sold my car using craigslist

[braumeister]

The easiest way to sell a car we've found is Carmax. We've received what we considered a very fair price with no hassle at all.

 

[CRLLS]

I had half-a-dozen out-of-state inquiries, including one from Honolulu (what's up with that ). Those went straight into the discard folder . I wasn't in any rush to sell the car, and since the car definitely didn't qualify as a specialty vehicle, it certainly didn't require a special buyer. Reliable, low-mileage, older vehicles are in high demand. Many of the prospective buyers disappeared when I mentioned the anti-fraud precautions I was going to take. Good riddance!

I agree about not needing a special buyer for a common car. However, you never know about a buyer. If he/she is willing to travel a couple of hours to come and see it, they probably aren't just kicking tires. In today's cell phone environment, you can't tell from caller ID where a person is calling from. You can't not answer a call when you have something up for sale. Some people live near a state border, So the out-of-state buyer might be just 5 miles down the road.

In my case, I had sold both a fully restored '56 MGA and a homebuilt '60 Lotus Seven Replica. So those buyers won't be found right around the corner. One buyer actually flew in to look at the car.

 

[LastOfTheBoomers]

We've sold our last two cars through our independent mechanic - he charges a flat 200 bucks has a list of people who are looking for cars - and he can vouch for the car and then the new owner usually brings the car to him for service.

He is also a licensed dealer and makes sure the paperwork is in order.

 

[euro]

The easiest way to sell a car we've found is Carmax. We've received what we considered a very fair price with no hassle at all.

Yes! I just sold my 09 Subaru to Carmax. Last time I tried to sell something to them, the completely low-balled. This time, I went in "just for the heck of it" and was prepared to sell it locally, but I got an offer that I couldn't refuse from Carmax, so I sold it on the spot. I have always liked Carmax for the "no haggling" piece - I have also bought a couple of cars from them because of it over the years. Only thing now is that they basically don't have anything under 10k anymore, so that was too rich for me when I was looking for used cars for my kids.

 

[youbet]

If you have a well-developed BS detector, craigslist can work for you as a car seller:

It also helps if you get lucky, where you live, the type of vehicle, etc.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have sold many items on CL including an old car with no problems at all. My friend just offered me 10% of sales price to sell their old car which I will list as soon as they get the title to me.

 

[FUEGO]

Not surprised - those white construction vans are in HUGE demand. Many of the buyers are hands-on type of guys who don't mind fiddling with car repairs, but are generally cash-poor.

That was the case here. I think I posted a big thread about it about 1 year ago.

In chatting with the buyer, he said he had ~30 crews (in presumably 30 different white vans) doing drywall for new construction general contractors. Real estate is booming here. He rolled out a fat stack of mostly hundreds when we closed the transaction at the bank. He's trying to expand as fast as he can. NEVER would have thought this guy (with dust on his pants and worn out shoes) would be the owner of a small construction empire with 100+ employees and 30 crews.

But it explains his lack of concern for a misfiring cylinder due to a dead spark plug. I think he said he had a guy that fixes those things for him for cheap. I had the engine compartment (with access hatch inside the van through the center console) halfway torn apart and that's the condition I left it in when I sold it.

 

[FUEGO]

So by listing in CL, you are in a group of people where many of them are not highly motivated sellers. My experience was going to see a car that's way over blue book for it's condition and the seller didn't even want to talk price or fill in the details as to why he thought buyers would pay more than it's worth. This happened on several CL cars...every one I contacted, in fact.

This was my experience too while trying to buy a car on craigslist. I'd contact many buyers who were asking well over bluebook and ask if they were willing to work with me around actual blue book value. As in, the car was probably worth $9,000 KBB given options, mileage, and condition and they were asking $11,000. Most just said they weren't willing to go below asking or might take a few hundred off. I might pay well over bluebook if it was certified pre-owned from a name brand dealer and it came with a warranty and it was in perfect condition, but no way I'd pay that much if it's in regular condition, no warranty, possibly with latent defects and not particularly clean.

It's like they were pricing cars based on emotions and not based on what the market will bear. I would provide examples from nearby dealers who were asking $1000-2000 less than what these folks were asking for essentially the same car. No dice - I never saw a single car advertised on craigslist because the prices were so exorbitant, or they disappeared from the listing (removed due to fraud, sold because it's a great price, or owner decided they didn't want to sell after all).

I ended up buying a car from a used car dealer here in town. We saw the price drop and within a few hours after they slashed the price by $1000, we signed the contract. Turns out the car was sitting on the lot for 6 months and no one wanted it (people want the high end trim level with leather seats and NAV package). Independent mechanic verified it's in pristine condition (unbelievably good condition they said) and 1 year in I have done zero maintenance (but I am due for oil change and routine 120k mile spark plug replacement). Nice and clean inside and mechanically it's a gem. Outside is a little ugly with a few barely noticeable scratches and the tires aren't brand new. A couple thousand under blue book and about three thousand less than what the asking price on craigslist would have been.

 

[CaliKid]

I have bought and sold cars on CL with no problems. You can get scammer off any public sale approach so be smart and you'll be fine. CL is free for car ads so silly not to advertise it there. Some buyers use one website and some another so I generally list on autotrader, cars, and CL. Have tried to Ebay as well but it's not one of the main ones in my opinion. Oh ya, but Facebook is my favorite for selling cars. Way easier to deal with friends or friends of friends in my opinion.

 

[athena53]

It's like they were pricing cars based on emotions and not based on what the market will bear.

Or how much they needed to pay off the car loan.

 

[FUEGO]

Or how much they needed to pay off the car loan.

Wow, I hope not! These were all 5-7 year old minivans so hopefully they weren't upside down that far into a loan. I suppose you might be right though, if they overpaid big time then financed a used 4-5 year old car for a 6-7 year term. Hold it a few years, the price drops from $18000 (what they overpaid plus taxes and tags and "doc fees") to $9000 KBB, and they still owe $12000.

I really just think it was people who weren't very motivated to sell, or just wanted to try to beat Carmax's offer. Or maybe everyone else was trying to find a lightly used 5-7 year old Japanese make minivan so the competition was fierce

 

[Walt34]

I sold a motorcycle and a folding boat on CL a few years ago with no issues. In the case of the buyer for the motorcycle, he used his work e-mail address and I looked up the company's web site - I was dealing with an owner of the company, a small electrical service company in Harper's Ferry, about 30 minutes away, so I was comfortable with that. He showed up, paid cash and I signed over the title. He asked if he could leave the bike in the garage here overnight and he came back with a new license tag, put that on the bike and rode away.

In the case of the boat buyer, his phone # area code told me he lived at least two hours away and I figured anyone willing to drive that far was a serious buyer. He was, showed up and also paid cash.

And one time I bought a Nikon SB-900 strobe light from a guy on CL, he was ~2 hours away and we met at a halfway point.

 

[AutumnElf]

We sold our Ridgeline on CL last year. We loved that truck and took great care of it. But we moved across the country and just sold everything. We listed near the blue book value but a little above. We knew what dealers were selling these trucks for and we were listing under. We got a few people wanting thousands under what we were asking but we said no our price was firm. Finally, one guy came from 45 mins away with the money. All was transferred properly. We got a good fair price for the truck and he paid a fair price. He now has our beautiful truck. I'm sure he must love it.

After, we sold a lot of furniture too, all my husband's yard tools, etc. We had people wanting to buy all our yard tools for $5 or something but there were serious owners right away willing to pay a decent price.

 

[MikeD]

I sold a pickup in 20 mins

My wife suggested placing it on the corner on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. I did so at 8:30 am. At 8:50, I got a call from a woman who bought it.

My wife has a tremendous amount of common sense.

Mike D.

 

[MooreBonds]

Many of the prospective buyers disappeared when I mentioned the anti-fraud precautions I was going to take. Good riddance!

LOL....well, I've posted numerous things to sell on CL. If I had just a dime for every person who replied to an ad, that I follow-up with to confirm it's still available, and the approximate intersection the house is at and my cell phone to contact (or continue with CL e-mail if they wish), who then poofs, never to be heard from again. These are responses that I follow-up with within an hour (sometimes within 15 minutes), so it's not like I waited 3 days and they likely found something else. For many, I will even send a second follow-up....but again, no response. So while your anti-fraud precautions are commendable and a great idea for high dollar items, I wouldn't necessarily attribute the poofing entirely to your "anti-fraud precautions".

 

[sengsational]

I put the middle of the nearby golf course as the location and say "I live near the golf course". And I also put in that if you see this ad, then the answer is "yes", I still have the item because the second I have a buyer, this ad will be removed.

And STILL, I get the "is it still available" > "poof" thing occasionally.

 

[socca]

... I wouldn't necessarily attribute the poofing entirely to your "anti-fraud precautions".

Agree. It's sometimes difficult to separate the flakes from the scammers early in the negotiation.

The first three responses to my ad (almost immediate) were people pleading hardship and asking for a substantial discount off the asking price. Those went into the discard folder. One of them was written exactly like those old Nigerian scam emails I used to get.