[Perfectlap]

well I was reporting on my experiences selling popular cars on Ebay. Undesireable cars which may be the bulk of what's on Ebay (I don't know) surely are less attractive and don't sell as quickly. Populars Cars sold by dealers also don't sell as quickly as cars sold by private owners because they have to recoup their overhead costs. But Popular cars like a well maintained 95 911 sold by a private owner is the type of auction bidders love to find.

As I said, I have made many times the bluebook value for those well maintained cars I have sold on ebay. An enourmous relief to me as I thought I would never recoup the maintenance costs and upgrades. But that's the whole point, bidders with a little cash in their pockets are looking to buy well maintened cars, they don't have time to deal with unexpected repairs and thus are willing to go abve the bluebook. And my friends who are car enthusiasts as well, have all had similar experiences selling cars on ebay. We all agree, we NEVER could have done as well if we would have tried to sell the cars localy for the simple reason: the larger the audience the bigger the possibility of getting a buyer with more money to spend.
Also the SPEED of the sales is tremendous for popular cars. I surpassed the best local offer of my well maintained Miata within days of begining the no reserve auction and had to cancel the auction early because I was getting so many email offers. I decided to sell the Miata with the hardtop (which wasn't listed in the auction) before the auction ended for twice whay I was asking for locally.

My experience with other Japanese cars was identical. Even a lowly but immaculate Toyota Corolla I sold for a friend netted well north the blue book value. They didn't all sell within the auction period but it was quicker and less of a hassle than the constant phone calls from newspaper adds and the random person jotting down the phone number on a for sale sign glued to the rear window.

There are ways to safeguard your sale from a deadbeat bidder. For instance I will cancel bids if the seller does not provide me with contact information before bidding, if that bidders feedback were very low(below 100). And the statistics for Ebay motors are spectacular. Autobytel, Autotrade etc. Would LOVE to do the business that Ebay Motors is doing. Ebay stock is up 100% in the last two years, the Ebay Motors division has a large part to do with that. They sell a car every 6 minutes and I doubt most buyers are deadbeats.

I can't really think of any car buying experts who have ever said that trading in a car was anything but a losing proposition. books sold by experts who provid buyers with tips for purchasing a new car almost are unanimous:
trading is an extremely expensive luxury.