I think I know your disaster car: purple E46 M3?

 

no the interlagos zcp M3... the Vin number referenced back to a bot site that said accident or salvage. In my first post I outlined that it had a light front end accident. So all the trolls showed up saying that I was dishonest and the car was salvage and kept reposting it. Pretty awful and ruined the experience for the buyers as well. It's crazy what people can get away with on that site. Even if something is not true and just written in the comments it will effect the auction. Just like if I say a girl you are interested in has an STD, or that your co-worker was in jail last night. It can be totally false and change your perception of things.

The purple M3 I was pissed off about at the time. But now I think it traded for a fair price with everything about the car in mind. My thought process was the car was so rare, and views and general action at auction for purple BMW's all were always sky high. Enthusiast are really drawn to that color nowadays. That was 1 in 7 techno's in North America I and expected an over pay by someone because the market was hot. It didn't happen. The buyer was super nice and made it a really quick cash deal and that is super under rated in selling anything. So it turned out fine.

 

I too bought my 997 before selling my 2002 996 cab. I usually buy my convertibles in the winter and wait until Spring to list the old one, but needed the garage space, so put it on Craigslist in January in Minnesota. It sold within a couple of weeks. I possibly could have gotten a little more money for it in the Spring and with a broader listing, but I was happy with the price and the timing. I have sold several vehicles on Craigslist, and fortunately haven't had any cranks. I did sell a kit car on eBay a long time ago, but that car required a national market. I haven't heard much good about eBay Motors recently. I have never sold on Autotrader or CarGurus, but did find a beautiful dealer-listed 2011 911 turbo for a friend on the latter site.

 

Honestly, I am not sure why they even let the comment run wild as they do. I am guessing it brings traffic but they should be moderated heavily. If they want to promote themselves as an exclusive place to sell your car they shouldn't allow any troll to just post whatever they want.

 

The purple M3 is the "one that got away" for me. I was bidding on it and then, a tale as old as time, the wife put the kibosh on it. Did not like the color at all.. That's how I ended up with my 996. A first world problem for sure, but I would much rather have had the E46. Would have paired well with my Dinan 3 E46. I saw your post sale frustration and am glad to hear it ended up working out for you!

I had a pretty poor experience with attempting to sell a car on BaT. I had a 2001 E38 Sport that I was trying to sell and it got rejected by the site. Low miles, superb condition, highly optioned, clean, no prior damage/paintwork, service records, etc etc. Multiple emails trying to figure out why it was rejected, what I could do to get it listed, etc all went un-answered. A few weeks later a similar colored car with high miles, three (!) accidents on the history, and no records appears AND sells. Frustrating, but I put my car on eBay and sold it to a solid buyer and the transaction was perfect.

 

sweet,
thanks for bidding! That car was super nice and rare, but if I could do it over again I would have done the 6 speed swap before listing it. It had a little bit more uv damage than a car like that should have imho. I fixed a lot of it but it was getting expensive. I actually located a few of the other techno violets e46 1 was wrecked, 1 was rusted out, 1 was owned by an enthusiast owner of a wheel company and some Instagram model, and 2 were in collections long term. Probably not a car that will be seen again. The buyer registered it in Montana and threw it in his collection in Massachusetts. He is a dentist. I think I just had high expectations and it was at no reserve so I was having some beers with friends watching the end of the auction and got pissed and acted childish. People on that site always want the sellers to act stoic and having thick skin. I don’t, if someone is acting a troll I will get upset. A ton of sellers get pissed and lately many cars have sold below wholesale they try to act happy about it. But you can tell they are furious for taking their car off the market for 5 weeks and getting trolled for 7 days to only give their car away for nothing.

Just some tips from dealing with bat. Don’t take it personal. Try to re submit and just ignore the denial two weeks later. Make it super easy for them. Don’t ask a million question and upload your pictures in order with all the bases covered “presentation” they don’t like pinging back and forth unless it’s a car worth over 60k. Any car over 20 years old take pics underneath and all vins all details. They don’t screw around with sub 20k stuff. Offer it at no reserve or it’s not worth it to them. They will reject it. Sometimes they reject because they have too many in the pipeline. It takes 2-3 weeks to get something live on there now.It used to be the same day. Try to take nice pictures. Like really work on it. It will make you money and they want their site to look nice. If you have nice pictures they will accept almost anything. I had a 3k civic that sold for 6600 on there, that was the first of its type on bat. The value doesn’t always matter if it hasn’t been seen there and promotes views and discussions, that is good too. This is also why they push their photographers, they don’t want their site to look like Craigslist.

It’s never 100% safe. They can post almost identical cars behind yours and just totally ruin your auction. I sold a 968 on there and they had maybe 8 a year on the site. They ran two behind mine with reserves. Really pissed me off. I would have waited instead of competing. The cars behind mine didn’t sell so my sale got ruined. I have also been the first to list three different old Honda’s. They made me do no reserve, I had great results and then two weeks later they let a far worse car show up with a reserve. Just little things like that are kind of annoying to me. The main benefit now is the car is sold and it’s sold fast. As the year goes on and the weather gets better I think the no reserve gets a bit safer. Another strange thing I have noticed. People who buy on bat do not shop the market. My friends and I have sold dozens of old cars there and put them on eBay and forums etc and gotten zilch and posted there and cars went for more than asking price. The Dinan e36 m3 s3 I sold sat on eBay for 3 months at 18k with zero responses and sold on bat for 23k. I traded a marantz stereo and 12k for that car.

 

Honestly, no reason NOT to list on CL...yes, you will have to deal with tire kickers, but you can weed some of that out in advance. I didn't find it too onerous when I sold my old motorcycle Fact is there is a long forum post here with people posting finds on CL, so apparently, even enthusiasts look at CL. When searching for my 911, I definitely used CL and wound up buying one I found on a CL listing. Cargurus and Autotempest (aggregates eBay, CL, cars.com) were common search tools for me as a buyer. I would also say that, whether you go BaT, Cl, whatever...maybe you should consider paying for your own PPI on your car in advance of making the listing. If it is in your favor, use it to your advantage. If it highlights some concerns, either address them or know that they will likely be found on a buyer's PPI and plan how you will handle it.

 

The purple was rare because no one liked it otherwise there would have been a lot more of them. To me something like this does not make it a valid "1of X" car. I know people love to try making their cars sound unique and special but, a colour that didn't sell, doesn't make it special enough. Corvette owners are the worse for this. EVERYONE of them thinks they have a 1 of car.

If you drill down enough on a car where individual options were available to choose, they can easily be labeled as a 1 of something. Heck my '85 928 must be special then since there can't be that many US spec 32 V, blue on blue, 5 speed with LSD and heated seats was made that year. Does this make it a 1 of? I don't think so.

 

Thanks for all of the great info everyone. Now when should I list it?

 

List it in the month or two. Those who get tax refunds will have some cash and the weather will start warming up in many parts of the country.

i have sold on eBay, CL and BaT and have had good experiences on all. I think I would FB first....especially through one of the 996 FB groups.

if you are a member of PCA try that, as well. I know of a nice, low mileage coupe that sold the first day