I know what you mean about being tempted to sell. I am sort of in the same shoes as you. I bought an 85 300td wagon with 150k miles on it last month from the original owner. I buy and sell antiques and need a wagon to pick up stuff, plus I love these cars. They have such a classy Connecticute look. I paid $3100.0 and put another $1200.00 to get her in shape(valve adjustment, filters, plugs tires etc)so I got $4300.00 in the car. I now discovered she has the beginings of rust! I pulled a few of the lower moldings off and see some spots. So now I need to do that. I know I can get for this car EBAY somewhere between $6500.00 on the low side up to $8500.00. So I am debating in my mind daily if I should fix the body or sell her. I know if I spend more money on something like bodywork that will be it, it will be the point of no return. If I am going to sell it now is the time because I can still make a couple thousand. So my wife and I talk about this every day. I say well I do need a wagon, and she says sell it for 7k and go buy a Buick roadmaster for $3500.00 whcih would be alot more comfortable. And speaking of comfort, I have a new Chrysler and I see a big difference driving the new car from the old Benze, dont get me wrong, I love the old MB Diesels, but they just dont feel as responsive and comfortable as a brand new anything.

Eskimo....In regards to your beginning statement, believe me there are more than one or two highly motivated potential buyers looking for a low mileage TD at any given time. Theres a bunch of them. So one bidder or the other getting sick or stuck in traffic when the auction ends will not affect the hammer price. Like grains of sand, another will take his/her place on a car like that. I've found that 10 day auctions are not the way to go. I know of many long time sellers that will tell you 10 day auctions, for some unknown reason, never seem to attain the top dollar. I always use the 7 day auctions. I've tried the 10 dayers myself many times and not once has it worked well.

The serious bidders will always wait until the final seconds to bid. I've had items go from $1500 to $9000 in the final 15 seconds. How do they do it? There are programs on the market that will drop your bid in the final seconds. My program drops my bid in the last 2 seconds. Why do they do it that way? Sugar draws flies just like bids draw more bidders. Plus, like I said before, more bids = farther up the ladder in the search engines = more exposure and more bids. When I'm bidding I do not want that item to draw attention so I can get it ,well, cheaply quite honestly. And there are many folks who follow the TD auctions religously, sorting by newly listed. Ask me how I know that!

You are right though.....with a nice car like the 57K one, I would certainly try a BIN first, maybe even a couple times. BUT....with that method of selling you do not get the exposure that a low opening bid/no reserve auction gets you so it may take longer for the "right" person to come along whereas the low opening bid/N/R auction can draw the very people you're looking for that will find it through a general internet search. You won't be very far up in the search engines with the BIN but you will be with the low opening bid/no reserve auction. And heck, if the guy with the 57K car throws it on auction style and it goes cheap, maybe one of us will get it. Just kidding....seriously, a car like that rarely shows up and believe me it would bring a hefty, if not record, price. The following for the TD's is definately there.

Learned all this computer crap from my son who we put through college and has a degree in computer science and now writes programs for many different companies. One guess who his most major client is. So, I kinda get inside info.

I was using the method of the opening bid was what I wanted to realize for the item. Since my son got out of college [3 years ago] and educated me on how the ebay program works, my hammer prices have skyrocketed. Of course 100% pos. feedback no doubt helps, but I've had that for 8 years now and didn;t notice my hammer prices increase substantially[sp.?] until I used the method of low opening bid/no reserve method. Sure, sometimes an item will slip through the cracks but thats usually on a common item and not something rare or unusual. It should be mentioned here that my main living is from the sale of antiques/collectibles but I have sold 25 or so cars/trucks/campers/motorcycles as well.

The ebay stores are great because when ebay has one of those special 10 cent sales or the like you can pop a whole bunch of stuff on in a short amount of time. Good move on getting a store. take advatage of the ebay listing sales. They certainly take advantage of us, not to mention Paypal. Don't get me started with paypal fees. Worthless bunch of lazy b's.

Try one of your items, something unusual will help, at a low opening bid/no reserve 7 day auction just to see what happens. Have the confidence to see it through. Best days to list are Sunday nights with Mondays a very close second, ending at 9 or 9:30 EST. I must tell you though that most things will sell at low prices during the summer months unless you have an excess of sump pumps which should sell well with the weather we've been having. But a TD with 57K will sell well ANY time of year!

Cheers,

Bill

Kobeck:

A brand new Kia is nice until it gets a little use on it.

Keep the MBZ.

I'm in the same biz as you and find the wagon very useful and economical too.

Cheers,

Bill

Bill:
Your right. Tomorrow I have to pick up a Federal Highboy I bought at a thrift shop in NY and it will fit perfectly on the TD wagon

kobeck:
Lucky you...I never seem to find a highboy in thrift stores around here.

I got an oak flat top desk and a stacking bookcase in my TD the other day. Wanted to test the suspension.

Cheers,

Bill