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eBay Selling -- Pros and Cons
Hi All,
As point of introduction, I'm a Mercedes newbie. After many, many years of wanting an SL, I finally own one. I have been "lurking" here for a few months now, and you all have been extremely helpful (unknowingly). I was hoping I might get your thoughts and comments on the pros and cons of selling on eBay. I did not buy my car on eBay, but I've been watching the Mercedes on eBay for a couple years now. In a nutshell, I did as you all recommend - I found a good independent Mercedes shop and took my 380SL in for a once over. Long story short, the shop owners and I hit it off (they're great people) and when they found out I do a lot of internet work, they asked about posting one of their cars on eBay. I've bought and sold on eBay, so I said sure. I took a lot of nice pictures and put together an honest ad describing the car. No bidders what so ever (it's a 1977 450SL). So my first questions - do people really buy the nice, better running MB's off eBay? There appears to be a lot of "average" condition cars moving, but the ones that appear to be honest ads with cars in better condition seem to come and go with either no bids or low bidders trying for the "average" price. Of course then theres the "too good to be true" sale - I just assume those are scammers trying to lure folks in. Do you all believe that eBay sellers use mutiple ID's to bid up their own items? Or, for a no reserve sale that they post a high bid at the end to make sure a car does not sell for less than they actually want? I guess I was just disillusioned when another 450SL had a last minute bid of $9100 and my car didn't get any bids at all. I don't believe the last bid for on the one that went for $9100 was an honest bid. Anyway ... I'll lick my wounds, and keep looking for options. What are good sources for internet sale of MB's? I'd really like to help these folks as they have a number of cars and a lot of motors, parts, etc. that they would like to sell. I'm leaning toward enhancing their site and just posting all the itmes on their own site -- and, then let forums, other dealers, etc know there out there and available. Thank you all for reading and any comments and thoughts on best avenues for selling would be most appreciated. Carol |
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I've not purchased a vehicle on ebay, but I have purchased and sold parts, manuals, etc.
I don't trust the ebay auto community (just personal) for a lot of the reasons you raised as well as my belief that if you have a good product (in this case a car) an auction would be the last place I'd attempt to sell it. I seldom see high quality cars (great shape, known history, low miles) posted. They seem to be average to less-than-average. I've purchased on the WWW through collectorcar.com and autotrader.com and believe I've done well on both sides of the equation. Having said all that, if I lived in some place off the beaten track (Cut & Shoot, Texas?) and had a collectible or at least interesting vehicle and needed to cast a wider marketing net, I might consider ebay. I would, however, do my reseach in terms of value and set the reserve accordingly. I'd also be checking the feedback on bidders with great frequency. Ciao
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KyGuy '04 E500 Brilliant Silver/Ash (50K) '01 ML320 Desert Silver/Parchment (67K) '99 C230 Kompressor Black/Black (62K) '93 Mitsubishi Montero (134K)(Home Depot Express) '70 6.3 Gold/Tobacco (128K) (sold and now in Germany) '94 E420 Silver/Blue (80K) - Sold '97 E320 PearlBlack/Parchment (77K) - Sold '66 300SE Coupe (owned 2002-2003) |
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Hey!
Cut and shoot is fixin to get its very own wedding reception hall. Yep, you heard it first right here. We tried to get the owner to name it "tha hitchin post" but he didn't have a sense of humor that day. So if you're fixin to get hitched, ya may wish to hold off a few more months...
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"HEIDI" White 1998 E-300TD 176K European Delivery is a HOOT! 2002 Harley "FatBoy" |
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If you take a look at nearly any car make/model listing and then only look at completed listings I bet you'll be surprised to see that only about 10% of cars actually sell. This trend seems (at least from my research) to be independent of the car's "true" market value. What I mean is that, it seems to hold for $40K new Mercedes/BMW/Lexus etc. as well as $5000 Saturn/Honda 5-10 year old cars and everything in between. It seems that the people serious about selling cars on ebay (for a decent price) list their cars with reserves and then re-list them (often multiple times). From ebay's standpoint this is GREAT news, because they get all sorts of fees just for listing and then re-listing the cars. I think it takes more than 7 days to find the right buyer for any given car, especially when you're talking about a good condition 70s/80s/90s benz. The amount of people looking for those cars is significantly less than for <5 yr old used cars esepcially.
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Daily Driver: 02 E430 4MATIC In the family: '03 E500 // '04 ML500 // 64 220SE |
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try the free car sales sites. shot gun ads for possible results.
I sold a Lexus for a friend ($25K) LS400 about 1.5 yrs ago via recycler.com gut flew in from los angeles to drive car back from san francisco. this is a trendy site like craigslist and is free.
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1979 300D 220 K miles 1995 C280 109 K miles 1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD ******************** 1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD. SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego) 1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD |
#6
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I bought a car off of ebay and it was an awesome experience, but I think I got lucky. Actually I know I did. It was an MG so you have to decide for yourself if that counts a "car" anymore. I would be leary of buying a modern car online-too many easily hidden faults and gremlins in general.
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While I agree that you certainly need to be more cautious about purchasing a car online, I don't think its resonable to say that all or ever most of the cars on ebay are more troublesome than cars sitting on your local dealer's lot. Many of the cars on ebay are being sold by reputable car dealerships that are just looking to move more cars and/or increase their visibility. As with buying a used car in person or locally, the value of the car is somewhat dependent on who is selling it, whether its a reputable dealership that is going to stand behind the car or just some random Joe who won't care what happens after the money changes hands. I think that the most difficult part about buying a car online is the lack of a proper test drive and the difficulty arranging a pre-purchase inspection in the seller's locale.
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Daily Driver: 02 E430 4MATIC In the family: '03 E500 // '04 ML500 // 64 220SE |
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Was this your first car listing on eBay? For a car that's not particularly rare I wouldn't consider an offering by a new seller or a seller who's never sold a car on eBay for a long distance transaction.
eBay has pretty sophisticated tools to identify false bidding. There's no reason to engage in false bidding since a seller can end the auction with a second to go and claim a mistake in the description. Same item with same description is back the next day. Don't ever complain to eBay about seller practice or leave negative feedback especially if the seller has a long transaction history. That's just begging for eBay to ban you. Sixto 95 S420 87 300SDL |
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