I Hate Selling Vehicles

When ever someone emails me and offers me half my asking price I always reply something like "I guess I will accept your offer, I need it gone by tonight. Come get it at (some far away fake address in the middle of nowhere)".

bgkast wrote: When ever someone emails me and offers me half my asking price I always reply something like "I guess I will accept your offer, I need it gone by tonight. Come get it at (some far away fake address in the middle of nowhere)".

Not a bad idea. Except they can email you from a fake email and then claim they will pay full price only to show up and beat the crap out of ya.

I guess they could, but I have a feeling most of them aren't that bright...

In reply to plance1:

Still worth it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/25/georgia-couple-disappears-after-arranging-meeting-on-craigslist/

Yup

No wonder I find it so easy to buy and sell on Craigslist- everyone must be super happy to get me instead of one of you wussbags who Bob Costasaches about every little thing.

I've got a simple rule- if someone wastes my time (a buyer OR a seller) I berkeley with them enough to make it worth it.

plance1 wrote: This is the kind of guy that makes the rest of us miserable.

The kind of guy that makes yourself miserable is yourself. It's your choice to let petty E36 M3 like this bother you. I sell lot's of stuff and rarely, if ever, do I have a problem.

wheels777 wrote: Last Friday a guy bought a car. We negotiated over text messages. He rented a trailer and drove up to get it. We counted out the cash and he was short. He said, "that's what I offered." I scrolled down to where I said "No" and to the price we agreed to. Suddenly the rest of the money appeared. I wanted to send him away unloaded, but wanted the car gone more. Dang this need of cash!

I'd have seriously considered saying 'The price of the car is now $100 more if you want it" When asked why, just say that is the added annoyance cost of screwing you around on the price. But that would risk the guy leaving you with the car.

Zomby Woof wrote:

plance1 wrote: This is the kind of guy that makes the rest of us miserable.

The kind of guy that makes yourself miserable is yourself. It's your choice to let petty E36 M3 like this bother you. I sell lot's of stuff and rarely, if ever, do I have a problem.

This sums it up pretty well for me. I buy and sell a lot of stuff on CL and rarely have any problems.

I dunno, I've sold about 10 vehicles (cars and bikes) on CL, as well as purchased a few. I've also sold quite a few parts that I didn't want to deal with shipping. Almost every single time involves haggling; I think that's just how it is. I've never met anyone who was a jerk about it, and I've come to accept it, I suppose. If it makes them feel like they're getting a better deal, then that's great. Most of the time, it's worth more to me to just have the stuff out of my garage. I think not being in a hurry to sell (or buy) helps quite a bit. Then again, I usually have the most detailed ads on CL out there.

If I'm going to see a car or am not cool with the asking price, I will definitely let the seller know that I plan on asking less or something. Otherwise, I'm just wasting everyone's time if they don't want to move on it. I've never had anyone get annoyed with me for that, that I can remember.

Negotiation dance doesn't bother me much, I know that most people I talk with are dreamers. I have been on both sides, if someone makes me a unreasonable offer I say no, and really don't take offense as I am not married to anything I own, and since most stuff I have is race related I am use to taking pennies to a dollar. Although I have found it ironic how giving away items can be harder then selling, and newer/excellent condition items I always seem to get the run around or worst offers. What grinds my gears is being leveraged for other deals and inconsistent buyers (you either want it or don't, please don't string me along.) As I buyer I always try to follow up and say I am no longer interested or that is my final offer take it or leave it.

I have no wiggle room or patience on selling $20 parts. ie trim of any kind, alternators, starters and such: If you need it, its a bargain, if you don't, why are you standing in front of me?

You most likely already spent $20 to drive over!

If I am buying, I don't go unless its priced at what I consider a fair deal. If it is not as described, I don't haggle, I go home.

I also know that there are people to whom haggling over price is a huge thrill. I have zero patience for this crowd.

I'll echo the sentiment that giving away parts seems to be harder than selling them. I advertised the stock rear bumper for my Wrangler on CL for free. It was in perfect condition and the brackets had no rust and included the bolts. I just wanted it out of my garage. I ended up saving the brackets and chopping it up with my sawzall and throwing it in the trashcan after 4 weeks.

But yet some people spend $150 on the eBay for a stock plastic bumper? WTF?

How about a good story about car parts instead?

I find a rear end on a forum for $20 for project GMC. I had to drive in the truck to Knoxville for it. Tunawife and I drove separately, because she brought the dogs. It turned out to be this forum party, they fed me even though I didn't register, shook hands and met a few guys. Found the rear end guy, gave him a $20 bill. He loaded it into my truck bed and handed me $5 back. He said he was going to accept $15 anyway.

I sold the rear in the truck for scrap metal for $14 or something silly.

The hardest part of selling a car is finding a comfortable plaid suit and white leather shoes these days.

I have generally had great luck buying and selling on CL, but since this post seems to be about whining and good CL stories, here's mine:

I listed my Nissan Frontier on CL. I always go overboard on my descriptions and disclose everything wrong. It was an honest truck at a good price. Guy calls me Saturday morning from a town about and hour away and asks me my bottom dollar, which I tell him. Says he's on his way. Well, he's late and I have stuff to do. Rolls up as the passenger in his girlfriends vehicle and she leaves him. (Normally I need a vehicle as a deposit if you're going to test-drive, but alas.) He goes over the truck and takes it for a test drive. Comes back 15min later and offers me (maybe $500?) less than the agree price and starts peeling off hundeds on the hood. I say no and he got three flavors of pissed. "But I have CASH!"

I don't need the cash that bad and he wasted my time. He had to call and wait for his girlfriend to show back up and was seriously aggro, I wasted half my Saturday and got to enjoy an awkward 30min waiting on his ride. I sold the truck the next Tuesday to a younger, polite guy who genuninely appreciated it and for more than I had agreed to with the jerk.

I guess the moral of the story is to respect your own time. I didn't want to dick around with it on Saturday and I shouldn't have agreed to.

This is a text conversation I had with a guy when I was selling my wife's car.

http://i.imgur.com/oOrvldq.jpg

Harvey wrote: This is a text conversation I had with a guy when I was selling my wife's car. http://i.imgur.com/oOrvldq.jpg

That was fun, thanks for sharing. I figured it was an auto reply spam bot, turns out it was a real idiot and you were having fun with him.

Petrolburner wrote:

Harvey wrote: This is a text conversation I had with a guy when I was selling my wife's car. http://i.imgur.com/oOrvldq.jpg

That was fun, thanks for sharing. I figured it was an auto reply spam bot, turns out it was a real idiot and you were having fun with him.

I had a similar conversation with a guy who was looking to buy a rear axle from an MGB. Well, was responding to an ad for a rear axle for an MGB. It was so clearly obvious he had no clue what it actually was, he was leading up to the "I accidentally sent you too much money" pitch. Messed with him for a while, I'll have to see if I have a record. I remember frantic WHAT IS GOING ON??? texts after the counterfeit money orders arrived and I kept "having trouble" transferring his money via Western Union.

The $20k to the White House was similar. Mid-conversation with the scammer, I told him I realized my engineless GTX was worth more than I thought, so it was now $20k instead of $3k (or whatever I was asking). That was just fine, no problem...

I might have to renege on my earlier statement. I'm trying to sell a cheap "racing" Corbeau seat that I've had in the E30 for autocrossing (I'm tall and my helmet hits the headliner) and I haven't gotten a single offer over half of what I'm asking for it, and I'm definitely not being unreasonable.

I blame this on you guys. You jinxed it for me.

It's strictly business for me. I don't go in for any of that passive-aggressive stuff like raising the price if they lowball you. The only people I don't treat with respect are the obvious scammers. As for the rest, you never know, they may be shiny happy people, but their money is as green as anyone else's.

I've found that one way to make the process as painless as possible is to make a very detailed ad with lots of pictures, and to be honest. That way they have a pretty good idea of what they are looking at. Plus, it makes long-distance people more comfortable about considering making the trip if they have confidence in the car, which makes for a larger pool of potential buyers.

It doesn't always work, though. The toughest time I've had was certainly the GTO last fall, which is why it's still sitting in my barn under a car cover rather than in someone else's driveway with the money in my bank account. I got plenty of bites on it, including the usual lowballers, but one guy who went so far as to make a deposit before backing out due to a family emergency. Maybe it was legit, maybe not, but I sent him back his money anyhow. It's not worth being a dick about it, IMO. I'm blaming it on the time of year (late fall), and am going to try again in the spring. Hopefully it goes faster. I really do need the money.

NGTD wrote: I love buying and selling vehicles. Everything posted in this thread is just part of the game. You gotta roll with it.

Lof8 wrote: I'm often looking at vehicles via the Internet that are hundreds of miles away from me. I'm not willing to make the drive unless I know the seller is willing to go down to a price that I find acceptable. If the seller can't do some negotiating via email, then I don't make the drive.

These two things. If I think your price is unreasonable, I need to get the price in a ballpark range I am happy to RISK spending the time/money going and looking at it. Most people do NOT have ANY god damn idea what their vehicle is worth.

Just as you must weed out buyers, you also need to weed out drug-induced sellers (look at the crack-pipe or not craiglist thread).

It is the game. Only thing that really, truly infuriates me are people who won't sell to you, and then trade it in for a lower price then you offered. That E36 M3 makes my blood boil.

Except they get tax dollars when they trade, so sometimes trading it in actually may get them more money than your offer.

My biggest problem with buying or selling on CL is most people are clueless, dishonest and out of their minds. My two worst were these. About 5 years ago, selling a '95 Mustang GT vert, a decent car with some minor issues for a reasonable amount, $4500. Kid comes over to look at it one afternoon and falls in love with it. Says he needs to bring his Mom back the next day to look at it, (she is paying for it, they show up the next day with another "inspector" in tow.) Guy goes over all the things wrong with the car with the mother, (all these items were listed in the ad and discussed with the kid the day before)she offers half and I say thanks but that won't happen, explained I reduced the price of the car to reflect the issues. After an hour of dancing back and forth she says fine we'll give you the $4500. Can you hold it for a week? I asked why and they said they were waiting for a check from someone and would have it the next week. I hadn't had any reasonable offers up until then so I told them if they left a sizeable non refundable deposit I would hold it one week. She said they would leave $500. I say OK and we did some paperwork. Sure enough a week later they show up, but she only brings a personal check from a credit union 50 miles away and doesn't seem to understand why I might be a little nervous letting them drive away a car for $500. Ended up taking the check and holding the car for another day so I could go cash the check at her bank. Then 29 days later she calls and says I sold her a POS and she wants her money back (In MA even private sales are subject to lemon law rules)fortunately she went away after a few calls. Around the same time I was looking to buy a parts car, found a nice looking RX7 in CT about a 3 hour drive from home. Ask for extra pics as the CL ones were not great. Asked a bunch of questions of the seller seems like a decent deal. According to the ad and the phone call with the seller, the car has a fresh paint job, interior is in fair shape and the engine is complete, but it is in the hatch not under the hood where it should be. The pics that were sent to me back up the story so off I go. Three hours later I pull into this very sketchy looking apartment complex and start winding my way through the maze that is their parking lot. Trying to figure out if I need to leave in a hurry if there will be any way to back the trailer out of this place. Finally I round a corner and see this totally beat RX7. True it had a fresh paint job, with zero prep work done, painted right over the rust, trim, everything including the grapefruit size hole in one of the doors, interior is mostly gone and the engine is in a thousand pieces in the back. I was so pissed that if he had offered me $1000 to take it to a junkyard I wouldn't have done it. Now I request current photos and ask more detailed questions before I leave the drive way. I always list stuff for sale to sound worse than it is so the potential buyer will be pleasantly surprised instead of being disappointed by a sugar coated ad. Still a pain no matter which side you are on, but all in all a cheap way to get rid of stuff you don't want anymore.

NOHOME wrote: I have no wiggle room or patience on selling $20 parts. ie trim of any kind, alternators, starters and such: If you need it, its a bargain, if you don't, why are you standing in front of me? You most likely already spent $20 to drive over! If I am buying, I don't go unless its priced at what I consider a fair deal. If it is not as described, I don't haggle, I go home. I also know that there are people to whom haggling over price is a huge thrill. I have zero patience for this crowd.

Agreed. It's ok if you're one of these guys who get their rocks off over twenty bucks like the one guy on here. Hey if that's all you've got going on your life then to each his own. Whatever gives you that thrill you're seeking. But if a seller tells you up front he's not negotiating, and you come along and START NEGOTIATING!!!!, then that makes you a goof who can't read and who doesn't understand that by bitching over twenty bucks (when you have already established you will gladly pay the twenty dollars) you're rudely wasting the seller's time. That's what the guy above can't seem to fathom.