Question about selling cars on Ebay.
 

Dear friends:

I've just taken a look at Ebay fees for selling cars on Ebay and it looks like Ebay is very much greedy in getting money from car sellers. For example, it charges $40 Insertion Fee for passenger vehicles AND another $40 Transaction Services Fee (similar to Final Value Fee for other items). That's a total of $80 !!??!!

Many people can only sell old cars on Ebay for $200-$300 and they have to pay Ebay $80 ! That's not reasonable at all!. Ebay should only charge sellers based on a percentage (variable depending on final value ranges) of the final price, not a fixed charge for all cars.

I wonder whether anyone here has tried to sell an old car on Ebay as a "regular item" instead of a vehicle, and that will save sellers lots of money because insertion and final value fees are much less for regular items. Does Ebay allow such a thing? If people do a search based on title or description, they will still be able to find that car (as a regular item).

Please tell us your experience of selling cars on Ebay. Thanks a lot!

Best regards,

Eric

You could try listing it in the Parts cars / Junk cars section.

The way i see it, people who sell cars on ebay do so because they have no other method of selling the car...... like folks who live in backwoods neighborhoods or places that have no sizeable market.

Othewise, there are plenty of online traders where you can advertize your car for free..... or better yet post it on the "car forum" here, assuming its an MB.

Another alternative might be advertising in nearest large city newspaper, even one thats nearly 100 miles away. Nearest city paper to me charges $50 a month for 5 line classified, ebay may not be that bad a deal - assuming you've got nowhere else to go.

Lately i've noticed plenty of MB's going for peanuts at ebay.... so its safe to assume itsa buyers market.

Ebay Cars
 

I am not defending EBay, but just think how many people see your ad, millions...:D

I sold 2 Saturns and bought 1 Porsche on Ebay. It works and I'd use it again.

Before EBay, how many of us would have even thought of buying a car 2000 miles away? Now that we're getting used to the idea, you can also use Autotrader or cars.com and set your search distance to 'all'. You can find cars that you might never see locally. And, for that matter, buyers. Where else would you find a market in Pontons? I owned 4 or 5 of them and restoring one today strikes me as a task only a special person would undertake.

If you don't like EBay, find out what it would cost for national exposure on autotrader- and let us know what you find.

Where are you located? If it's the Bay Area try using Craig's List first. I sold an Alfa Romeo (great car but nearly sale proof) on Craig's list in a week. Best of all it's free. I like EBay but I agree that if you are in a good sized metropolitan area it pays to try to sell it locally first.

Criags list is available in many cities. Just go to

http://www.craigslist.org/

You can sell/buy a car and get a date; all at the same site. :)

M.

Just as speedy300dturbo said you can sell them in the parts/junk area. If you look in that category there are many in there that say right in the listing that they aren't junk or parts but the listing cost a lot less that way....

I bought two mercedes on ebay, I bought my talon through autotrader. :) I also sold a Grand Prix on autotrader before, but have never sold a car on ebay. The real problem I see with ebay is the markets are always so iffy, one time you might sell something for $110 then after the person won't pay you relist and sell it for $85. (ask me how I know :rolleyes:)

Dear friends:

Thank you very much for all your information.

Best regards,

Eric

tscott, I too bought a beautiful 58 220S Ponton via ebay as well as my 300D. Ebay is one of the very few success stories from the 90's technobubble. Between them and autotrader.com I don't think you'd find a better way to sell a car. Either provide a lot of useful info when buying too. They both deserve to make a few bucks.

Speaking of Pontons, there's a 190 on eBay right now that has a totally new interior. There's something you don't see every day....

I've purchased 4 MB's on ebay, 3 locally and 3 quads on autotrader. I love having a broader market to choose from rather than the salt-infested Michigan market.

Don

selling on ebay
 

Just delivered the 1982 240D/manual with 146 miles on it to the successful high bidder on ebay. We hooked up at Moreland Ave and I285 south of Atlanta, loaded the car on the car dolly and he drove me over to the airport to catch a shuttle back to the house. Good dude, good transaction and not surprisingly a W123 diesel nut:). It is always good to meet anouther one:). He got a good car and on the way up there to delivery it I kept wondering why I was getting rid of it and even told him to call me if he changed his mind. The wife is the one that has been wanting me to get rid of something and now that I have I can't tell if the wife is happier or not:(.


I told the new owner about this site and hopefully, he will join us here soon.

Here was the ad that ran in ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2424615176&category=6329&rd=1

It's new home is in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia.

Engatwork, that was supposed to be me!! I, unfortunately, find my self suddenly (as of Friday) "between positions" having been outsourced by yet another unamerican american company. That was a nice car you had there. As unhappy as it is to sell a good one, at least you know when somone's paying 4 large for an old MB diesel they probably know what they are doing and will care for it the way it should be cared for. Lest we forget, there's always others out there.
Still hurts though, don't it ?