PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - In light of everything that I had been said, i feel a deep regret of having posted...

suginami · #8 12-26-2002, 02:48 PM

I have bought and sold all of 9 my cars private party, and my experience was the same everytime:

It is very hard and takes a looong time.
It is extremely frustrating.
You lose your self-confidence.
You look at KBB values and price your car accordingly, put a sign on the window, and advertise in local papers, Auto Trader Magazine, cars.com, autotrader.com, etc., and get no response. Zero.
Nada.
You wait a week or two, and then lower the price a couple hundred dollars.
And then get no response again.
You wait another week and drop the price about $500. Now you're at close to or right at KBB wholesale value, and think to yourself now someone is gonna jump on this right away!
And you wait and wait and wait, and get no calls. And then the first guy calls and says he'll meet you in front of the local supermarket.
You wash the car and wax it, detail inside and out, get there early, and wait and wait and wait, and he doesn't show up.
The following week, you drop the price below KBB wholesale value, run the ad again, and park your car on the corner of a busy intersection, or in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart. Nothing happens.
You end up parking the car on the side of busy street with the sign still in the window. Weeks go by, maybe even a month or two, and one day you get a call from a guy out of the blue who says, "yer car still for sale? I saw it parked in the local Wal-Mart a couple of months ago, jotted down the phone number, lost it, and then found it yesterday under the passenger seat in the car. I was wondering if you'll take $2,500 for the car?"
You think to yourself, holy ****! I started out asking $6,500 for the car, and ultimately dropped the price to $5,000. Should I sell the car for $2,500???? And you end up taking the deal because you just want to get the car out of your life and off of your insurance policy.

And the funny thing is, most of my cars sold that way, although I really didn't sell the car for that much of a discount. But the fact remains that all the cars I bought and sell went for right at, above or below KBB wholesale blue book value. My Mercedes I bought for more than $1,000 less than KBB wholesale value and it was in nearly perfect shape, dealer maintained.
And they all had between 85,000 and 135,000 miles on the odometer, had a perfect maintenance record with all receipts, and were in virtually flawless condition inside and out. And in every case the first person that actually looked at the car bought it.

I have found KBB pricing is pie in the sky high, even with Mercedes, and most people here seem to disagree with me on this. But that's o.k.

I have also found that in my own personal experience in buying and selling my cars private party and watching and listening to the experience of others, is that everyone over-estimates the value of their own car.

And just to satisfy your curiousity, the cars I've bought and sold private party are: 1965 Chevelle El Camino, 1978 Datsun B210, 1989 Audi 90, 1993 Nissan Quest Minivan, 1994 Dodge Intrepid, 1992 For Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition, 1994 Infinity G20, 1994 Mazda Protege LX, and my Mercedes.