Trader220

Jason,

I went to the auction with a friend of mine that is a dealer. He took two of us along just because we wanted to watch the action and look for a car. To tell you the truth I walked right into the place with with my firend and he went to register and I just walked right out to the lot and started walking the rows. He was filling customer orders and my other friend and I were looking for a C4s for him. When it came time to bid we just had our dealer friend do the bidding and purchase for us. Our dealer friend got 500 bucks for his effort. By my best estimate I would say that around 50% of the people at the auction actually had dealer badges and could bid. I am an options floor trader and found the whole process very similar to work.

wch

944 Terminator - eBay has pretty good selling tutorials. I had all the same questions you have, and found the site answered them all - the onsite guides, plus watching how similar auctions were conducted. I believe an auction with no bids can be terminated at any time. You can protect yourself on the downside by setting a "reserve," or minimum price at which you are willing to sell. Whether it's better to set the reserve high or low is an open question to me. I would not hesitate to list your car for a short period on eBay, just to try it. It's not that expensive in the grand scheme of things, I think with a few photos I paid $50 or 60 bucks. No doubt there are many far more experienced eBay users who will see this post - please chime in.

Trader220

WCH, in my experience with EBAY during the last auction the top two bidders after the auction ended had the following stories. The top bidder had exceeded my reserve. So when i contacted him he told me what he thought his 944 turbo was worth and then said he's add X amount of dollars to bring the net amount up to the number he bid. I had listed clearly in the auction that I was not interested in any trades. From there I contacted the second place bidder who had also met the reserve. He was thrilled when I told him the first place bidder could not meet the terms. He said he would be in the area in about a month and he would come by and check out the car and discuss a purchase with me. Again the terms of the auction clearly said that the payment and sale was to be contracted 7 days after the auction ended.

The story here is that EBAY is a great way to get attention for your car and maybe find a buyer but the winning bidder does not seem to feel they're in a contract for sale.

wch

"The story here is that EBAY is a great way to get attention for your car and maybe find a buyer but the winning bidder does not seem to feel they're in a contract for sale."

Great post, thanks. Disappointing, though.

masterg

I met a seller in person who I very possibly will be making the final process of transferring ownership tomorrow. She listed her 1988 Porsche 928 S4 on autotrader.com and has at least one other client interested in purchasing it now, so I'd guess the site at least helped her somewhat. However, imo, she was asking for a somewhat overpriced amount, so we have managed to lower it, just waiting to drive it some tomorrow.

Peace,
masterg