Features How do price your car to sell or trade?

For a while ,I have been thinking of getting rid of my 41 ply conv. I first tried to sell it and a few people wanted to trade.No the economy hasn't been booming for many years , I understood it.Now recently I decided again to try to move the car and have had both trade offers and also asking how much cash I would take for the car.Now the car runs and drives nice but needs a few things done to be done mechanically(waiting still for the restoration of gauges..etc) trans leak and other things.A good driver -not a show car for sure.Now here is the thing. I am getting offers on cars for around $8000 or less and of course no one has come out to look at the car. I have been puzzled by the low offers almost laughing at these offers.One guy was getting pissed off at me for thinking it was worth more to me then $7500.Anyone else run into this? I may keep this until I croak before giving it away,LOL. Exterminator

 

put an ad up for what you think it's worth, and keep dropping the price every week until someone buys it. The final sale price is what it's actually worth.

 

Cant go wrong with that

 

The economy sucks right now,I have sold several cars in the last 10 years but it's a sign of the times.

I have a deuce sedan for sale and have had trade offers out the wazoo and a friends T bird price extremely reasonable and nothing has happened with it.

Money is tight and unless you have to sale I'm afraid your not going to come out smelling like a rose. HRP

 

Have any of those trade offers been what you thought was equal to your car?

 

I would list it on as many places as you could. If its got the original drive train or at least a Mopar one I would list it on one of their sites.

 

Put it on ebay , no reserve or take it to Barrett-Jackson. What it sells for is what it is worth to that person on that day. When you set the price... it is like fishing. Some days you catch them, some days you don't.

 

What do you think its worth? Some people actually have cars for sale, others just have em kinda hangin out there looking to get lucky, either too high or no price etc.

 

pricing is a tough one - try to locate one somewhere with close to what you have done to your ride and use it as a comparison - there is no guaranteed formula for selling/buying - "just" need the right buyer & right seller to be in the right place at the right time - have sold a car within a couple of hours of putting up For Sale - others have taken several months.

 

Here's what the NADA book says:
http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars/1941/Plymouth/Special-Deluxe/2-Door-Convertible-Coupe/Values

 

Surely you have some idea what it would take for you to part with the car. Ryan is kind enough to have continued the free ads on here though I'm sure it is sometimes a pain in the ass for moderators. If you are really serious about selling, post it in the classifieds on here with details, pictures, etc. a price that might allow for a bit of negotiation and roll with it.

 

True for some HRP, not true to those with pockets and those are the ones the OP needs to target.

I sold a 77 TA at the end of this summer for 45k. That is a lot of coin for a mid seventies f body that most of you would laugh off. The sale didn't happen by accident and it was sold to a dealer across the country from me.

Advertise correctly, e-pay and CL aren't it. Find a specialty lot and consign it, locally or nationally (don't confine yourself to one area of the country if the tap isn't flowing there). Usually you tell the lot what you want to walk away with and they add their margin to it. If they get a low ball they will call and clear it with you before accepting. Sometimes the lot just ups and buys the car from you because they know they will sell it sooner or later and it is good inventory (thus my last Bandit sale, above).

Another rule to remember, if you are not a salesman, hire someone who is before you end up accepting a $7500 low ball from a slick mouthed con man who spends too much time watching car flipper shows on cable!

 

As a buyer I ask myself is the seller adding a "Emotional Attachment Value" to the car or the part? It doesn't happen often but I like the people who simply want to move the parts and move on.

 

..........................I'm always curious and perhaps a little suspect when it comes to the NADA valuations on older cars. I guess I could understand values for restored or original cars, but I just don't see how they can value a hot-rod (or street rod) that could have such a wide spectrum of parts and modifications. I mean this car in particular could have a $25k blown Hemi or an original flat 6. Are their valuations solely based on comparable sales and if so how do they value completely unique cars?.Just my ramblings, feel free to ignore.

 

Good points, but I think NADA is referencing only original cars, not hot rods or modified cars.
If that convert has a 426 hemi in it plus lots of upgrades, it's a whole different ball game.

 

exterminator.I don't sell a lot of cars but when I do try and sell one, you always get low ballers and people that want to trade things.I have even had people want to trade me goats really?????? lol.Then you get some one who will say whats the lowest you will take for it. The there is the one who throws you an offer. I kindly say how can you make me an offer if you don't even come see the car or drive it. I never hear from them again. Its a game of see and wait .I have been sitting on 1 since last may{still driving it} I have had people get pissed at me too and leave remarks on my adds.Now I am even open to offers or equal trades. Just have to wait till after the holidays and Trump gets in office. I don't want to but worse comes to worse I may part it out in the spring. A couple years back I bought a monster bronco.It was real nice out of Flordia but the guys little kid climbed in it and knocked it out of park and it hit a tree. I repaired it but no wanted to buy it. I wound out parting it out and made more than my $$$ back. Just my 2 cents.Bruce.

 

This car isn't stock,has 360 chr engine,auto,9inch,4wheeldisc.mustang susp....Have two much money in it that's why going for trade.Been getting trades worth $6000 or less. Glad I don't have to get rid of it.

 

I just don't understand logic like that, at all. Do you believe EVERYONE who might be interested in that car "checks " every week, just waiting for price to fall?

At any time peoples preference changes and they might see your ad for the first time and say to them selves 'that's it, that's the one I want' at any price..

 

Some good suggestions here, do a search for your type car for sale to get a feel of what's it worth, emotion, your personal attachments to vehicle are usually in the way of setting price IMO, at least 1/2 of the cars for sale have "fishing" prices, hoping someone loves the car as you do and will pay too much for it, sometimes that happens, I'm sure, but again IMO, it will sell when price meets current market. Good luck w/ your sale, be realistic $$$ and have patients. Theres a butt for every seat, cover for every pot.

 

This is how you actually sell a car. If you want to keep it for a long time, then don't lower the price.

You can also put a line in your ad that you will drop the price every week, then do it. If folks see you're serious, they might step up.

Popular cars sell a lot faster than oddballs. I sold a few cars recently, the Chevys go quick, the off brands seem to take a while, and gotta drop the price a few times. I just bought another oddball, real clean, 42 years old, very low miles, for about 1/3 of the nada book value. The guy understood how to sell it, he dropped the price until someone bought it.

 

I think it would help if you priced the car in the ads, at least the potential buyers would have an idea of what you were considering a realistic price for your car.

 

Cant ever tell...If a guy has his car priced for a lot more than you think its actually worth, He may also think the car you want to trade him is worth a lot more than you think its actually worth, so...???

 

First thing you must do is establish what it is worth to you. This will most likely be more than most will pay. Then there is what you have in the car itself. If you are like most of us you have more in it than it is worth, that is just the way this hobby works. Those that say they made money on a sale are generally lying or lucky. Then there is what the market will bare....that is where you want to be. I know my cars are not worth what I think,but I accept that because I love the hobby and it is what I get enjoyment from. Once I have decided to part with it I know I'll lose some money.....but the up side is that I'll take the cash and begin another enjoyable build of another car on my bucket list. Check for comparables advertised and ask some of your buddies to evaluate it's sell price. Let them know you respect their opinion and will "man-up" if it is lower than you think it should be. Once you have a "real" price established add a few thou to it for negotiation and advertise as you like. I too have sold in a week and sometimes in two years but it always sold for the "real" price I set.

 

Lots of good advice here. Bandit Billy makes some good points. The economy may be tight but varies from locale to locale. Also between Christmas and tax time is not the best time to sell-but rather to buy from my experience. With that said, I have recently(in the past 2 weeks) seen a couple of 40 coupes sell in the high $60's low $70's so there are some buyers out there for the right car.

 

I think this has been the soundest advice so far, I think one has to to go outside of their local area and beyond the trodden paths to find the right buyer. Think about it rationally: what are the chances that someone near Victorville CA, on Hamb or scouring another website at that moment will be the the hunt for a modded 41 Plymouth? But someone, somewhere far, far away is.

I'm a CL junky, and more than window shopping I like reading peoples' ads over time as they try to sell their cars. It gets interesting when people start lashing out in their ads, here's part of one of my ongoing favorites, a guy selling his model A, probably over a year every day on CL ever evolving into deeper hostility:

"......if you've been looking seriously at these cars you have an idea what they are worth. Note the undriveable rust buckets that are listed for $8,500 on eBay and CL. Please don't contact me offering $1,500 and your minivan, boat, lawnmower, pickup truck or motorcycle. NOT really intetested......"

The tone is so aggressive, it makes me feel like the Evil Emperor in Return of the Jedi when he says to Luke Skywalker:


My point here is; we all get frustrated, but because no one is buying a car doesn't mean the potential buyers are doing anything wrong. No one in this world owes anyone anything. It's on the seller to find the right buyer, or compromise and make a deal.

 

Talk about dropping the price each week. Have never sold a car that way but did sell a house. Started at $135000 and dropped $5000 each week. Advertised in the local papers. Nothing happened for 4 weeks, then I got a lower offer. Said no, the price was firm for that week but would drop the next week. When it hit $115000 I got 4 written offers. Took the best one. He fell thru due to not getting financing, so sold it to the next guy.

I just wanted to sell as quickly as possible. $115000 seemed to be the magic price as soon as I hit that, I had lots of people interested.

 

Absolutely a must. If there's no asking price in an ad, the seller isn't seriously offering the car for sale. As for the OP's question, how to price the car in the first place, it is difficult. The best way to understand how much to ask is to study actual selling prices for similar cars. There are two useful resources that help determine the difference between a hopeful, but unrealistic asking price and what someone will actually pay: auctions and ebay. Auction sales are dicey, because the car you are selling is rarely in the condition of the cars they sell at auctions. At the high dollar auction houses, they routinely clean the cars and detail them to the n'th degree, repairing many small blemishes in the process. Few sellers in the normal market go to that effort. I find that ebay is a more useful source of information on real world sales. You can search ebay in a way that only shows you completed auctions that resulted in a sale. This eliminates all the hopeful asking prices and hidden reserves that did NOT result in a sale. Any ad that did not result in a sale tells you NOTHING about what a car is worth in the real world. The market is established by sales between a seller and a buyer who reached an agreement. An ad with a asking price but no buyer tells us nothing about the real market.

too many ads contain no useful information to help a potential buyer determine if they are even interested. I see it here on the HAMB all the time: ten or fifteen words that do little to describe the condition of the car, and one or two pictures. Some ads leave me guessing what sort of car they are offering: a few words that don't even identify the model, and pictures taken from such poor angles and in such poor light you can't tell what model it is from the pictures either. Then the seller keeps bumping the ad endlessly, wondering why they aren't getting any interest.

If you want to sell a unique car, pretty much ANY car we're talking about on the HAMB, it is imperative that you provide enough information to describe what you're selling. No less than several paragraphs should go into describing the condition alone. Condition matters above all, whether you are selling a show winning restoration or a project. In this day of cheap digital photos, there is no excuse for posting less than dozens of photos in your ad. If you want to generate interest, that's the way. Take lots of photos, and post them all. Take the photos in diffuse light: outside on an overcast day. If you try to take photos in direct sunlight, you get lots of shadows that make it difficult to see the car's condition. If you won't even push the car outside your shop, and instead post photos at funny angles because the car is jammed up against the wall . . . you're not seriously trying to sell the car.

Particularly if you are hoping to sell the car into the larger nationwide or even foreign markets, you must post enough photos and information to interest buyers. If they can't easily come to your house to see the car, show it to them in photos and words, and do your best to give them a complete sense of the car. Most importantly, show them the stuff that most sellers try to hide: scratches, dents, damage, rust . . . all the stuff most sellers hope to gloss over. If you take clear photos of the underside of the car, you SHOW the buyers that the car is rust free. If you show them photographs of every dent and scratch and cigarette burn, they know you're not trying to hide something. You need to describe all the car's worts too. A thorough description that makes clear to potential buyers that you are honest will generate much more interest than the non-descriptions we see so often.

While someone commented above that ebay and craigslist are not the way to sell a car, I disagree. I sell cars for clients' estates all the time, and I use ebay and craigslist routinely: ebay for rare cars or niche enthusiast cars that need to be exposed to a national or world-wide audience, and craigslist for something more common that will find a lot of potential buyers locally. If you follow the instructions I set out above, cars sell on ebay and craigslist, for realistic prices. Ebay is an effective way to expose a vehicle to a world-wide market. If you give bidders enough photos and words to give them a clear understanding of what you're offering, they will bid, and the price will get into the range of reasonable very quickly.

The difference between me selling cars for clients' estates and most of the sellers in the market is this: I actually want to sell the car, and I WILL sell it for a realistic price. I'm not just testing the market to see if someone will pay my optimistic asking price. I'm not willing to sit on the car for years waiting for the market to improve. I intend to sell the car, this month, into THIS market, not some future market full of high rollers. If you want to sell a car and you're willing to accept a realistic price, offer it, describe it well, and make an effort to help serious buyers understand what you're selling, and it will sell.

Learn to ignore the craigslist lowballers. They are a fact of life, sadly. If someone insists on making an offer for a car they have not even seen, they are not serious. If they try to get you to agree to a lower price before they will even come look, they are not serious. Don't even respond. Given that Craigslist is primarily local, a local buyer will come look first, then make an offer. If they are serious but not local, they will find a local acquaintance to come look and advise them. Most people in the market for some sort of enthusiast car belong to internet forums like this one, and they can easily find a local forum member who is already familiar with the cars that interest them, and send them over to get an honest sense of the car.

 

My 35 Cheby phaeton is worth my price any day. I just tell them to go find another all steel one as GM only made 210 in US / Canada with 647 in Australia. Mine is #507.

 

I price stuff what I think is competitive based on what I've seen sell with a little wiggle room; ie. asking 15,500 to me means I want 15. With the flipper shows everyone is watching I get offers for 7500. wtf? Take a hike. Like the used car salesmen credo, "There's a seat for every ass".

 

If you can sell X for $Y, then yes
It is.

If you cannot, no it isn't, then $Y - final sale = over estimation of value.

Simple economics. Then again the water down the drain swirls in the other direction down there....