selling a car on Ebay - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

warren128 · #1 12-01-2003, 07:50 PM

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone here, or if you know of someone personally, who has successfully sold a car on Ebay?

If so, how was the experience? What are potential hassles, and how did you arrange delivery and funds transfer?

Just curious, I have a vehicle for sale, and I'm thinking that the large audience of Ebay may help boost the sale price. However, if it's too much hassle, I'll just try to sell it locally.

thanks,

Warren

djugurba · #2 12-01-2003, 10:18 PM

I sold my '67 volvo 122s coupe on ebay, only to have the buy-it-now buyer flake out because his 'loan didn't go through'... Ebay doesn't really care, and so you are stuck with the listing fees.
I threatened the guy and he sent me the listing fees by check as a good faith gesture of appology. His kind are few/far between.

Watch out for people who want to pay with cashiers check and have you refund any part of it. You dictate your payment terms; don't settle for anything else than what YOU want. With appologies to the honest businesspeople of Nigeria, If it is Nigerian, It is crap! (had a friend suckered for almost $10K). Noone is going to ship your car to nigeria. don't be afraid to stipulate US buyers only.

I might be getting ready to sell my other volvo on ebay soon- I try to give as much info as possible so as to properly inform buyers... as I would like to be informed if buying something myself.

Listing fees are not too bad, and depending on the final value, you might escape with the auction being cheaper than autotrader or the paper might cost for all the ads.

Good Luck!
Kevin

sixto · #3 12-02-2003, 12:32 AM

I had a deadbeat high bidder on a car sale and eBay credited the auction fees. Took two months of no response from the high bidder, though.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL
83 300SD ... $1100, see cars forum

engatwork · #4 12-03-2003, 05:37 PM

I have sold a few cars on ebay over the past couple years and the transactions have been straight forward and pleasant for both parties. My goal is that when I post a car on ebay I do my best to insure that there are no surprises when the car is delivered. In addition, I will not sell cars that are not better than my daily driver 300D and it runs/drives good but does look a little rough because it needs a paint job.

Lance Allison · #5 12-03-2003, 05:54 PM

I sold my Cadillac Deville on eBay about 2 years ago.

Actually I had to list it twice. The first time around, I agreed to drive the car to Alabama (from Illinois) for free to deliver the car. Turns out, once I got there, I found the winner was a young kid who backed out at the last minute. Talk about upsetting...I had to find someone to follow me there, drive 700 miles each way, etc etc etc... and the guy didn't follow through. Some people...

The second time, the transaction was equally as strange. But they did follow thorugh. The winning bidder called me about 11:00pm the night the auction ended and asked how far I was from his town. We figured on him being about 5 hours away. He mentioned he was leaving within 15 minutes and if I didn't mind, he should be at my house about 4am. Since I left for work about 4:30 at the time, that was fine...

NOT that I thought he was really going to do this, but about 3:30 I received a call asking for specific directions. Turns out he was about 10 miles out of town.

Once he arrived, he didn't even ask to test drive the car, look under the hood, examine the interior, anything. In fact, it was not in the garage and was pretty much pitch black outside. There was no good way to even see the outside. He took out this large bundle of cash and was ready to pay immediately...out in my driveway.

After insisting on him taking the car for a test drive and looking it over a bit, I invited him into the house to complete the transaction. I'm a car person (obviously) and was proud of the car, but he wasn't at all interested. He promptly counted out the few thousand dollars from a large cash roll and handed it over. I gave him the title and that was that. The person driving the other vehicle followed him as they left and I've never heard anything else from him. I don't think I ever even received his phone number or address.

I often wonder what happened to that car...

nhodges · #6 12-03-2003, 11:10 PM

Probably burried somewhere with a body or two or three inside. LOL

LV202 · #7 12-04-2003, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lance Allison
I sold my Cadillac Deville on eBay about 2 years ago.

Actually I had to list it twice. The first time around, I agreed to drive the car to Alabama (from Illinois) for free to deliver the car. Turns out, once I got there, I found the winner was a young kid who backed out at the last minute. Talk about upsetting...I had to find someone to follow me there, drive 700 miles each way, etc etc etc... and the guy didn't follow through. Some people...

The second time, the transaction was equally as strange. But they did follow thorugh. The winning bidder called me about 11:00pm the night the auction ended and asked how far I was from his town. We figured on him being about 5 hours away. He mentioned he was leaving within 15 minutes and if I didn't mind, he should be at my house about 4am. Since I left for work about 4:30 at the time, that was fine...

NOT that I thought he was really going to do this, but about 3:30 I received a call asking for specific directions. Turns out he was about 10 miles out of town.

Once he arrived, he didn't even ask to test drive the car, look under the hood, examine the interior, anything. In fact, it was not in the garage and was pretty much pitch black outside. There was no good way to even see the outside. He took out this large bundle of cash and was ready to pay immediately...out in my driveway.

After insisting on him taking the car for a test drive and looking it over a bit, I invited him into the house to complete the transaction. I'm a car person (obviously) and was proud of the car, but he wasn't at all interested. He promptly counted out the few thousand dollars from a large cash roll and handed it over. I gave him the title and that was that. The person driving the other vehicle followed him as they left and I've never heard anything else from him. I don't think I ever even received his phone number or address.

I often wonder what happened to that car...

I had something like that happen once.

I sold a Jeep once to a guy who lived five hours away. My ad was in a local paper and he responded. When he told me that he was five hours away, I figured I just had a flake on the telephone. He went on telling me how serious he was and that he wanted to come buy it. I described it the best I could to him and he told me he wanted to come up. His ride fell through the first time, but the second time he took a greyhound bus to the airport. He called me and I was shocked. I went down, picked him up, and we came back to my house. He test drove the car maybe two minutes around my neighborhood and then gave me the money. Never heard from him after he left the house. Nice guy too.

tabasco85331 · #8 12-04-2003, 09:49 AM

I sold my'79 450 SLC on e-bay. I kept the bidding time low, posted exterior and interior pictures with an honest detailed description. Highest bidder contacted me by e-mail first, then telephone. Made him buy a bank check from my bank, and signed it over. However, when he was driving it back to California, a water hose burst and he tried to give me a bad rating on e-bay because of a hose. Oh well, it worked pretty well. I recieved the price I wanted because it was reasonable.