How to sell a car on eBay for fun and profit

[akku]

I think a lot of how much grief you get on eBay depends on what you are selling because that will depend on who is buying.

I have sold a lot of tat but that generally goes to people like us who are generally OK people.

Selling a couple of our old mobile phones and so forth on there was enough for me to always send them to Phonebank or Mazuma in future LOL.

Bulk selling by post is a different business to selling a few cars.

I feel your pain. eBay is very much set up for the buyer's benefit now. But in that respect it is only reflecting consumer law and public /media pressure form the Ester Ransons of this world.

[Harold Ramp Bumface Fandango]

Very helpful and spot on.

In my experience of eBaY it seems a fair few don't want to read everything you type and think they can do what they like and try and chip you down, not turn up etc.

I find setting the 'rules' out early on (or somewhere at least) in the listing can help and constanly watching the bidders/bidding pattern can help. That way you can remove bids from anyone suspect or anyone who hasn't complied with your own rules, and obviously I block them at the same time in case they try any late on spoiling tactics.

[sidmuss]

All common sense stuff that every ebayer should know

[skinnylew]

Jan 25, 2011 23:22:32 GMT Soopahfly said:

Pisses me right off when you're searching for something on ebay, let's say... Citroen AX GTi.
Example of advert title that won't even get my attention.


Citroen AX GTi (Not Saxo, Corsa, Other box of wibblepoo that you weren't looking for)
or
Citren Saxo (not AX, Pergoet or other badly spelt nonsense)

On the contrary thats how you get a bargain ;D
My Ax GTi was advertised as a Citren GTi had very few views and I won at £450, then the seller knocked off £50 when i turned up for a broken speedo cable 6 years later I'm still loving it

[dungbug]

Some good advice, I usually sell stuff that can be posted so don't usually have buyers coming ot the house to collect stuff. I've only listed 2 cars on eBay before, my old Wizard (back in 2006) which didn't sell but someone who was watching it contacted me afterwards and gave me what I wanted for it. The other car was a J reg clio 1.4, I brought it off eBay for £150 with 7 months MOT. Drove it for 7 months, it needed a new screen due to a large crack across the drivers side, some welding to the n/s sill. I put all this in the ad & a local chap won the bidding at £155 , the ad for it when I brought is was cack. Photo's were bad, the car was filthy & the listing was about 2 sentences long. Just shows that if you clean something up & give a good concise account of what is on offer you'll always get interest.
Most of my auctions start at 99p, usually because I sick of tripping over whatever it is that I'm selling so glad to be getting something for it. Like you say, stuff seems to find it's value on there. I've had a few problems over the years with eBay but it's nothing more than trading in general whether its a car dealer, shop, market stall holder (my folks sold antiques & collectables for over 20 years, you get the odd 'chancer' now & then, it's all part of the industry unfortunately).

[Rusted Pistons]

I'm actually not sure what to do about my two auctions at the moment. I'm giving the guy until Friday (but that'll be his third and final chance) then I guess I'll open an eBay dispute? Same with the moped - I'll wait until tomorrow and then open one for that too. Safe to say I must be pretty unlucky.

[d7]

Had a few eBay messers in my time, sold an Astra SXi to a lad from Rotherham, never got in contact, re-listed, was won again by somebody different from Rotherham who again never got in contact (coincidence?).

With regards to buying blind and chipping people down etc, I must admit that i've done this myself. To be fair though, i've bid a price (without viewing a car) on the car that is described. If I turn up, and its not as described I'm not going to pay that price its simple as that.

My Omega was the best example. I bid £1000, because that was what it was worth, in respect of how it was advertised. I didn't bid £1000 to buy the car with a cracked windscreen, which is what I was faced with when I went to collect. Hence why I knocked the price of rectifying the fault off what i'd bid. I was quite forceful with it as well on reflection, I made a point of doing the haggling outside the train station, making the buyer fully aware that I didn't mind travelling 3 hours back home on the train...

Sellers can scream all they like that eBay is a binding contract; "you bid, you buy" or "you bid to buy not come and haggle" but if they mis-describe an item THEY are the one who have breached the contract anyway...

[Rusted Pistons]

May I add that I have done NOTHING WRONG and am being shafted up the by idiots

[Harold Ramp Bumface Fandango]

Problem there D7 is not everyone's idea of honesty is the same as others. The best rule of thumb (imho) is to either to either go and view first or only bid a lower value than you think it's worth.

I've bought more than one car that wasn't how it was described but they were so cheap I didn't argue. Alas honesty seems to be pretty much completely dead these days when it comes to sellers.

[akku]

without wanting to turn the thread into a moan-a-thon or random anecdotes on buying or selling on eBay I have to say my Cadillac was spot on as described. The seller even knocked £20 off for it having no petrol in it... I don't think I misrepresented any of the cars I have sold, well, that one I had the bother with maybe some of that was down to me, I think I was a bit let down when I bought that one as well. But other than that its been pretty good all round.

The problem is not so much that many sellers lie, its that many buyers (and I am also guilty of this) put their own interpretation on a description and what the seller types is not necesaily what the buyer reads.

Case in point, my old Green Fury III. I advertised that car in all the classic/American mags and that as "Needs complete restoration, if you can be bothered, probably best broken for spares or hot rod donor". I lost count of the number of people who came and said "oh, its a bit rough isn't it?" or "There's more rust than I imagined". Yup, its a 60s yank for £500, described as "break for spares". What were you expecting? That car was a magnet for time wasters and weirdos. I could do a whole post on the subject of selling that crapper.

And then, some sellers lie their asses off. But surely thats what the feedback system is for, and why I have only ever bought 2 cars blind - one was the Fury which was scrap really, the other was the Cadillac and that is a decent old barge

[Ryannn]

I relisted my Volvo less than an hour ago using your method AK... 3 watching already! lol

[MWF]

I think you just have to try your best and accept that there's going to be an element of luck involved.

I had the almighty Ebay Guru PogWeasel personally molest one of my car adverts into form. That didn't stop some bewildered foreign sounding chap in London buying it who a: didn't appreciate he couldn't drive it away due to no MOT and b: didn't know what Wolverhampton is.

I think type of car can make a difference, when I sold a Honda Prelude Vtec I got a lot of young Asian men phoning wanting to know "best price, you know what I'm saying, sorted" and when I sold a Volvo 940 the guy who won it turned up with his own contract to sign.

I second the late Sunday evening end time, had great results.

[DavidB]

I've only sold one car on ebay, it was my past it's sell by date MR2, and fortunately, the bloke came from London with an a-frame and took it away without even driving it (after I spent a week preparing it to make it look decent). He even wanted to buy my Starion.

[gouldygtr]

i think one of the most key things when selling cars on ebay , is good photos,

the amount of cars which don't sell due to bad photography must be scary

[Andy Camaro]

the fun is with the sniping bidders or the people who are bidding at the end or close to it and win but then don't reply for days, even though you send them an invoice as soon as the auction ends then its kinda odd as they have been online and bidding but don't take a blind notice.

i only really got stuffed years back when i opened my ebay account and listed an address for paypal but didnt have an account so had to log on to get the cash and then got stuffed on the sale because of all of the fees you have to pay.

only bought 2 cars from ebay but never bidded on them as the auctions ended with no buyers.

[Graham]

Excellent guide. ;D

[akku]

I wonder about those last minyute bidders as well. I have come to the conclusion that they are generally using a sniping tool like auctionsniper or auctionstealer and not actually online until a day or three later.

Yeah, there are some crazy people out there and sometime your number is just plain up.

[DWDarkWheels]

Useful guide. And I have to say, very little sign of dyslexia. It's better written than most efforts I've seen on the internet.

I don't approve of the practice of bidding up to find the reserve, then retracting it. I had one guy 'bid the incorrect amount' then never bid any amount afterwards. I reported him within seconds of the end of the auction.
You can't do that in an auction house, so don't do it online. Bid what you're prepared to pay, and none of the rest of it matters.

Luckily, the same car met reserve, was collected by a sound bloke from a handful of miles away who even brought the car back to show me when he'd finished it.

Darryl

[akku]

Aye, its naughty, but people do it, its why reserves are a bit of a liability...

[MikeyPhresh]

I just listed my car on eBay using your advice. Muchos thanks! And Ben, I used yours as a guide too! Proper job! The only thing is I didn't have the balls to start it at 99p... Maybe in the future I will