Selling a vehicle on Craigslist

Strong Bad

Has anyone sold a vehicle on Craigslist? I'm looking to get rid of my Explorer and refuse to get boned in rear with the dealer trade in price.

Any tips would be appreciated. I did get it cleaned inside and out and will be taking photos of it (inside and out). I also did a Kelly Blue Book search and found what it's worth. I do have a price in mind to list it for VS what I actually am comfortable in taking for it.

Some questions for ya'll...

Should i produce all the paperwork for the work thats been done on it including basic maintenance? The tranny that was just installed last week comes with a 2yr/24k warranty. The entire rear axle was replaced a year ago. I got new tires, brakes and alignment last August. It looks phenominal!


John

BaggedLancer

The more documentation you have for it the more it's worth in my opinion. Show that everything is well maintained and remember, PICTURES SELL. Make sure that truck is clean as possible, washed, waxed, vacuumed, etc. You can only have 4 pics so make them good. Offer test drives but make sure you go for the ride, some people just like to joy ride.

MKZ

+1.
You can use
http://www.flickr.com/
http://photobucket.com/
to host your pictures for FREE. I have sold 4 of mine. Accept only CASH or Certified Cashier Check from the bank you can verify.

madmax

The more organized you look the more confident the buyer will be. I would put together a folder of some sort with all the info.
madmax

danger boy

be careful though on CL selling cars.. one local women here sold her's that way.. and she is being charged with check fraud.. the buyer sent her a check for it.. the bank accepted it no problem. they cashed it for her.. well 4 month's later, she gets a call from the sheriff's dept.. saying that check was no good.

she might not have to do any jail time.. but she nearly did. I mean.. it would suck if you had to do jail time Strong Bad. :eek: the feds take check fraud very serious.

Personally, I'd only do it if the person could pay cash.. even then.. the bills could be fake. BE VERY CAREFUL!

shadowofnight

Pictures sell and cash on the barrelhead...live by those 2 things and your vehicle will sell really fast and you wont get screwed.

bobman1235

I'm sorry but it's not to bright to take a personal check for a car.

Bank check / MO or cash, all the way. Good luck.

Strong Bad

Good advice guys, thanks.

Essentially, if I can get enough to pay this damn headache off, I'll feel it a big victory in my mind. The Kelly Blue Book on it, even the lowest price, is still more than I owe.

Dangerboy, you bring up the things that have entered my mind about selling on my own. I'm also not comfortable in letting total strangers in the house either. The internet, unfortunately, has grown into a haven for fraud.

It's nice to have options though. I have 5 quotes on a new Accord from 5 different dealerships. I should have all of them calling me by Thursday to kiss my **** so they meet their end of month sales quotas.

michael_w

Provide all documentation, spell everything in your ad correctly, provide a phone number and skip uploading pics with craigslist - use imgshack or some other hosting site and use html tags to embed the images into your ad. That way you can make them larger, organize it well and have more than 4 if you really need it. Some good photos shouldn't be too hard with your skills + d200 :cool:

I searched for a car for a few months on craigslist as well as other online sites and it was amazing how many bad ads there were. Common mistakes were all capitals, spelling, no mileage, secretive of it being classified as a rebuilt or major work done etc and one very common thing that had me move onto a different ad in a heartbeat was when someone listed their stock civic and tried to push it off as a very fast sports car - a good sign it's been driven hard and I don't want to buy it.

Keep in mind that if you don't specify that the price is firm, the buyer expects to haggle the price down a fair chunk.


Good luck!

billbillw

I sold my wife's old car on CL last spring. Just clean it up, take a couple decent pictures, put simple but relevant information, and most importantly, just price it right. Look at what fair market is. Don't dick around asking $1000 more than what BlueBook or NADA says. I priced mine just a little below Kelly Bluebook (because the vehicle wasn't in great shape) and I sold the car within 24 hours. Take only cash or a meet for the title exchange at a bank where you can witness them printing the check for you.

SKsolutions

Recently sold via private sale. Posted to CL three time in a week, and got about 30 calls. 6 people drove the car, all wanted a huge discount, when my price was more than fair. Got tired of the tire kicking and haggling, so I listed it on ebay. For 90 bucks, I got more than my asking price on CL, no haggling, no more test rides, and no problem. Non-refundable deposit via Paypal, the rest in cash.