selling car

i put Aquacarina on ebay and got told off for no pics and not enough
detail, so took it off and relisted and then added pics. before there
were pics, i got questions, the best being "would you take 700 for it
for a quick sale" (dodgy practice which apparently i should have
reported to ebay). 3 days later, item all picced up, no further
interest. and no bids.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4575875966

also in narch there is a slightly upmarket but older version of the same
car, with pretty well no description, finishing later, which *has* bids.
so what am i doing wrong?

*sigh* this ebay-selling-ploy is much easier for clothes.

 

Hmm... whilst eBay don't approve of it (mainly because they then lose out on
some of the fees that would be due if it sold via the auction), it's not
necessarily 'dodgy'.

Main thing is, you should always put something along the lines of
'advertised elsewhere, so reserve the right to end the auction early' in the
listing.

Looks tidy enough, although paying the little bit extra for the 'picture
pack' may help - people could look at the then bigger pictures a bit more
closely, and you'd get a thumbnail in the gallery - costs 90p extra, IIRC.

That, and shots of it not shaded by the car port (people wonder if its
pictured that way, to make some possible damage not quite so obvious), and
more shots - one of the engine bay, and if you have the handbook and various
bits of history such as old MOTs, a shot of all that laid out on a table
normally helps too.

It may just be down to your location, to a certain extent - the Carina E,
whilst a perfectly good car, isn't really all that sought after. That, and
look how many others are currently up for auction; you've chosen a week to
list it when they've just done a 'free motors listing day', meaning every
pikey and his wife have come out of the woodwork; in other words, you have a
lot more potential competition for a buyer, due to the sheer number of other
cars up for grabs on there at present.

Have you tried sticking it in the local Adtrader yet?

It's free to place an ad, and I normally find that sub grand, run of the
mill stuff tends to shift quite well via there, plus your target audience is
invariably within 50 miles of you max, so more likely to be interested in
popping along than if they were the other end of the country.

You can list it with them via their website: www.adtrader.co.uk, although I
normally find it more reliable in terms of hitting this weeks edition, if
you ring them, and make sure you speak to one of their operators, rather
than leaving the ad on one of their answer machines.

Another couple worth trying, are www.loot.com and www.freeads.net.

HTH

 

The pics would look much better if the car was out in the sunlight. The
shadow in the first two pictures makes the car look pretty grim and
covered in dust. Or is it actually covered in dust? If so, then wash it


I don't reckon this helps "the old radiator had blocked up with rust
and overheated". I would just leave it at "new radiator last month". If
anyone wants to know why, they can ask. To me, the rust bit raises
concerns about the state of the rest of the cooling system and could
discourage bidders. It's a reasonably well specified car, so maybe try
to talk up the features like the A/C (assuming it works, of course).

Looking at completed items for these, it seems prices are all over the
place. I would lower the starting price to try to get bidding started.
Sometimes all it takes is that first bid to get things going. Once
someone has bid then the auction fever can kick in and they're going to
have it regardless.

Sometimes you just need to accept that there's no logic to ebay. The
same item can sell like hotcakes or die on it's feet just days apart.

cheers,

 

it says free ad and then wants 7 quid!

thanks

i'm going to try getting more pics. if you knew the saga of lost camera,
broken SD card, another broken camera, and rainstorm...

 

there's no room to get it out of the garage - the drive is full of
housemates' cars parked at silly angles!

ta, revised

 

Hmm... if you ring the local office, you should be able to place an ad for
free.

Oh dear.

I managed to get a half decent (1) 4 megapixel Olympus with 3 x optical zoom
for £99 recently, from Argos.

(1) Does what I want it to, as did the 2 megapixel Olympus before it, we
had.

 

that's a whole week's wages!

 

housemates got up and moved cars around and found a working camera. yay
for housemates!

 

That as maybe... it just seemed a good deal to me - clearance stock, hence
why so cheap.

 

Your starting price is too high. It deters the ever-hopeful who
desperately want bargains. Without them to start it off, the others feel
no need to come in. Start it at 99p or even 50quid, but not 250. Trust
me, they will come, and even if they don't you simply say it's been sold
elsewhere.

 

Get rid of the 'you can get away from the lights faster than most of the
dressed-up cars rocking backwards and forwards '. The sort of person who
will buy that car probably won't be the sort of person who's interested in
how fast it can pull away from the lights. That sort of comment might mark
you out as the sort of person who thrashes their car everywhere, and hence
put some buyers off.

 

Isn't that against E-Bay rules? I know a lot of people put that in their
ads, but I thought once you'd entered an auction, you were legally obliged
to sell to the highest bidder, unless the reserve hadn't been met.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Monkey

That's what Ebay would *like* you to believe.

There is no legally binding contract in place on either side at the end
of the auction.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000

 

Curious: Why is ebay different to any other auction in this regard then?

 

Don't take offence at this - take out why you're selling. The Motability bit
might infer the current car is modified for your use, which may be putting
buyers off. It's not that relevant anyway - just say you're buying a new
car.

 

What is it then? [1]

[1] I CBA looking at their T&Cs.

 

<SWK>[1]

They call it an online marketplace, you'll be hard pushed to find any
references to auction on the site.

</SWK>

[1] Only because I'm sitting in Brizzle airport hoping the line for
security is going to diminish soon. Pity I can't see it from the bar

 

Not true. The first thing you see when you start to list an item for
sale is a choice between an "online auction" and "sell at a fixed
price".

Still not sure if it's a legal auction, though. Zoidy is yer man here.

 

not offended
but... i *added* that bit because 3 people asked why i was selling it...
happily take it out again.

surely, if it were modded, i'd say so? and sell it for more dosh in an
appropriate place!

 

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