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Selling a car... experiencesBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Just thinking about which methods are best for selling cars, and what experiences other people have had. Here's some of mine...
I've just sold a Volvo 850. I put it on Auto Trader at 1.00pm, and by 5pm it was sold. Nice and easy and it cost me £11.
When my friend's Peugeot 306 blew up on me, I stuck it in the local paper and had stacks of calls. Sold within a day. Cost me £17. Same with my old e34 Beemer.
Ebay on the other hand, took £23 off me for "selling" my Volvo 264 to a guy in Holland who never turned up and I had to give the car away to a banger racer.
I suppose what I'm saying is: Ebay is sh*t for selling cars. I'll buy cars off there, but I'll never sell one on ebay again. Their customer service consists of a wall of silence, their fees are ridiculous and it seems to be populated by imbeciles and scammers.
Rant over ;D
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ebay is full of inbread to##ers, nearly every car I had on there had a problem with a buyer, one even 'accidentally' pressed the buy it now button, then ticked the confirm box and pressed another confirm button all by conplete accident - yeah right.
I only sell cars on ebay that are likely to sell for loads for instance a 5k from new metro 6r4, or similar, every day cars are not worth putting on there. I use the classified ad version (12 quid all in) now as you have more control on the type of person enquiring about the car. I do try all other avenues before resorting to ebay though.
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mowzer
Part of things
Posts: 618
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Tryed selling my Integrale for 6 months on Ebay never made reserve ever Sold it in the local free ads in the end as I did my old Pug 205 GTI sold it in the first day So I'm gonna go with that from now on
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My experience of the trader is, no matter what car you are selling, you will only get two kinds of calls, Agencies who "customers waiting for just your car", and birmingham/london/glasgow asian minicabbers. No offence to anyone asian, but when they phone, they always how big the boot is and how many doors. I had this with the Favorit, the celica GT4 (4x4 3door coupe), and both the saabs, 24 year old 3 door and the 15 year old convertible. And always, "what is your best price". Answer, "My best price is in the advert, what is yours?". Their reply "Round here we can get them for 1/4, 1/2 what you are asking". WTF don't they buy that one then, instead of bothing someone 200 miles away then?
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Selling a car... experiencesBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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I think the difference between encountering idiots on eBay and encountering them over the phone through the free ads is, on ebay they have the ability to totally mess up your sale and you're stuck with the car until you re-list it. Over the phone, they might ask stupid questions and come around and kick tyres, but you can tell them to feck off and your car is still out there for sale, ready for a genuine buyer to come along.
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eBay means I don't have to talk to the feckwits. You can put as much description as you want, loads of photos so you don't have some halfwit ring you at 11:30 PM to ask you what colour it is.
You can block foreign bidders. You can block bidders with non-payment strikes You can block bidders with 3 or more negs in the last 30 or 90 days (I forget)
If some drunken knobber wants to ask you a stupid question about your car at 1 am you don;t have to deal with the email until the next day, at your convenience, rather than have your wife moaning at you for days after about "your stupid cars and idiots who ring up about them"
Last couple of cars I tried in the local paper, Admag or Autotrader just got me idiots or canvassers or no calls at all.
I've only had one truely awful experiance selling a car on eBay and many good ones.
Mind you a mate of mine had some seriously awful experinaces with cars for salwe in the local paper with "drunken travellers" coming round, and putting the "beat" into "beating the price down", and other stuff which is pretty much as bad as anything.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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I have sold two cars from the Pistonheads website and had a lot of calls about the cars from the same site too.The same cars went on Ebay and in the local free ads with no joy.Sold one car using the classifield ad on ebay.Will never use ebay auctions or buy it now too sell a car as you just get muppets and the fees are too much.
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I've had nothing but success with eBay - 5 very happy sales through it, great stuff.
Sold through Pistonheads/Classic cars for sale websites ETC and they've been good too.
Only one that was a PITA was Autotrader - just turned up loads of no-hopers who didn't know what they were buying and thus .......didn't.
I concur about the fees though. Got stung 60 quid for the last one. Ouch!
Still, SOLD ;D
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Last Edit: Jan 5, 2008 21:08:37 GMT by Lewis
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I try to only sell via word of mouth, or the "JS's family & friends / Old Skool Retro Car Club vehicle merry-go-round". With this method we all buy and sell cars off each other, and often end up getting them back at some point. Everybody's happy. ;D Had some really dodgy guy with quite a rude and threatening manner phone me up about my ol' five year old Astra I put in the Auto Trader, so I gave him an address fifteen miles away to go and look at the car - which happened to be the home of someone else who'd messed me about by putting a deposit down on said Astra then wanting it back. Revenge on two idiots at once FTW! (The deposit guy didn't know where I lived, luckily! )
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My fleet: Suzuki GSX-R600Y SRAD with bald, melted tyres A borrowed Mondeo
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nicely played jonny! i've sold, hmm, lemme see, 6 cars. various results. favorit estate - lots of calls from builders and painters. all timewasters despite making arrangements to view. sold cheap to someone i know. felicia - sold to mate days after putting an mot on it and just after 4 months of grief due to car above not selling... e34 - 900th person to view, from the free ads, shortchanged me and gave me half the money in coins! robbed the ignition relays in exchange. safrane - forum sale. smooth. rover - free ads i think. protracted test and negotiations but 1st viewer drove home. arosa - listed online with 'trader. sold next day to first viewer for way less than book. oh and the trailer. free ads, got lots, and lots, and lots of viewers and calls. all trying to bargain me down for an already cheap transporter. stuck by it, dismissed the timewasters, had two seperate buyers view at the same time and eventually my mum sold it to a couple of poles for the full price in cash within 20 mins of viewing and without the spare or lightbar either a case of the foreigners being more decent than the skivey traveller scum that read the free ads looking for 'bearginns'. so only one bad sale really. and every purchase gone to plan, i'm not afraid to back away if i don't have 100% confidence in teh purchase I'm making.
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Only ever sold one car. Sold the polo to a VW enthusiast who's now a member on here (horney). He looked after it and sold it back to me a few months later for £100 less. He was a top buyer!
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Last Edit: Jan 6, 2008 0:42:38 GMT by Adam
1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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bazzateer
Posted a lot
Imping along sans Vogue
Posts: 3,653
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Sold a J plate Jetta GX on the 'Bay with no problems - got about £150 more than I expected too! Sold my 1960 Healey Frogeye on the 'Bay as well, again no problems and a fair price.
BenzBoy, you said "Ebay on the other hand, took £23 off me for "selling" my Volvo 264 to a guy in Holland who never turned up and I had to give the car away to a banger racer."
Presumably you claimed your fees back from eBay as he was a non-paying bidder so it's really only the embuggerance factor you've had to cope with?
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1968 Singer Chamois Sport 1972 Sunbeam Imp Sport 1976 Datsun 260Z 2+2 1998 Peugeot Boxer Pilote motorhome 2003 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE (daily) 2006 MG ZT 190+ (another daily) 2007 BMW 530d Touring M Sport (tow car)
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Experiences
I only ever sell them on ebay now. Never had a problem with it.
Have tried Autotrader and Loot and found them both to be a bit rubbish. Idiots turning up saying "I saw an immaculate one of these yesterday for £500 less etc. Idiots ring up and arranging to view and then not showing. Idiots ringing up about a Nova Saloon saying is it a hatch (when saloon was stated in the ad).
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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Mr S
Posted a lot
10-4 Good buddy.
Posts: 2,654
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I generally keep my cars until they're worn out, then throw them away! The odd time I do need to sell something, I've never failed to sell through the great forum network
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Suzuki GSXR1000 K2 BMW R1150GS BMW K1200RS Chevy K5 Blazer Chevy Suburban LT Jaguar XKR
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ezzysi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,189
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Tbh ive never had a problem selling cars on the bay (touchs head!) sold close to a dozen cars and been generally happy with the prices made. Do agree that the fee's are pants tho, that said we've just sold my other halfs yaris after 3 go's listing on the trader (£40 odd a time : so maybe ebays not that bad after all!
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1991 Mk2 Golf Gti 8v 2005 Passat tdi (daily) 1971 Mk1 Escort 2004 Touran (her's)
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I've sold successfully on ebay before and would happily use them again., although those fees do add up!
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