intrinsico

Hi all,

I am trying to sell my car and I have it out on Craig's List, Cars.com, Autotrader.com, Google and other smaller sites. I am debating whether I should put it on eBay as well - most of the cars there seem to be selling for low prices or not at all.

Anyone advising in favor of?

Thanks,
Sergiu

lig

hmmm... I'm sure that it will sell on ebay but as you mentioned earlier - cars do seem to sell for less $$ on ebay than other places.

Your car is really great looking - I'm surprised it hasn't sold yet.

intrinsico

Yeah, me too, that's why I wanted to try out eBay. I am not sure why it didn't sell either, the "book" value seems to be around $35K (with all the options and miles) so either the book is bogus or everyone out there is looking for a deal...

Benz-O-Rama

I had a car listed on cars.com and autotrader for a month. Very little interest. I then put it on eBay and sold it in 3 days. But keep in mind that you will get wholesale for your car and not retail. If you check kbb.com you can expect to get trade-in to fair-retail for it. I was lucky that a local buyer purchased it, and I ended up getting retail but most people will be buying sight unseen and therefore aren't wiling to spend the same amount of money a car that they can go kick the tires on on a car sitting on the local used car lot.


Bottom line, if you're desperate and wiling to take wholesale, ebay is great. Remember, you can always set the reserve price to whatever you want, to protect yourself from selling too cheap.

Barry45RPM

My friend works in the in the F&I office at a Lexus dealer & he said that they subscribe to "Galves", and that in this area (NE) that is the Bible of car prices. I know you can go to galves.com & subscribe for a short period & look your car up, since you are not in the car business, and don't need a 12 month subscription to the book.

From their website: "...Order a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly subscription to galves.com. "

intrinsico

Yeah, I think I'll try that and set a reserve price and maybe a Buy-It-Now. However, it seems that listings without those attributes sell for more, I guess people get carried away. Choices, choices...

edspider

I bought a slightly used BMW 325i Convertible on ebay. The seller got his buy it now price. I only did it because I wanted the car and I was able to see it before I bought it.

The number of potential buyers is huge in the ebay community, but they will expect a good price for buying a car site unseen from a stranger. And going through the shipping expense.

That said I thought your ad was excellent.

harperb

Often times, it's hard to sell cars that have been modded (and if you are able to sell it, it's at a very low price relative to an un-modded car), especially when just looking at it in photos - you wonder what else has been done with it that you're not seeing, and how it will affect the warranty or reliability of the car in general.

slk55lvr

You should use any marketing device at your disposal to sell your vehicle, and ebay happens to be a very good one. No matter what you still have control over the price you are willing to accept, but this will spark a lot more traffic thats looking at your car. If you still have no firm offers after another month, it's time to think about lowering your price expectations.

WEBSRFR

If you still have trouble selling the car after a while, I recommend that you not "talk up" so much the fact that you have modified your car. I'm not saying to pass it off as an unmodified car but list the modifications with the features of the car but don't start with saying how the car is modified.

You might also want to consider putting the car back to factory specifications as much as possible.

This is purely a personal thing but I know I just wouldn't even consider an E class that has been modified (this would include tinting, changing the grill, badges, etc.,). I like the simple understated look of the car as it comes out of the factory and that's partly the reason why I would buy an E Class. Sort of the same mentality I use when I buy a tux. I like the elegant timeless look of a well-tailored garment without too many tricks the same way I like the elegant look of a well-engineered vehicle, just the way it is. Also for some reason I would think if the car was modified it has been driven and handled "rough." I know this is prejudicial but that's just how I feel.

I don't want to put down anyone into modifications or start a war here about the virtues of modifying your car. My advice is it is your car, modify all you want while it is yours, but put the car as much as possible back to the way you found it before selling it.

intrinsico

I just listed the car on eBay, let's see what happens: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MESE%3AIT&rd=1

rodE350

That is one HOT car you have there. Good luck selling her. So far, you have 4 bids on her and you still have 6 days to go. That is a very good sign. I hope another MB enthusiast buys your car.

XRAYVSN

Pretty gutsy with the no reserve call. Just hope a lot of people know about it and a bidding war ensues. Sometimes the price will jump dramatically in the last minute (sniper bids).

Good luck

intrinsico

Yeah, I'm hoping for that (bidding war). Keeping my fingers crossed...

Barry45RPM

Not being "ebay savvy", does "No Reserve" mean that if no one bids a dollar higher than what it is now, the highest bidder gets your car for 14.6k? MUST you close the deal at that price? Yikes!

lig

Yes and no. You have to option as a seller to withdraw the item before it closes. Not usually a good strategy though.

Getting bidders early is a good sign. Typically the action takes place *right* before the auction closes.

XRAYVSN

I'm not a big fan of the disclaimer:

Seller has item listed locally as well and has right to withdraw item at any time. (Had some sellers remove items saying it has been involved in an accident and become damaged). I think they are trying to get out of an auction where there item is going a lot lower than expected and were too cheap to pay ebay for reserve price setting or wanted it to be no reserve to generate interest but didn't get it.

I think ebay should hold the seller to the same standards as the buyers (once you commit to sell on ebay it's a done deal) i.e. don't have it on a separate listing in the local paper at the same time.


My 2c

Barry45RPM

So how did you do with the sale of the car on e-Bay? Did you get a good (fair) price? Did the guy come to look at it or did he buy it sight unseen?

intrinsico

The disclaimer is there, I think, because eBay put it there (I certainly did not). The car sold, I got almost what I wanted for it ($31,150 vs the asking of $31,900) and the transaction went unbelievably smooth - the guy paid for it sight unseen, arranged for shipping and just got the car yesterday. He seems pretty happy with it. I still can't believe it went so well...