Does anyone here have experience of selling a vehicle by, say, BCA, as against a smaller local vehicle auction site?
I'm obviously interested in seller's total fees and costs and whether it is just a question of turning up with the vehicle and a few bits of documentation and receiving a nice cheque in the post as the websites imply. Can one specify, for example, a reserve price (eg ?500 on a vehicle valued at between ?1k to 1.5k)? Any other things to be aware of?
Is it worth an amateur like me contemplating this at all?
Sorry about the cross-post, but thought it might be worthwhile here.
Thanks Jim, and it does indeed not seem to be a popular way of selling an individual car. The trouble is that time constraints are in the way of ebay and the friend who went down that route had a horrendous experience.
I've never bought or sold a car on Ebay, but have heard plenty of first hand stories to make me avoid it. But mainly with classic cars. Most common one is winning an auction them not proceeding. So just wasting time. Next is trying to reduce the winning sum bid on collecting the car.
I have sold at a proper auction. Just a normal sort of lowish value used car. That was painless - but didn't make strong money despite being a decent enough medium sized car which needed nothing spent on it.
I just sold my van to original garage that sold me it. He actually phoned m e to offer me a price. I checked price on webuyanyvan and he matched it. 11 year old connect and I got £550 for it. Quickest sale ever
If you're going to sell privately, I'd suggest Autotrader over ebay auctions (though an ebay classified might be OK).
The problem with ebay auctions is that the buyer can't turn up, view the car, and make a deal on the spot. They have to go home, place a bid, hope it's successful - and if it is then they have to make another trip to collect the car. Because they don't know they're successful until auction close, they have to view and bid on lots of cars in the hope that they win one. This wastes lots of time - of both buyers and sellers. It also encourages people to bid on cars they haven't seen, which is a recipe for them dropping out when they discover something not obvious from the listing. (or making up such an excuse).
With Autotrader, you know if you have a deal before leaving the viewing - at which point both buyer and seller know where they are. My understanding is ebay is enough hassle that the prices are therefore lower than Autotrader - though that's a plus for a canny buyer.
I don't know seller fees for BCA or Mannheim, but private buyer fees are pretty steep (depends on value but ballpark many hundreds of pounds). So it's likely not going to be worthwhile unless you know someone with a trade account. WeBuyAnyCar is owned by BCA, by the way - that's where some of their stock comes from. I don't know which of WBAC or a private sale at BCA will give a higher return - I suspect the private sale since you take the risk.
I disagree, having bought one car on eBay and sold three (one of which was a non-runner). All sales went smoothly.
As a seller, the trick is perhaps to end the sale on a Saturday evening having offered to show the car the previous few days. In any event, unless they are going to trailer it away, a buyer can't arrange insurance on the spot and will want to come back a day or to later to collect.
E-Bay worked for me. I'd been very reluctant but had a word with a local used car dealer we've used and had some secret insider pointers.
I was actually selling my mums 3 wheeler. Just added it with the condition of winning bid must pay £100 non-refundable deposit by paypal on successfully winning the auction with the balance of cash on collection.
I listed it with every imperfection detailed and pictured so the purchaser couldn't say the advert was misleading. However the most important thing which makes a huge difference to the final selling price is to list it on a Sunday night around 20:00 hrs so it finishes the same time the following week.
This one simple thing made the difference between it being sold for £700 first time round when I made the mistake of the auction ending on a Wednesday night (which the buyer subsequently pulled out of due to "work commitment in another country") and selling it for £900 2 weeks later after re-listing Sunday night it as he'd suggested!
If it's actually worth selling it will sell on e-bay and even if there aren't any bids right up to the an hour before the listing ends don't give up hope, that's when the 2 bidders that really want it will pay top market value. :)
That said this was the only one I've sold on e-bay but it's where our garage trader chum buys and sells the majority of his motors.
Does anyone here have experience of selling a vehicle by, say, BCA, as against a smaller local vehicle auction site?
I'm obviously interested in seller's total fees and costs and whether it is just a question of turning up with the vehicle and a few bits of documentation and receiving a nice cheque in the post as the websites imply. Can one specify, for example, a reserve price (eg £500 on a vehicle valued at between £1k to 1.5k)? Any other things to be aware of?
Is it worth an amateur like me contemplating this at all?
Sorry about the cross-post, but thought it might be worthwhile here.
Who uses auctions? best for big fleet operators. Police cars?
I did buy a car from BCA in the 80's. A lovely Fiat 132 1800 GLS, One hour warranty for major faults. Oh buy the way, clutch cable broke, warranty expired of course, but I figured to drive without it. A bit tricky at traffic lights; green was preferable...
Last time I was changing the dealer told me he intended to ship my car to t he middle East. (It was a well specced 4 year old BMW 730d.) When I didn't get back to him the next day he phoned to drop his price (on a new Mercedes E280) by a further £1000. Put me clean off
In February, webuyanycar offered just over ?1000 for my Jeep Grand Cherokee. In July, they offered ?340 for the same car. On both occasions after I didn't respond, they upped the offer by about ?100 a few days later.
Maybe their paperwork is good, but neither offer impressed me.
Used them to get shot of a rapidly failing rover 216 cabriolet P reg. After struggling through southend evening traffic, drove it on their reception forecourt at just the right moment before the engine completely seized and life was declared extinct. The mechanicals had just gone too far south, OK'ish body though.
£99 was gained for that performance. I expect it's now been slung, drawn and quartered.
Beforehand, we'd phoned up some scrap metal dealers but none had any interest in sending out a trailer for it, and neither did some 'collectors' that maybe could have done something with it.
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