “I just want to enjoy the experience.” Gukesh became India’s youngest grandmaster aged 12 years, seven months and 17 days, and among the youngest in the history of the game. Even Magnus Carlsen, the most recognisable current player in chess and a five-time world champion, was older. If he beats Ding in the best of 14 games, Gukesh will trump the legendary Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he became world champion in 1985. In public Gukesh often appears shy and reserved. He was absent from the Bermuda party while starring for India at this year’s Chess Olympiad in Budapest — the do is a decades-old tradition where contestants party at a nightclub in the host city. But after India finished with two gold medals, Gukesh surprised fans accustomed to his serious persona by posting a video of himself dancing exuberantly to a popular Tamil song clad in traditional clothing. Though he spends much of his time practising the game, Gukesh recently confessed to a love of the hit television sitcom “Friends”. When competing he usually wears a tilak — a smattering of white ash on his forehead in deference to his Hindu faith — to go with his suit. In 2022, Gukesh beat US number one Fabiano Caruana at the Chess Olympiad and later that year triumphed over Carlsen. He reached the world championship by becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious Candidates Tournament in April. Indian chess icon and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has played a mentor’s role in Gukesh’s journey and hailed the teenager as his successor. “Gukesh is a very level-headed boy,” the 54-year-old Anand told broadcaster NDTV. “I am very, very proud that he has managed this phenomenal achievement. In a way I feel like I have managed to pass on the baton.” ‘Like a seasoned player’ Born to a doctor father and microbiologist mother, Gukesh started playing chess aged seven. His father Rajnikanth took him to watch Anand play Carlsen in a world championship match in his hometown Chennai in November 2013. The world championship in Singapore is being compared by some in India to the classic showdown between the American Bobby Fischer and Soviet great Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War in 1972. Ties between nuclear-armed neighbours China and India are frequently tense. Ding has been impressed by his teenage opponent’s maturity. “He plays like a seasoned player despite his young age,” said Ding, who since becoming world champion last year has suffered depression and took a nine-month break from competitive chess. Carlsen makes the young Indian “a significant favourite, and if he strikes first he will win the match without any trouble”, the Norwegian told FIDE, the International Chess Federation. “However, the longer it goes without a decisive game, the better it is for Ding Liren because he has the ability, but he doesn’t have the confidence.” — AFP

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In February 2021, uttered a line that will go down in pop culture history. “I never thought I’d be engaged with somebody who threw balls for a living,” she told Jimmy Fallon during a virtual appearance on . The man in question was her then- . Yes, Aaron Rodgers. The Green Bay Packers quarterback who was a Super Bowl MVP. Did I have to look up that stat? Maybe. I guess Shailene and I have something in common (we don’t know that much about sports). You see, Shailene wasn’t starstruck over Aaron’s football abilities—nah, she just thought of him as a -loving nerd. So how did the end up engaged to a football legend before they eventually called it off and broke up? I’m so, so glad you asked. July 2020 Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? A rep that Aaron and Danica Patrick had broken up last summer. They met in 2012 at the ESPYS and started dating in 2018. That month, rumors started that Shai and Aaron were seeing each other. Sports gossip blogger that they were spotted together in Lake Tahoe. September 2020 Aaron appeared on , and while he didn’t say he was in a relationship, he did reference “changes” in his life. “I have just a new and increased love of life and I have made decisions and changes and habits that put me in a lot better headspace,” he said. “There’s just a lot of things that have come together in my life over the last few months that have really been enjoyable and reminded me, given me perspective in life and in football to view things through the most positive lens I possibly can.” February 2021 We *finally* get confirmation that Shailene and Aaron are a bona fide couple. “2020 was definitely a crazy year filled with lots of change, growth, some amazing, memorable moments, 180 straight days of having my nose hair scraped, playing for very little fans or no stands the entire season,” Aaron said during a speech after accepting the 2020 AP Most Valuable Player Award. “I got engaged and I played some of the best football in my career.” He continued, “So I’d like to thank, first and foremost, my teammates for their support, their inspiration, protection, incredible play on the field...off the field, I’ve got a great group of people that support me, so I’d like to thank my team.” He didn’t name Shailene, but WE ALL KNEW. Then Shailene and spilled alllll the deets. Iconic. May 2021 Double date time! On May 1, Shailene and Aaron (Sharon? Ailene? More on that later...) attended the Kentucky Derby with their friends, including Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh Sperry Teller. FYI: Miles and Shailene are frequent costars. They both appeared in and the franchise. Later that month, the couples went on vacation to Hawaii and many Instagrammable moments ensued. June 2021 Shailene divulged more information about her relationship in a cover story. “Starting a relationship where you immediately move in with someone—because it’s a pandemic and you can’t just get on a plane and go back and forth on weekends—taught us a lot about each other very quickly,” she said. “We jumped in headfirst and got some of the sticky bits out of the way early.” She continued, “I have the perspective that I would have met Aaron in any context, any space in time because I feel we were meant to be together.” July 2021 As it turns out, Shailene and Aaron were keeping their engagement low-key for . “When we announced that we were engaged, we wanted to do that only because we didn’t want someone else to do it before we did,” Shailene told the in a cover story. “And we didn’t do it for months and months after we had become engaged.” She added, “But the reaction to it was really a lot, and so we were like, ‘Let’s just politely decline [to talk about the relationship] for a little while and live in our little bubble.’” February 2022 Months later, things took a turn. A rep for Aaron told that Aaron and Shailene called off their engagement and ended their relationship completely. The good news is it doesn’t seem like it was too messy or devastating. “It was an amicable split—it just wasn’t working,” the source told . “They’re very different people with busy careers and there were obstacles that they couldn’t surmount. They will remain friendly; there’s no bad blood and no drama. It just didn’t work out for them.” The news of their breakup comes just about a year after their secret engagement. Less than two weeks after news broke that the couple had called off their engagement, however, Aaron and Shailene were spotted together in Los Angeles, spurring rumors of a reconciliation. While Shailene and Aaron have yet to personally address the current status of their relationship, sources close to the pair gave some hopeful updates. “Shailene and Aaron broke up after the two spent a lot of time apart and couldn’t make it work,” one source told “Aaron had told Shailene he’ll put more effort into the relationship and making her a priority. The two have been spending more time together recently and will see what the future holds.” Another insider told that Shailene and Aaron aren’t back together but that they *are* “talking things through and trying to keep things private” because even though they split, “their love for each other never went away.” “Things are different now, but they were definitely over,” the source added. “Now that Aaron is in [the] off season, he has more downtime and can focus more on a relationship. Shailene is understanding and open—she hasn’t shut the door completely or [she] would’ve never agreed to meet up with him.” March 2022 Even though Shailene and Aaron kept “spending time together,” they were never “fully back on” at this time, explained a source to Instead, they were simply “testing the waters.” The source continued: “Since he’s been off, they have been able to take some time to work on their relationship and try to figure things out. They are going to continue trying to do that and see what happens.” April 2022 After the last attempt at “testing the waters,” it now seems very official that Shailene and Aaron are truly over. As of right now, the two are definitely “not together,” according to what a source told Shailene tried to give it another shot and was spending time with Aaron,” continued the source. “But she quickly saw that everything was on his terms and nothing was going to change. There was no reason to continue, and she’s done with it again.” September 2024 During an interview with , Shailene reveals how she's changed since experiencing "a broken heart." As she explains, "I give all of myself. I used to be a person who, if you crossed me and disrespected that, would continue to give and give. And now you cross me, I respectfully go, 'Thank you so much for that information. Have a beautiful life. I wish you well.' Not interested." December 2024 Though it's still not clear *exactly* why the two broke up, Shailene hints that things didn't end well during an interview with Early in the interview, she notes, "I haven’t shared much about my relationship with Aaron because it always makes me cry. It was not right. But it was beautiful." Later, however, she alludes to a "really awful, traumatic thing" happening in early 2022, which was presumably when the two decided to end their engagement. "I felt like I lost my soul, my self, my happiness, my joy," she says. According to her, she chose to remain in the "toxic situation" because she was empathizing with "someone else" (though she doesn't specifically name Aaron as that someone else). Here’s to wishing them both the best in the future, whatever they decide to do.

SINGAPORE: It is well-known that Singapore’s 15-year-olds regularly perform among the best in the world in literacy and numeracy tests. What may not be as familiar to most is how Singapore adults perform in similar tests. The Survey of Adult Skills, an international study under the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), offers some insight. Singapore took part in both the PIAAC Cycle 1 surveys (conducted between 2011 and 2018) and the recent Cycle 2 survey (2022 to 2023) whose results have just been released. The results of the PIAAC study show that Singapore is closing the gap with the OECD average in literacy, and moving into the top third of participating countries in numeracy. This largely reflects Singapore’s improving education profile as younger cohorts with higher skills enter the workforce and older cohorts with relatively lower proficiency retire. Given that many older Singaporeans did not have the educational opportunities that our young today enjoy, it’s not surprising that our adults do not perform as well relative to their international peers. ADULT LITERACY A CONCERN What is somewhat surprising is the decline in literacy proficiency as people get older, a trend seen in most participating countries including Singapore. While Singapore bucked the trend of declining overall literacy scores experienced by most countries between the first and second rounds of the PIAAC study, its literacy scores fell between the two cycles for both lower-educated and more highly educated adults. In addition, the gap between the different educational groups in Singapore was larger than in most other countries. This has implications for the competitiveness of Singapore’s workforce and economy, particularly given the importance of human capital to our economy. Adult literacy, along with numeracy, is an essential foundation for the acquisition of further knowledge and skills, and hence key to workers staying employable, especially as technology rapidly changes. Adults with higher literacy proficiency generally have better job opportunities, even after accounting for educational attainment. These findings highlight the importance of investing in adult education and training. In Singapore, the drop in literacy proficiency seems to start early at 27 to 34 years old. The decline among respondents in this age bracket and the next is concerning, as these span the prime working ages where workers are expected to make significant contributions to the economy and society. It suggests that people of all ages, even those in the early stages of their careers, need to continue learning and using their skills to maintain proficiency. Fortunately, the decline in literacy with age does not appear to be inevitable, given that two participating countries, Denmark and Sweden, did not experience significant loss in proficiency among adults up to age 65. IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AT SCHOOL, WORK AND HOME The PIAAC findings on literacy and numeracy can help inform Singapore’s approach to education and training. It’s important to recognise that learning is a lifelong process, starting from childhood through to adulthood. Building a strong foundation during the schooling years is key, with an emphasis on cultivating a love for learning and growth mindsets that will enable continual learning through life. SkillsFuture programmes should continue to reinforce these foundational skills, in addition to providing job-ready, industry relevant training. While the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy and the new SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme are targeted at mature workers aged 40 and above, the PIAAC findings on early age decline in literacy suggest that younger workers may need attention too. A study by Kyrolainen and Kuperman (2021) found that while formal education was the strongest predictor of PIAAC literacy scores in all countries, another significant factor was the amount of reading people engaged in at work and at home. Employers should think about how to strengthen their workers’ foundational skills by curating purposeful learning opportunities such as projects, workshops or innovation challenges. Beyond formal training, employers could also come up with creative ways to make learning fun, such as through games or quizzes. Some organisations have a monthly book club gathering where staff members can discuss thought-provoking books. Besides fostering social interaction, such events also help encourage and sustain literacy among employees. Initiatives such as the National Reading Movement spearheaded by the National Library Board, along with events like the annual Singapore Writers Festival, could also help build a culture of reading and literary engagement in Singapore. A significant predictor of PIAAC literacy scores identified by Kyrolainen and Kuperman was family influence – proxied by the number of books in one’s childhood household - suggesting that a love for literature can be passed from one generation to the next. As an advanced economy with an excellent education system, Singapore should set its sights on becoming one of the world’s most literate societies in the near future. This can be realised through a concerted effort by all stakeholders, recognising what is at stake. Terence Ho is Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He is the author of Future-Ready Governance: Perspectives on Singapore and the World (2024).None

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