Advice for selling a car

[Guest KC]

Hi Spouses!

My husband and I will be selling one of our cars while in UPT training. We aren't sure what to do because it would be nice to have two cars at Columbus and then sell one during our 4 1/2 months at Altus. If we can't sell it at Altus, it would be a big problem because we are going O-CONUS.

So here's my question. Does anyone out there have experience trying to sell a car specifically at Columbus or Altus? If so, how long did it take your car to sell?

Thanks,

KC

[Whitman]

Try autotrader.com

It will be accessible to the entire nation and people in your area will be able to find it no problem. Also, try putting it on a grocery store lot with a sign on it. I've sold cars both ways

[Guest dorothy727]

Don't forget about Craigslist.com for in and around that area. Also great to sell other other items, sale of other items, jobs, real estate

[ucf_motorcycle]

If you put it on ebay it will sell, you won't necessarily get top dollar for it but you will sell it. Just don't get nervous when no one bids on it, people usually bid the last hour or less. I have bought/sold several cars/motorcycles on ebay with much success. Make sure you take tons of pictures and describe everything that may be wrong with the car.

[brabus]

Most vehicles go for a couple grand less on Ebay than they should easily be able to fetch in a local market. Unless you don't really give a shit about how much you get for the car, I would stay away from ebay...you'll get way less than you think you should.

[Ryder1587]

Do AF bases have the lemon lot? I know ARMY bases do but the only sucky thing is you have to leave your car there.

[Toro]

Every AF base I have been to has had a lemon lot.

[Whitman]

Oh yea...lemon lots are golden. You pay a small fee (6-9 bucks) for two weeks and just park it until your block time is up. When it comes to getting top dollar you should consider selling local b/c there is less competition.

[ 12. November 2006, 17:39: Message edited by: whitman ]

[ucf_motorcycle]

Originally posted by brabus:

Most vehicles go for a couple grand less on Ebay than they should easily be able to fetch in a local market. Unless you don't really give a shit about how much you get for the car, I would stay away from ebay...you'll get way less than you think you should.

Depends on the car really. For expensive newer cars yeah, your going to lose money but then again try to sell that car on the open market and it will take forver. Look at what older cars go for on ebay and they are much pretty close to NADA resale value.

The best part about it is you will sell it at the end of the week. Its as convenient as trading in at the dealer but you get more money than a dealer would give you. Plus if you buy yours cars on ebay from the begining your not losing all that much.

[brabus]

Yeah I guess that makes sense...though I've seen people get pretty screwed buying cars off ebay. Though I've also seen 2 good ones work out. In the end, just seems to risky to me from a buying standpoint...unless you can actually see the car/take it to a mechanic before buying it. But, that means having the luck of the car being somewhat close to you...a long shot on ebay.

[Carpetbagger]

Autotrader. Remember you are in Mississippi (my old stompin' grounds). Autotrader will let you run the ad indefinitely (until it sells) for 39 bucks. You can't beat that. Lemon lot is a good place too, but it isn't accessible to everyone in the local area like the Autotrader is. Ebay will cost you over 40 bucks for every time you run the ad. Done that before and lost. Sold every car I've ever parted with via Autotrader or lemon lot and gotten near full price for them.

[Guest KC]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the info. It sounds like there's a lot of choices out there.

KC

[ucf_motorcycle]

Originally posted by brabus:

But, that means having the luck of the car being somewhat close to you...a long shot on ebay.

You can narrow your search parameters to vehicles within 25 or up to 500 miles away from you. I always pick up my vehicles and look them over before I buy it. Try a search of vehicles within 150 miles of your zipcode and you will be surprised how many will be there. On the other hand when I sell a car I describe it so well and with so many pictures that many times the buyer was from out of town. They still chose to come pick it up but they were confident that what was described was what they were going to get.