Just in case anyone is worried about selling on eBay - don't be.
I have sold 6 cars over the last 6 months via eBay and no problems. The last two both sold within **5 hours** on a Buy It Now! Buyers came, inspected, paid the money (cash only) and took away. Best of all its cheaper than Autotrader.
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Sold my last car on Ebay, tried the Autotrader for weeks with nothing more than dreamers and canvassers replying. Ebay brought the results in days, cash on collection after a test drive and look over. Next time I will be trying Ebay first rather than waste time and money on Autotrader. I personally think the extra pictures and almost unlimited descriptive text available with Ebay is a big part of it.
Not sure if its still on but Ebay were offering a free listing week where you don't have to pay to put your car on. They do it from time to time.
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This seems to be the way things are going. I sold my last car on EBAY for £13K so not a cheapie banger. All I got with Autototrader was a big bill, loads of canvassers (if youre out there, go to hell !) and other assorted time wasters.
Basically the beauty of EBAY is that you have so much scope for describing more expensive cars in so much more detail than autotrader or other such publications.
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Ive sold loads of stuff on e bay, including a car and a van with a broken diff.
the car didn't do too well but probably as well as could be expected. The van exceeded my expectations, making any prospect of repairing it to sell at a higher price completely stupid!
H
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I got £100 for an ancient, seriously filthy, tatty, 250k Granada estate copmlete shed with a blown exhaust way beyond repair, duff wheel bearing, flat battery, 24 hours' MOT, not moved for a month, non-roadworthy - and that was what I knew about. I described it as 'sold for scrap - or whatever you want to do with it, buyer must inspect beforehand, not roadworthy so sorry I'm not prepared to let you road test it, must be trailered, I know little about cars (which is about true)'. It had cost £150 four months previously (off eBay), so that makes the value of the MOT £12 per month and it had done about 30 miles in those four months to and from the builders merchant/tip etc. Nobody inspected it, and there was quite fierce bidding with a 99p start. I dare say they'll have had to scrap it. It started first time with jump leads and a great cloud of white smoke, bloke drove it round the corner & it died!
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I met somebody who had sold a car on eBay for £18,000.
The buyer - a woman - came round, handed over £18,000 cash, took the keys & drove it off without inspecting it at all.
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I like ebay too, had no problems buying or selling...today is a 10p listing day by the way.
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Step-son bought a Panda Sisley 4x4 for about £300. when he got boted put on ebay and got about £700. Buyer drove all the way from Anglesey to collect. It needed lots of work before someone suggests £700 was cheap.
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I met somebody who had sold a car on eBay for £18,000.
Ironically, you are probably taking less of a risk on a newer more expensive car, (provided you do the sensible checks before), due to the car still being under warranty, and the mileage being more verifiable.
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This all sounds very encouraging. The clever thing about eBay is that it appeals equally to buyers and sellers, who both (usually) think they're getting a good deal - wish I'd thought of it!
Has anyone here had a bad experience with a car sale on it?
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I "won" an old Mk1 Golf, immaculate, FVWSH and about 9 months MoT. Went to fetch it and on start up there was a cloud of blue smoke, which got worse with revs. No mention of the problem in the ad, so walked.
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>>cloud of blue smoke, which got worse with revs. No mention of the problem in the ad, so walked.
Which brings us round to the best way of buying (cars and indeed anything else) on eBay. You need a disposable eBay id, just in case this happens. All you need to generate a new eBay id is a new hotmail address. Then, when you turn up to find the dodgiest car in creation, all you need do is walk, and then you can deliver a big fat negative without fear of the consequences of retaliation.
Too many people are reluctant to deliver a negative, for fear of retaliatory negatives.
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Too many people are reluctant to deliver a negative, for fear of retaliatory negatives.
I agree. One thing I have noticed is that sellers used to leave feedback (where they left it at all), when the buyer paid. Now they never leave feedback until the buyer has left feedback for them. Why?
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...sellers used to leave feedback (where they left it at all), when the buyer paid. Now they never leave feedback until the buyer has left feedback for them. Why?
When I sell something I ALWAYS wait for for buyer to leave feedback first just to make sure he is happy with it.
Likewise, if I buy something and am happy with it I will post feedback first.
I have bought stuff in the past and the seller has given good feedback before I even recieved the item and then griped when I gave a neutral. Better to get any disputes sorted before posting feedback.
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Too many people are reluctant to deliver a negative, for fear of retaliatory negatives.
True. My approach is not to leave any, which I guess is wrong as well. I have had a couple of dodgy sellers emailing me to leave good feedback "as they were new to ebay & needed to build up a good record". One took three weeks after I had paid for the item to get round to sending it to me. I explained in no uncertain ters he had two options - either I leave negative feedback, explaining why, or none at all. Never heard another peep!
But I would not like to lose my 100% feedback because of the odd moron.
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>>I agree. One thing I have noticed is that sellers used to leave feedback (where they left it at all), when the buyer paid.
>>Now they never leave feedback until the buyer has left feedback for them. Why?
Not universally true. But many sellers have had bad experiences with buyers leaving negs for a joke; indulging in extortion for leaving positive feedback, or just not leaving feedback at all - which is tedious when your livelihood depends on receiving f/b.
If an item gets lost or damaged in the post, for instance, it is up to the buyer to report this to the seller & give him the opportunity to resolve the problem. If the buyer just leaves a neg, then he is not a responsible buyer. That's how the argument goes, anyway.
>>But I would not like to lose my 100% feedback because of the odd moron.
So set up a new id for just buying. Then you can leave negs for morons who deserve it.
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Problem is that for big money items, sellers don't like bidders with little or no feedback. Very often you will see warnings of bid cancellation if the bidder has 5 or less feedback etc.
I also believe that having good and plentiful feedback will stand you in good stead with some sellers as they know you are a serious bidder and the sellers are more willing to answer questions and provide extra photos etc.
There have been times when I chose not to leave any feedback at all rather than leave negative and that was after the seller had left me feedback, guess I am from the old school where if you can't say something nice...
I don't have a problem buying from sellers who have had negative feedback. The important thing is to see what the negative feedback is, who left it and then check that person's feedback. Quite often you will find that they have had more bad feedback themselves and probably shouldn't be taken serously.
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I've sold a couple of old cars on ebay along with some other car related bits and bobs - they all went for more than i was anticipating and was much less hassle than sticking it in the local rag.
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My wife has a feedback of nearly 3,000 and 99.6%. She gets uptight when buyers leave unnecessary negatives, but with only 13 in 4 years and over 4,000 positives (many repeat buyers), the odd negative doesn't really matter.
Read the comments buyers leave - that's the best way to assess the honesty of a seller.
Chris M
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I sold a P reg Omega 3ltr Elite, the engine was shot and had 150k on it. Was gong to cost some serious money to put right - I explained all the problems with the engine but the rest was in excellent condition - ended up getting £800 odd notes for it. Was sold to a Polish couple who drove from east london to Southampton to pick it up, they turned up in a very worn out cavalir, then called the AA to take the Omega away whilst hiding the Cavalir. Was quite a scam they had going - I actually thought they were going to dump the cavalir, but they did drive it back!!! The only problem with the sale was that the auction was won by someone who had stolen someone elses ID and was trying the nigerian money scam, I managed to get hold of the guy whose ID had been stolen and he said they thief had won about 70 auctions that day!!! He had reported it to ebay 4 hours before my auction ended but they did nothing!!! So I had to offer it to the 2nd bidder - who refused and it was the 3rd who bought it - I lost about £90 between the 2 bidders so I refused to pay the FV fee, we nearly ended up in court but ebay eventually saw the light when threatend with the small claims court.
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ebay is perfect. I managed to buy a car off it for £160, used it for 7 weeks, and sell it for £30 (as the MOT was close to expiry).
£130 for 7 weeks motoring. Would have cost me hundreds more to hire a car for 7 weeks!!!
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I sold a Haynes manual for a popular small hatchback the other day, together with post and packing the bidding reached nearly sixteen quid. Now it may be a couple of years since I bought any Haynes manuals but surely they're no more than that brand new?
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Aprilia, any chance you could tell us your eBay username? (If that's allowed one here). I'd be interested to view your auctions. Thanks.
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I sold a Book "Porsche: Excellence was Expected" which I bought new for £30. It is now out of print. My immaculate copy fetched £95 on ebay.
Touch wood, no problems on over 100 transactions.: I would gladly buy or sell a car on ebay..
madf
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" surely they're no more than that brand new?"
Welcome to the "Ebay Effect". People get caught up in the excitement on the auction and regularly pay more for an item than it is sold for in the shops. Sometimes there is a legitimate reason such as wanting to use Paypal funds or maybe they are housebound and can't get out to the shops...(can't see such a person having much use for a Haynes manual though).
This past Christmas I sold a Brand new, but opened Tom Tom GO 300 (bought for wife's present, but got her a One at the last minute) for more than they could be bought for at Currys.
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I too have found the site excellent. Very handy for specialist or specific items. For me one was a CD changer out of a Terrano - less than a year old, fitted by a dealer for £500, I got it for my Primera for £60, plugged into the loom in the boot and the computer system recognised it. Other stuff includes parts for my pedal bike (profesional specification from some 15 years ago) - new parts via ebay from the US, all for less than the original price.
Just be careful, check out seller/buyer feedback !
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Why do buyers / sellers have "private feedback" ?
It seems to go against the whole ethos of ebay does it not?
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My recent bargain,front subframe for an MGBGT.New,around £1000,S/H £250,E-bay 99p.Few quid in petrol to pick it up but even so.......
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Why do buyers / sellers have "private feedback" ? It seems to go against the whole ethos of ebay does it not?
I can think of one reason - if you're a seller who also buys on Ebay, it stops people seeing what you've bought/sold recently, and consequently how much you originally paid for an item they're bidding on.
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I caught a seller out just this way - said he was selling the car as it was too big for his wife. Checked his past buys/sells, and he'd sold several he'd just bought, always with this reason. The one I was watching was even better, as he was using the photos posted by the seller, which is normally an Ebay no-no.
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Just sold my wife's old Clio (1997 1.2 Panache 5 door). Placed it on Autotrader for the package of one issue of magazine and 2 weeks on the web site. Advertised for £1150 compared to What Car private sale guide £1185, and priced generally just below similar cars.
No one contacted from the web listing, but had 2 serious enquiries from the magazine. One phoned early evening to see the car at 9.30 the following morning. Another phoned at 9pm and came and saw the car within 45 minutes. He liked it so much he paid almost the full asking price in cash and drove it away. Out of courtesy I phoned the other buyer to let him know someone else had bought the car.
So for a budget priced small car we only received 2 calls (but you only need a minimum of one to make a sale). I must admit I was very surprised at this low number as when I sold my Nissan Micra (1998 GSX 5 door) nearly 2 years ago we received over 50 enquiries. The plan was if it did not sell in Autotrader over the weekend then it would have been listed on ebay.
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Placed a car on ebay today, unfortunatly i've no facilites for hiding the number plate.
A lot of ad's on there have plates hidden have I done right thing?
Should I be worried?
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I asked this on here a while back. The idea is that a conman will take your pics and post up his own "sale", as he's got a valid reg no. to input into the Ebay system. You can't post a car on Ebay without a valid reg., as their system checks with the DVLA database (or something close to it).
I didn't hide the plates, but then it only sold for £116, which was expensive for a dead cert of an MoT failure with 3 months to go and no tax.
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I have been selling cars and vans on ebay for four years now ,you get more inquires and for me it works
Autotrader is still in the dark ages really and i dont get much of a response these days ,they need to think forward ,even their website is rubbish
yes theres scams and idoits ringing you day and night but thats just part of trading isnt it?
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As you may have notice ebay is on a free listing weekend for motors. It is interesting to note that the number of cars available has shot up for around 18000 to around 36000 - double. Autotraders days are numbered if this continues and i cant wait.
I have sold two vehicles on ebay wwith no problems and if you are accurate and realistic you stand a reasonable chance of selling.
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Does anyone else think the Motors free listing day would be a bad time to list your car? You only save a few pounds on the listing, but unless the car is a complete cheapie, the extra competition from other cars on the site could bring your final sale price down by a few hundred pounds, if there is the same number of buyers.
Even worse to list it this week, suffer from the same competition and pay the listing fee!
On the other hand, if you're looking to buy, this is the week to storm in. Lots more choice and more chance of a bargain.
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Placed a car on ebay today, unfortunatly i've no facilites for hiding the number plate.
Load picture into MS paint, then use the necessary tools to obliterate the numberplate. Save as a jpg image, and jobs done.
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Or, put a rag/ something over the plate before you take the picture!
My GF's 318Ci is on its second week in autotrader, and even the matching co's have stopped calling. I have had, however, 6 different scammers email me. I assume it's just cos it's a BMW, as when I sold my SEAT (at a higher asking price), I didn't get one. Will be on ebay next week
Does worry me, though, that a similar car to the GF's failed to reach its reserve, final bid at £6100 (hers is up for £8k on autotrader, I was thinking of a reserve of £7500). It's a 2000V car, 69k, no leather, but climate & CD, in steel blue (bluey-silver with a tinge of mauve). Is it overpriced?
Alex.
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Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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I looked on eBay last night, for the first time in several months, and found to my amazement there were nearly 1,000 Hondas and over 100 Preludes.
Due to awkward circumstances I bought my last Prelude after its eBay auction was over, which was a shame because neither of us could benefit from positive feedback, but the eBay system certainly brought us together.
However, I think I would find the sheer number of possible buys on there at the moment a bit daunting. If there are 100 reasonable sounding motors for your needs on there at once, how on earth do you choose which to pursue?
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>how on earth do you choose which to pursue?
Spec, condition, mileage, no. of previous owners, presence of FSH, distance/ease to collect, colour, private/trade, realistic final price v my budget all need checking.
Go through that list and even if you live in the centre of the UK you'll soon get the number down. Surprising how many are in Ayrshire if you are in Brighton and vice versa.
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A friend of mine bidded (bad?!) on a Merc C220 last week, assured it was genuine etc. He did a HPI test and it was Cat D. Now I know this can happen anywhere etc. etc. but it does show that bad things happen on e-bay... just a word of warning.
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