ebay good or bad idea??? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

75mercedes07 · #1 04-12-2006, 09:18 PM

i am in a bind. i have already purchaced a new vehicle, and as a 17 year old, i cant really afford to own both my benz and the new jeep. there have been a lot of people telling me i should try to sell the benz on ebay, but i dont know. i want to get the most i can out of it. what should i do? i am trying to sell it around here too, but havent been succesful yet. ebay or no ebay? thanks for your help!!!

rachelle elise

#2 04-12-2006, 09:23 PM

If the Benz is paid for allready. Keep it. Somehow Somewhere Having 2 vehicles is sometimes a good thing. I don't know what the laws are where you at. But in Fl if you change the tag and insurance from the benz to the jeep you can just park the benz. If nothing else, advertise here. Someone might really want that car. I would be interested if I was going North anytime soon.

thorsen · #3 04-12-2006, 09:23 PM

Sounds like you made a mistake.

Did YOU buy the Jeep, or did your parents?

rhodes2010 · #4 04-12-2006, 09:29 PM

I have sold two vehicles on Ebay and bought 1.
All good experiences.

I will tell you that on the selling end I ended the listings about 1 hour
before they were supposed to end because the amount they were
at was not near enough.
The other way to avoid having to end early is using a reserve.

I say go for listing either one, it will expose you to more people in a wider market.
Offering something for sale on Ebay is a cheap way to learn what it is worth.

Hit Man X · #5 04-12-2006, 09:39 PM

Ebay is the most pure form of capitalism I've ever seen, I'd consider selling a vehicle on there for sure.

blueranger · #6 04-12-2006, 09:39 PM

if your going to be a used car eficanado then its always good to have
2 or 3.... i have 4 right now...i dont like to work on them in the winter so
right now only 2 are running... so by having a spare car when something brakes you got a back up...

#7 04-12-2006, 09:40 PM

I agree, you have nothing to lose by listing it on eBay. Set a reserve that reflects the minimum you will accept and post lots of photos and info. From what I've seen, the more info, the higher the price. Watch out for scams, do not let the car or title out of your possession until you have cash in hand. Good luck.

75mercedes07 · #8 04-12-2006, 09:50 PM

i bought the jeep. i do actually have both payed off, but that leaves me broke. i would love to keep them both, but we dont have anywhere to keep the benz, and i dont have the money to keep both cars up to par. what kind of price should i be looking for anyways? if i had somewhere to keep the benz, some money to deal with, i might deeply consider keeping them both. a lot of sentimental value come with the benz. i really have enjoyed it. i would love to be able to keep it until i had more money to put into it, but i dont know if that is an option right now. thanks,

ra

bill murrow · #9 04-12-2006, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhodes2010

I have sold two vehicles on Ebay and bought 1.
All good experiences.

I will tell you that on the selling end I ended the listings about 1 hour
before they were supposed to end because the amount they were
at was not near enough.
The other way to avoid having to end early is using a reserve.

I say go for listing either one, it will expose you to more people in a wider market.
Offering something for sale on Ebay is a cheap way to learn what it is worth.

I am an experienced ebay seller and buyer. From the sellers side the serious bidders won't bid until the final seconds so I would not end any auctions early. I've seen prices go from $400 to $2200 in the final 10 or 15 seconds. Many reasons why. Too many to go into here.

I would in no way use a reserve. Reserves scare off a ton of bidders as most are way high. Case in point....I had a set of 4 '52 Cadillac sombrero hubcaps listed recently. First time around I listed with a reserve of $200. Bidders took them to $102 and that was it. Following week I listed them with a starting bid of $9.99. They brought $360. Once again I have seen this happen time and time again and once again the reasons are many. A low starting price is the whole key.

By all means make sure all the words in the title are spelled correctly. Those words will be what the search engine picks up on. For example lets say you have an '83 240D to sell. Your title should read 1983 '83 Mercedes 240D W123. You can even add the word diesel in case someone searches for a Mercedes diesel.

Bells and whistles do help. By that I mean use the Featured option, which costs $19.95 but puts your car at the top of every page. You can also use border or bold but do not use both. One or the other gets you noticed.

By all means do be honest! Honesty goes a long way when dealing with internet buyers. It means everything to be honest. You'll get a good price and sleep well at night by being honest.

Use plenty of pictures! The more the better. Buyers want to see everything so take shots from the underside and every angle. Take plenty of pictures and then go through them picking out your best shots to download on ebays site. Buyers love to look at the pictures so make sure you take quality shots with a good camera. Close ups are a must not only for flaws but for the good points as well. I use an image hosting site for my pictures. Photobucket.com is the one I use but there are many others like imagecave.com

Set your listing up to end on Sunday or Monday night around 9 or 9:30 P.M. Don't forget that when doing the scheduling the ebay time is WEST COAST time. Those two nights seem to have the most action.

If you're not sure what your car will bring, look under completed for similar cars. That will tell you what you can expect to realize from your car.

From the buying side I've had many good experiences and one bad one so I feel as though most sellers are on the up and up with a few and expected bad apples.

If you have why questions, feel free to PM me. Everything I've told you has a reason but the biggest reason is to get your best price. And ebay, IMHO, is the place to get your best price if done correctly.

Good luck and do let us know what you decide to do.

Cheers,

Bill

JimmyL · #10 04-12-2006, 11:53 PM

Did you ever get the glow plug situation repaired?

75mercedes07 · #11 04-13-2006, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyL

Did you ever get the glow plug situation repaired?

yes, it starts up real quick now. thanks!

deerefanatic · #12 05-31-2006, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 75mercedes07

i bought the jeep. i do actually have both payed off, but that leaves me broke. i would love to keep them both, but we dont have anywhere to keep the benz, and i dont have the money to keep both cars up to par. what kind of price should i be looking for anyways? if i had somewhere to keep the benz, some money to deal with, i might deeply consider keeping them both. a lot of sentimental value come with the benz. i really have enjoyed it. i would love to be able to keep it until i had more money to put into it, but i dont know if that is an option right now. thanks,

ra

By all means, keep that Benz. If you sell it now, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what happened to "the old girl" (or guy, I don't know how gals veiw their cars!

)

Find a friend, relative, etc. Store one vehicle in a mini storage for a season with just Storage insurance, it's dirt cheap (the insurance that is......)

Whatever it takes, you'll never receive enough money from that car to offset the family heirloom potential it has...........

Go beg for money if necessary!