Tonight I'm putting my '83 up for auction on eBay. It'll be a 3-day auction, no reserve, starting at $3500 (hoping to get around $5000). I know how critical we can be of 928s on eBay, so I was curious what Rennlisters look for in a car there. My own pet peeves are no/not enough pictures, and pics of a dirty car. I just finished washing and vacuuming mine (she was waxed with Meguiars #16 less than a week ago, still looks nice), and I took pics of all the panels, engine bay, hatch area, and interior. So, thoughts?

Emanuel

 

Detail the engine compartment. A little TLC and Armor All goes a long way to getting your asking price.

 

Why so short? The obvious drawback to any auction is the limited exposure; I bought off Cars.com. It's rarely the number of pics, it's the quality. I love the ones that are nice and dark; park it in the carport, or shade tree for a sure sign that you are covering something. You don't need 20 pics, four corners, drivers seat, a couple of engine bay and a couple that show +/- of the car. Good luck.

 

There are prime days for posting. I'd recommend a 5 or 7 day auction. Somewhere I've seen listed the ideal ending time for the most traffic, but I can't remember where I saw it or what time it is. You could probably google it. You definitely want the auction to go through a friday, but not end friday night.

Other than that, don't over do the description (hiding something) or be skimpy on description (hiding something). Don't confuse non-928 people with a ton of 928-specific issues and parts.

 

All of your action will be at the beginning and end of your auction, but your numbrt of "hits" will continue to rise and the number of watchers will rise as well. I recommend a 7 day auction. The more pictures the better.

 

I've never seen the benefit of a 10-day; people ignore the car until the last day or two anyway. I've read that it's best to have an auction end after dinner time, preferably on a weekend, when the interested parties will have time to watch and bid. This should end around 8:30 on a Saturday, and 3 days will give interested parties time to notice it and e-mail me with questions and picture requests, I think.

I also want to move it out before I have to re-register it in July (another couple hundred bucks), and get moving on my next Shark purchase (which would require still another couple hundred to register).

Emanuel

 

Start with a lower entry price, that gets a bidder early on. The first bidder will usually not be that interested but at a low enough price he's interested, it gets the bidding going. The next bidder will try to guess what it will take to outbid, so he will nibble a little higher, but it's still a bargain.

After a period of several days, the emotional buyers will step in and run the bidding up. They have looked over the listing, but repeatly return to find more reasons to buy and then place the bid after the emotional attachment takes a grip. Emotional bidders alway pay too much.

At the very end, the less emotional bidders will try to scalp the price at the closing time.

You want a few great pictures with very short and honest text. Fully disclose obvious defects, but it's alway "as-is" unless you say otherwise. Always use a spell checker.

borland

 

One of the most common things eBay account hijacking scammers do is use short auctions - it's over before the buyer & real account owner ever find out what's going on.

Some/many eBayers may be wary of a short auction & not bid.

Additionally, your exposure to potential buyers is obviously limited. Not everyone checks eBay every day or three.

Just my $.02.

 

I'm with the the guys re longer auction - 7 days is ideal. And don't take anyone seriously who doesn't call you / view the car. Sold my 87 S4 to a guy who only saw it on day 5 and travelled across the UK to view it before the auction closed. The other bidders were all tyre kickers.
Good luck
Mark

 

Go back and re-read and heed ErnestSW's comments.

 

Pretty strong consensus on the auction length, so I've decided to postpone it and do a 7-day on Friday night. This will also give me time to tidy up a few more things - loose carpet trim on the passenger door pocket, clean up the engine bay...Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Emanuel

 

Have photos of your reciepts, I've sold 2 928's on Ebay and have had no problem, go with a 5-7 day and don't start with a high starting bid.

jason

 

I'd recommend stating where the car is located, and that it could be viewed before the end of the auction (with appointment). Even if a person can't come to see it, it will reasure him that you are not hiding anything, and that the car does indeed exist.

 

I strongly recommend you have the auction end on a Sunday night at around 11pm EST/8 PST. Everyone is home on Sunday night. But a lot of people go out for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. Also, put a BIN (buy it now) for $5k if that's what you want for it. You never know, someone might take it. That's what I did with my 1966 Jag XKE. Sold in 12 hours with a BIN of $31K

 

Set itup to end on Sunday around 4:30-6:00PM (your time zone).