Trying to sell the Sprite

[RickB]

I put it on Craigslist for $6000. No calls and no emails.
I lowered it to $5000 - still no contacts.
Lowered to $4500 - got two interested potential buyers in 24 hours - one coming to look today and the other coming tomorrow (if the first guy doesn't buy).
Sounds like I may have found the magic number.

First guy just stopped by to look, turns out he was totally clueless. Thought it was a big Healey.
I told him he'd pay 10x what I am asking for a big Healey.
Clueless.

 

[DRH]

Rick... Maybe, if not sold, you should try e-Bay. Even crummy ones seem to go for more than that.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Or... they have seen you lower the price and assume you are desperate and they are planning a lowball cash offer.

 

[RickB]

I received a cash offer that was 40% of my asking price today.
I told him that I didn't want to offend him but to forget it.

Anyone have experience selling cars on Ebay?
Want to give me some pointers?
I have sold a few things on Ebay, but never a car.

 

[RickB]

Ok, it's posted on Ebay.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190711282557

 

[JPSmit]

good luck!

 

[healeyboz]

Offend him? 40% and you weren't offended? You are way too nice.

 

[nomad]

I've sold 2 cars on flea-bay, Rick. If I do it again I think I will change tactic's. First was a good experience but just sold my MGA and a foreign bidder won the bid. Car was expressly advertised for North America only. Winning bidder tryed to tell me that pay-pal would not work for him and he had to have my bank account info so he could transfer money to me! Yeah, right!!!
When I tried to get E-bay to do something about it, I got nowhere. Now I'm making payments for E-bay selling the car when they didn't sell it!! No payments and they cut off my buying privelege! Car sold privatly after the sale with the bid price as a bargaining point.
I give up trying to deal with them and if I sell again thru them I will set a very high, unobtainable reserve but will put my phone number in the listing!

Kurt.

 

[JodyFKerr]

Has anyone tried having their car featured on Bring a Trailer?

 

[RickB]

I specified United States bidders only and
Block buyers who:

Are registered in countries to which I don't ship
Have a feedback score equal to or lower than -1
Have received 2 Unpaid Item strike(s) within 6 month(s)
Have received 4 Policy violation report(s) within 1 month(s)
Have bid on or bought my items in the last 10 days and have met my limit of 1 who have a feedback score of 0 or lower
Don't have a PayPal account

 

[58Custom]

I've sold 2 cars on flea-bay, Rick. If I do it again I think I will change tactic's. First was a good experience but just sold my MGA and a foreign bidder won the bid. Car was expressly advertised for North America only. Winning bidder tryed to tell me that pay-pal would not work for him and he had to have my bank account info so he could transfer money to me! Yeah, right!!!
When I tried to get E-bay to do something about it, I got nowhere. Now I'm making payments for E-bay selling the car when they didn't sell it!! No payments and they cut off my buying privelege! Car sold privatly after the sale with the bid price as a bargaining point.
I give up trying to deal with them and if I sell again thru them I will set a very high, unobtainable reserve but will put my phone number in the listing!

Kurt.

Not sure the problem here. I sold a car to a very nice gentleman in Australia. I simply opened a temporary savings account at my bank (Wells Fargo) and sent the routing number to the buyer. He wired the money, the money was credited, I moved the money out to my real bank account, a month later I closed the temp account. Simple. The person at the bank knew exactly what to do. It was painless.

As for Ebay, if an out of country bidder wins an auction of mine in spite of my assertion that the auction was for US only I can void the win and get my insertion and FV fees back. Pretty much without talking to Ebay.

 

[58Custom]

Rick,

Have you tried the Ebay classifieds? Plenty of exposure without all of the auction stuff.

 

[RickB]

I sold a car once on the site that Ebay put out of business (er that is, Ebay bought them out). That went pretty smoothly and my car went to a really good home in Pennsylvania where the new owner restored it to become a show winner.
Now that I have the ad up on Ebay I suppose it's done but maybe if it doesn't sell I will try the classifieds.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&item=190711282557

Already got a couple bids, nice high reserve so they have no fear of actually getting serious at this stage but it's kind of fun to see early activity.

 

[nomad]

I had an account just for e-bay at my bank but the bank kept getting where they should or should not put my money or depts screwed up so closed it. I suppose I could have went the temporary account route but would rather have the old courteous E-bay I was used to.
Now they have to have access to your account to pretty much do as they please. Bothers me but not my wife so I use her pay-pal account.
E-mails between me and the foreign buyer made me pretty sure he was trying to scam me.

Kurt

 

[Gerard]

I received a cash offer that was 40% of my asking price today.
I told him that I didn't want to offend him but to forget it.

Someone from CL lowballed you?... I'm shocked!

Just to give you an idea how clueless most CL buyers are, here's a car I restored (complete nut and bolt -fresh engine with less than 3k miles) I sold it a couple years ago and the guy who bought it from me needed to sell it quickly because of a short notice to move to Seattle. He offered it to me for a fraction of what he paid for it, but had it advertised on CL for $5500 at the same time. He said he had several lowball offers. I didn't have any place to keep it, so I called one of my friends who's a collector and has plenty of garage space. It took him less than 10 seconds to decide. I called the buyer, told him to remove the ad immediately and we went, cash in hand, to pick it up within a couple days.

Here's a pic of us bringing it home a few months ago.

 

[RickB]

That's a pretty car Gerard, glad you got it back.
Or did you contact your friend who bought it, not sure from what you said.
Either way, it's a beauty.

 

[Guest]

It's $250 to list on BaT.

I've done ebay but I find it stressfull, but that just may be me.

 

[Guest]

I told him that I didn't want to offend him but to forget it.

.

Oooow oooow owooow, lem'me do it!

 

[RaserX]

Hey man, will you take twunty dollerz for that little car that I saw on CL? In not I gotz a old sawsal I would be wilin to tread?

Lol... I know what you mean.

I attempted to sell a car on eBay once. Some kid bought twenty cars that night... I went two rounds with eBay before they gave my listing fee back.
That said I buddy of mine sells bikes ( motorcycles ). All the time with Little issue.
Nice looking car. Good luck

 

[Gerard]

That's a pretty car Gerard, glad you got it back.
Or did you contact your friend who bought it, not sure from what you said.
Either way, it's a beauty.

Hi Rick,

I would have liked it back, but no, it's not mine (anymore) I have too many cars and no space left. I had 3 cars in OP garages until I sold the Mini (now down to 2). I have 2 ongoing projects to finish and so I would have bought it only to resell it. I knew he would be the best as far as giving it a good home. I service about a half dozen of his cars (he has at least twice that many), he treats me really well, and I can see it anytime.

I only mentioned it because even a car this nice (and I assure you pictures don't do it justice) and so cheap, will get lowballed by the idiots on CL. I can tell you I was glad there wasn't anyone smart enough to snap it up though!... LOL