Selling a car....do's & don'ts !!! Remember Karma will get Ya !

[thstone]

The last two vehicles that I sold were via eBay because I didn't have to get the absolute top dollar (eBay buyers are well-known for being cheap and looking for a deal) and I didn't want the hassle of showing the car and dealing with people who call at all times of the day/night or who make an appt to come and see the car but who never show up, etc, etc.

On eBay, I priced the cars to start at $100 but had a reserve price that was just a little cheaper than Kelly Blue Book private party price. This ensured that I'd get a reasonable minimum price. I also included many very good high resolution photos and wrote a very detailed and extensive description of the cars. You can never give too much info on a eBay vehicle listing. If you suck at photography, get someone to help you because high quality photos make all the difference on eBay.

I required a 25% deposit to be made within 24-hours of the end of the auction to rule out people who didn't have their money in-hand (I didn't want someone to win the action and THEN spend three weeks trying to line up their financing) and required full payment in 7-days. In the listing I stated that this was a CASH ONLY SALE and that I'd only accept PayPal, bank transfer, or cashiers check. No credit cards, personal checks, payment plans, third party checks, land in Wyoming, or Liberian gold would be accepted (and yes, I actually wrote that line into the listing).

Using this approach, I sold each vehicle in one week (via 7-day listing) and both sold for a few hundred more than the reserve price which was just about equal to KBB private party price. Both buyers flew out to LA and picked up the vehicles in person and drove them back home.

Overall, the transactions were simple and straightforward and I'd sell again via eBay in a second.

[Overdrive]

To keep it simple, I'd advertise locally and online, provide my number and an e-mail I use strictly for business, and first come, first served. For the last point, what I mean to say is the first person who contacts me with an offer that includes an actual dollar amount, be it a deposit or the asking/agreed price, is going to get my attention, and if they come with that and both parties are satisfied, it's theirs. I'd make it known up front that that is the case, and if people leave me hanging/waiting, they know that if someone else comes along with the money the only way that person's not getting it is if a deposit and a signed agreement was made by someone else before they came around. That's pretty much it.