Question
Have you sold a car/cars on eBay? Any tips? TOS, etc?
I have a '98 Toyota Camry LE v6 to sell on eBay, and I want to avoid any pitfalls/problems as much as possible...
Answer
Lots of photos is good (after you have cleaned and polished the car...)
A good place to find this out is the eBay Motors discussion forum--browse through the posts.
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jsp?forum=20
Answer
Have neither bought nor sold, but have shopped. The ads that always impressed me were the ones with LOTS of pics, and LOTS of information -- work done, reason it is being sold, and a scan of a RECENT inspection if that is reasonable, given the starting price of the car. Y'know if you are starting it at $9.99, and it has 1,000,000 miles on it, an inspection isn't warranted. Just say it is a piece of cr*p. BUT if you are starting it at $10,000 I'd want an inspection.
And the ads that say something about "I will do all I can to help from this end to help the buyer arrange transport" or something similar always appealed to me more than an ad that didn't indicate the seller being willing to help. YOU may know you'll help, but SAY it, so the buyer knows, too.
(I was looking for a collector car at one time -- I wanted pics of the trunk, with the mat removed, lots of the interior, including instrument panel and dash, carpet, rocker panels, the whole works exterior and interior. And several under the hood. And pics of any places where body damage had been repaired).
Answer
I have sold 6 cars a motorhome a case tractor and not going to list a van.
Lots of pictures and every detail you can think of.
I've had people ask about bondo, picutres of the muffler from as far under as you can get. You will need the cars ID number so they can look it up. What type of miles are on it, street, long distance, dirt roads etc. I've had 6 people fly in and 3 drive in to see one car . It was old muscle car and I had 32 biders fighting or that one.
One car I only had 3. One car was picked with a car carrier company. Payment is always a bank cashiers check, and I turned the title over when I received the money. No one ever complained or tried to return the cars.
One car was my sons,( the muscle car) and the others were from people around town who heard about his car and wanted theirs sole. Commission was pretty good to.
Answer
We haven't sold any on eBay, but we did sell one on Autotrader.com and it worked out very well. We have another car we will sell this spring. You might check them out also. For about the same money it goes on their website and in their local print magazine until it sells.
Answer
Sold two......both with deposit by PayPal, if I remember right.
One was picked up and cash.
One was paid for by money order (by mail) and later picked up by an auto transporter.
Already stated by others....many and good photos. Think about what you'd want to see (I even did one of the wheel wells( to show no..or how much... rust) so it also caught the tire treads.
Interior and all angles.
I made it a good 'real person' ad rather than try to sound like an "used car salesman".
The one guy came right out and told me that he decided it was worth the trip specifically because of the 'realness' of it.
In neither case did I have any requests for more photos or more questions.
Answer
BarbNY,
Is there an high end amount you can collect on paypal or will they take any amount? Maybe that doesn't sound right.
I'll try to confuse you more.
Can I take a paypal amount say for $10 or $20 thousand.
On all my high dollar amounts I ask for a bank check. Maybe I am just afraid of a charge back or something.
Answer
I wonder...
Some States want people who sell cars to have a State license either as an auto broker or as an auto dealer, which has a lot of prerequisite requirements and other things like an escrow/trust account be set up. Being an individual selling only their own car and only a limit of a certain number of cars over a period of time is likely a loophole.
I sent a bunch of other info via PM.
The bank cashier's check sounds like the best payment idea. And completing the transaction within the seller's bank is also a good idea. That gets the title notarized, physically protects the seller from an unknown buyer (witnesses, camera, and guard), and allows the seller's bank to telephone the other bank and verify the check prior to completing the deposit.
Answer
ddh
I don't know
I only took a deposit but, with my new awareness of and feelings towards PayPal and the dangers, there is no way I'd ever take it for a large amount anyway!
As of now I am considering anything over $100 "large" !
Answer
I just sold an Historic Moto Guzzi Italian Police Motorcyle and it was sold within 24 hours via BIN.
I included many pictures, and lost of description from the owner.
When something is nice, it will sell easily, if it is in bad condition, don't hold your breath, unless you have junk price on it. (for parts for instance).
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ME:B:EOAS:US:3
Bob