How often does the trade happen?

For whatever reason (prices/availability?) it seems that the number of car listing I've seen pop up within the last couple of weeks with trade only has about tripled. Tried to make an offer on a miata and guy just wouldn't entertain  a cash value, said its his only car wanted a civic SI or GTI or similar (I'd guess $5-6k window). Used to see them occasionally and know at least 2 folks to have traded project car around someone but not a daily. Anyone else notice this or actually taken part themselves?

I've encountered this occasionally, and I think most of them don't have any other cars, and don't have the cash to buy one car before selling the other.

So a cash sale  just means they'd have 8 or 10 or however many hours to buy a new car or else they'll lose their job. They put trade so they don't have to try and find that Civic Si or whatever on short notice. At least that's what I think is the most likely explanation. 

Plus, in this day and age I'd assume they're worried about getting enough cash out of their car to buy something they want, so they're trying to eliminate a step or two in the process.

I've seen a couple of trade deals go down with equally valued items (a 10k Miata for a 10k minivan when a family expands, for example) but those were semi-inside deals where the parties involved had friends or a club in common already.

Too may trade deals seem to be: I've got a inop 1997 Neon, a ball of lint and a half eaten turkey sandwich, looking to trade for a C8 Corvette, thanks.

I've recently seen a proliferation of "I traded from a paperclip to a motorcycle in just 30 days" type videos on YouTube. 

Maybe people are trying to follow their influencers?

Ive traded stuff in the project car price range, ~$1k, but nothing more than that. 

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

turkey with avocado?

I would trade my '12 Golf R for a '80s era Quattro Coupe in a second. Then toss the keys to the Cayman to my wife as the quattro or an R8 is the only things I will get lose the 987 for. 

I'm pretty sure that a trade means no sales tax

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

It does have positive tax implications, and the high end of this hobby does it all the time for that purpose, but the ads I'm seeing aren't people worried about taxes from selling their Viper, it's people trading $2000 cars that probably don't even think about the taxes. 

If you search Facebook Marketplace by "trade for lifted diesel truck", you'll find a lot of E36 M3ty economy cars. Those trades aren't happening. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

I know a fellow who traded a Daytona and Testarossa for a new Ferrari 456 and sales taxes were the driving factor.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

I've seen a couple of trade deals go down with equally valued items (a 10k Miata for a 10k minivan when a family expands, for example) but those were semi-inside deals where the parties involved had friends or a club in common already.

Too may trade deals seem to be: I've got a inop 1997 Neon, a ball of lint and a half eaten turkey sandwich, looking to trade for a C8 Corvette, thanks.

Sandwich doesn't have the turkey but would make a good candidate for a ham swap or drift sandwich build.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

turkey with avocado?

No just turkey. No mayo or pepper, even.

Tom Suddard said:

So a cash sale  just means they'd have 8 or 10 or however many hours to buy a new car or else they'll lose their job. They put trade so they don't have to try and find that Civic Si or whatever on short notice. At least that's what I think is the most likely explanation. 

I totally agree with this as the most common scenario, and perhaps it works for some people, but it boggles my mind that insisting on a trade is a better option than a cash sale and subsequent cash purchase, and if you can't buy the new car the same day, some combination of shoot for a weekend, call in sick, take out a loan/cash advance, bum a ride, car pool, take the bus, Uber, skateboard, bicycle, etc for a few days in the meantime?? When motivated for a certain car in the past, I've gotten creative to make things happen.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

turkey with avocado?

No just turkey. No mayo or pepper, even.

Just turkey? Then I'm holding out for those sweet, sweet trade offers of a broken jetski, or partially-inoperable barbeque.

I've traded a running Riviera for a non running wrangler plus some money. Then a few years later traded the now functional wrangler for a basket case 65 mustang.

I like trading hobby cars because if I sell one with the intent of buying a replacement later the money from the sale inevitably gets sucked into the void of life.

As far as taxes, here in ohio the buyer pays a 7% sales tax on the purchase price of the car. If you trade you are supposed to pay the 7% on the value of the car. But the buyer says what that value is, and it's pretty hard to argue on a 20 year old car since no state officials actually inspect or appraise the vehicles. I have heard the state has been "auditing" some of the sales when the sale price or declared value seem too low, so since then my cars have been $1000 instead of the $100 I used to always use.

In reply to gearheadmb :

In Delaware you pay sales tax on NADA book value of the car even if you paid $1 for it. Which is funny because Delaware doesn't otherwise even have sales tax.