Hello All- I need to get my 71 sold soon, so I think I will try selling the car on Ebay. If I don't get what I want for it there, I'll start parting it. Never having bought or sold anything on Ebay before, anyone have any tips for the novice? :Smarty: Thanks in advance for the advice. - Freed
My only eBay observations.... When selling: -If you need to sell it quick, no one will bid on it. -If you thought about throwing it away, but decided "what the heck, I'll stick in on ebay once".... it'll sell for 20 times what you thought it was worth. When bidding: If you saw one on eBay last week sell for $5 but didn't bid, and find another one this week and decide you MUST have it, you'll end up spending $100 for it. ou: I think "Murphy" works at eBay p
It's a pretty straitforward process. One thing is spell out the entire payment process. In your auction, explain the type of deposit you will take, the amount of it, when you expect to recieve it, how the person will pay the balance, how long you will keep it, etc. I always put a line in my auctions for the buyers to ask any questions before bidding.
I will tell you how I do it. First off, tell the honest truth! The problem with Ebay is that everyting is based on opinions. So make sure you cover all bases when describing your car. I always state that they are responsible for transportation, but that I will assist in loading. I always ask for a percentage of the sale to be sent via PayPal immediately. Make note of how long you will hold the car before relisting it. Ask them to use the "Ask seller questions", if they are unsure about anything. Better to work all questions out before the car is sold. I make all below 5 feedback, or poor feedback bidders contact me before bidding or I cancel their bids. Sometimes, I use the reserve feature just to get people bidding on it. Other times, I put the lowest amount that I would be willing to take for it as the opening bid. I have had good luck. One time a person brought an auto resto. expert with him to go over the car. After hearing them blast it for 30 minutes, I told them to go back home and pretend we never had the transaction. They then told me the car was just as described!!! Make sure the title has proper spelled words and key words to make it easy to find. Several times I have or seen others misspell words in the title causing the item not to be found properly. Basic stuff to most of us, but I have seen some strange stuff. Good luck!!
feebay sales freed you might want to set it up as pre-approved bidders only. some sellers do, some dont, but if you do, you make them write to you before allowing them to bid. the theory is you can get some idea of who you are dealing with, and weed out the bad ones. not sure that it really works , but thats the idea behind it. i would make very clear what forms of payment you will or wont accept, and a time frame for payment. i dont take pay-pal, but if i did, i would be reluctant to take a deposit via pay-pal due to charge backs, unless you can hold the car until its too late for the buyer to do one. i paid cash for all my used cars, and thats all i will accept on a car sale. list any thing that is wrong with the car if there is anything. describe everything, that will cut down on questions from bidders. i can tell you that selling cars on ebay is not as nice as selling parts. it seems many car sales end with an NPB ( non paying bidder ), and those bidders tend to give unfair neg fb to the sellers. i want to sell my GS 350 but i'm reluctant to list it on ebay due to this. unfortunetly ( sp?) , npb's can post fb. some use private auctions ( private bidders ), those arent always a scam, but some bidders dont like that and wont bid. in reality, private auctions can save the bidders problems in at least three different ways, but some bidders dont like them because they fear being shilled. i would either set a reserve, or start at a price you can live with because ebay can go down in the last hour of your sale, ( not real common, but it happens ) or the bidding sometimes just doesnt go where you would want it to. if someone asks the reserve, i say tell them. some sellers will, some wont. many people wont bid at all if the seller wont tell the reserve amount. some sellers tell it in the listing. if you can arrange shipping or not, address that issue. whatever terms of sale you make, dont let bidders try to dictate a change in them. its your sale to be done your way. if it ends up with an NPB, be sure to file your payment reminder, then the NPB alert, then file for your final value fees. i think its called a transaction fee when selling vehicles. one last thing i can think of right now is this. go to ebay, click on community, then discussion boards, then ebaymotors. ebay members can login and ask and reply to questions there. i've been reading there for years. there is some good advice there, and some not so good. try to talk to " doc " he is an expert. also check out the misc bb, the fb bb and some of the others. oh, and if you get a overseas bidder who wants to send you a few thousand $$$ extra via check, and then have you send the extra $$$ to his cousin vinnie in the states and then ship him the car, dont even reply, its a scam. you can cancel and block any bidder you arent comfortable with. i havent covered everything here, but its a start. if i can think of more, i will post again. good luck. henry white
My 1 1/2 cents: I think some good advice is to be very realistic on what you think you'll get for the car. If you play it too safe and set the reserve or Buy It Now too high you'll end up not selling the car and having to list it again-- at another $40 a pop. I've sold two cars on eBay... listed each car twice. The first time I set the reserve too high, the second time I lowered the reserve and Buy It Now and sold the car at a decent price. A lot of eBay users are looking for a steal, so don't think you're going to make a ton of money unless the item is very rare. One of eBay's newer features is the ability to lower the reserve or Buy It Now price as the auction is running... this is very helpful if you're not seeing many bids. I lowered the Buy It Now on my Maxima and a lady from Oregon bought it a few hours later. :TU:
Henry has a point by not taking PayPal. I have never had any problems taking it, but that could all change tomorrow. There is no substitute for CASH. I make them pay with cash when they arrive. The quick paypal payment just insures me that they were serious. You could always make them send out a cashiers check via post office quickly. Alan also makes a good point. Nice cars don't sell without great photos. Your car may not be great, so a couple of pics may be suffieicnt. All depends on what you have. You never know what will happen in the final moments of bidding. It may go crazy, or no one will bid. I always watch in advance for a few weeks on when it is a good time to list my auto. You want to catch it when there isn't many like it for sale, or when the price has jumped on that model for some reason.
correct what ethan just said is correct. one more thought i had is this, i would not use the buy it now feature ( unless its pre-approved buyers only ) because its more likely that someone will hit BIN without reading the ad or caring what they've done. then the listing fee is gone forever, you risk unfair neg fb, and have to start all over again. i would not end the sale at, oh lets say, $ 500.00 showing on the listing page, on a private agreement to sell to the highest bidder at a price higher than whats showing on the listing page. i suspect it happens, but that could come back to bite you in the backside. that binding contract thing cuts both ways. also, if the bidding is at an amount you like, and you are comfortable with that bidder, you can end the sale early to sell to the highest bidder, thereby avoiding snipers who may or may not make the price go up much, but the important thing is, they might be someone you dont want to deal with. that is only an issue if the sale is open to all bidders. if it is pre-approved bidders only, hopefully you have already been successful at weeding them out by that time. as a seller, i love snipers. i snipe, i get sniped, its all fair. whew, there is so many details to ebay. good luck henry
