Ebay Motors (Selling)

I want to sell a car on ebay. I have sold stuff before but never a car.

I what to get $XXXX for it but what if bidding doesnt get that high?

Will a buy it now option help? Reserve?

HELP!

Thanks

perhaps confuzion will chime in. I think he did a nice job with his listing. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/here-we-go-ebay/7722/page1/

Well, a reserve certainly prevents you from selling it below $X. But if it's not worth $X....

BIN sometimes gets things sold to the silly hungry folk. But if you make a BIN too low, you'll sell quickly and never get as much as you could.

Ebay for cars isn't cheap. Last time I sold one on it the fee was $40 to list, and another $40 at the first bid (technically, it's another $40 at completion). That's ok on a car that you're selling with a wide margin of profit, but for a low priced car, that's steep.

There's also the plethura of non-paying bidders, usually with zero feedback, that muck up your listing. These more than anything else stopped me from selling cars on ebay any longer.

Sell it on craigslist. Oh wait, that's not FEEbay...

Seriously, car sales on eBay SUCK. I've attempted to sell over a dozen and only 1 went through without a hitch and the fees ate up any profit. You are MUCH better served elsewhere.

I have sold cars before on ebay. I think it was over $80 (less than $100) for my MR2 SC. Sure enough my buyer flaked out. It was autotrader that actaully sold the car to a buyer that flew in from St. Louis and drove it home.

If you do go with autotrader I find it better to pay more for the "until sold" type listing.

Today, you just need craigslist and a few free forums to start. If it does not sell through there after a few weeks then you can branch out to ebay or autotrader.

Not to brag but I am pretty stoked today. I listed my sister-in-laws '97 T-bird this Thursday on craigslist and today (saturday) it sold for full asking price.

'97 Thunderbird w/ 124k miles for $2,200.

What are you selling?

I've done it four times. The last time (October), the deal was: free to list, $125 if it sells.

If you have something old or unique but fairly valuable, I'd say it's worth it. I sold a 65 Mustang Fastback, a 67 Mustang Convertible, a Locost and Miata all on e-Bay.

The two Mustangs were fairly big money cars. One went to New York and one to Indiana. I was on the Locost bandwagon fairly early and I sold it before a lot of people had heard of them. It went half way across the country, too. For those three cars, e-Bay helped me find buyers who probably would not have found me so quickly.

The Miata sold at an average price and I could have just as easily found a buyer locally on Craigslist for the same money.

I found that a low opening bid ($1000) with a reserve will build early interest in a car and a lot of people will add it to their watch list, which is what you want. One of my Mustangs sold on day two with a "Buy It Now". In retrospect, I think that the bidding would have gone above that number if I just let the auction go without the "BIN" option.

Two things that I like about using eBay is that you're working with a fixed time period and you can also expose the car to a huge number of viewers, some of whom may just contact you by e-mail, arrange to see the car and then make an offer.

If you're not in a huge hurry, set up an auction with a high reserve (one that you'd be more than happy to take) and let the bidders give you an idea of what the car is worth on the open market.

my honest and most grassroots advice:
put the starting bid ABOVE what you will take for the car and in the title put "make offer".
By doing this, you will have people contact you and you may be able to sell it without the eGay fees offline rather than through eGay. eGay now has no listing fee for the first 6 cars you list per year unless you sell it through eGay.

I did that for my POS pathy and it sold

I just sold my Z3 on eBay motors. I got a lot more than I anticipated. Look at it this way: your vehicle WILL sell for market value - no more but if you don't put the important information up there, it will sell for less because a grand portion of your market will not consider you.

1.) Be 100% honest! Don't try to hide anything. If you have a crappy-looking bumper, mention it. If there is a ding in the rocker panel, mention it. Photograph ALL damage. If you think the engine might be on its way out soon, mention that. People appreciate honesty. And if you're willing to tell them up-front what is wrong with the vehicle, they will ask fewer questions and will be more likely to buy from you (so what if the bumper has paint flaking off of it?!).

2.) Take 50 or so really good pictures of the interior and exterior. Good, natural lighting is best. Make sure you clean EVERYTHING out of the car and make sure all the surfaces are as clean as they were when the car was built--even if they're not in good condition. eBay will allow you to post 24 pictures. You will select the best of those 50 and use them. Chose them carefully

3.) Do your research! Know EVERYTHING about your car including mileage, VIN number, color, and every bit of history you believe is relevant. You may even want to carfax your own vehicle. DO THIS RESEARCH BEFORE YOU LIST THE CAR! Also, you will want to do some eBay Motors research. They have a checklist for you to follow so that you don't make any mistakes when you list. Once you create a listing, you can only post additional comments and information about the car--you CANNOT go back and change something in the listing.

4.) Answer all questions promptly and honestly.

5.) Don't be a goon. Poor spelling and grammar make you look like an idiot. People don't buy cars from stupid people unless they can take advantage of them. If you are not very good with writing, ask someone to proof-read it for you--or even write it for you. Make it good. I put about 4 hours into my listing and it paid off!

When Pricing the car, I put a reserve on it so that if only one guy found it and bid on it, it wouldn't sell for like $100.00. The reserve was the absolute MINIMUM that I could accept for the car (the payoff, for me). Be realistic. Don't set your reserve at the KBB value. Remember, eBay is a really large sample of the actual market--you will get market value. I got way more than the reserve almost immediately.

Set realistic payment terms. My buyer agreed to pay me most of the money up-front via certified check and then, when the title comes, he will pay the remainder. We have a certified, notarized bill of sale that guarantees safety for both parties.

Check with your bank on their policy for accepting certified checks. They are, for the most part, as good as cash. That's what my bank told me. Then they told me when I tried to deposit the check that "Well, yeah. It's as good as cash. As long as it's less than $5,000." They made us wait 6 DAYS until they cleared the check. This delayed the title process and put me through a world of aggrivation.

I'm going to mention this again. Be reasonable and do your research!

Some tips for you: depending on how much your car is worth eBay has some tools that might help you. Also, eBay might not be for you. I sold a car for neigh $8,000. eBay WAS for me. However, if you're selling a $500 beater, you may want to list it here and on Craigslist (The guys and gals here know good, cheap cars when they see them and will likely take it off your hands for you if you sell for less than $2009--hint hint. eBay charges some fees and as you add on additional advertisement stuff, it gets more expensive. I think I owe eBay $125.00 (which is FINE with me since I was able to bring in so much for the car). If you're selling somewhere in between, you may decide to just put it up for "Buy it NOW" or "Make an offer". The auction format (what I did) is for cars that may generate a bit more income or if you want to let actual market conditions dictate what you get. I would encourage you to do an auction-style format.

High reserve prices are met slowly and, when people keep bidding and they don't meet the reserve, they get discouraged and begin to believe that you don't know what you're doing. BE REALISTIC! Trust me, if the car is worth what you think it is, you'll get that for it. Set a reserve to protect yourself, but don't set it to "guarantee" a profit. You're selling it on an auction site, RISK is inevitible and part of the fun.

internetautomart wrote: my honest and most grassroots advice: put the starting bid ABOVE what you will take for the car and in the title put "make offer". By doing this, you will have people contact you and you may be able to sell it without the eGay fees offline rather than through eGay. eGay now has no listing fee for the first 6 cars you list per year unless you sell it through eGay. I did that for my POS pathy and it sold

This is fraud, and it is illegal.

But your comment was somewhat helpful. It is true that eBay does not charge you some of the fees unless the car sells. I think the insertion fee is most of what they charge you and they will only charge you that when / if the car sells.

Be very careful to stay within eBay's boundaries of protection. Somebody may make you an offer by e-mail to sell the car outside of eBay. If he defrauds you, you do not qualify for eBay's seller's protection. Also, it's against their policy.

ManofFewWords wrote: perhaps confuzion will chime in. I think he did a nice job with his listing. http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/here-we-go-ebay/7722/page1/

Thanks!

confuZion3 wrote:

internetautomart wrote: my honest and most grassroots advice: put the starting bid ABOVE what you will take for the car and in the title put "make offer". By doing this, you will have people contact you and you may be able to sell it without the eGay fees offline rather than through eGay. eGay now has no listing fee for the first 6 cars you list per year unless you sell it through eGay. I did that for my POS pathy and it sold

This is fraud, and it is illegal. But your comment was somewhat helpful. It is true that eBay does not charge you some of the fees unless the car sells. I think the insertion fee is most of what they charge you and they will only charge you that when / if the car sells.

fraud, maybe. Illegal? not remotely.

confuZion3 wrote: I just sold my Z3 on eBay motors.

Good write up. Thank you.