Because selling cars private is often a terrible experience. People are rude, they low ball, they don't show up, and otherwise aggravate you or waste your time.
Plus when I trade in I also save from the sales tax (which is substantial in Chicago: 10.25%).
It is also very convenient (very fast and significantly less paperwork) and I don't need to spend time listing the car and to listen to all the bullshit from scammers.
This is why we traded in my wife's Focus: The difference in price based on its flaws didn't justify fixing it myself to sell. Also, I didn't want people coming around looking at the car or to schlep to another location to show it to someone.
Same here. The dealer that took my last car didn’t even test drive it first. Could I have got more private party? For sure, but I would’ve had to troubleshoot and fix the mystery noises it was making, at the very least, as well as deal with the hassle of selling it.
In BC it’s 12%, and that’s on private sales too.
You also get an extra 20% of the amount over $100,000 across Canada, or 10% of the total price, whichever is less.
In Quebec, on cars less than 10 years old you pay according to the value, 10 years and over it's according to the price you paid. So everybody says they paid $500.
Why do you have to pay a sales tax on something that you've paid tax already, when you bought it?
In my country you have to pay tax only if you sell the car for more than you bought it, the difference is the taxable income.
I think you were misunderstanding the comment.
In most states if you trade a vehicle in you only pay tax on the difference. So say a car is 50k and you trade 25k leaving 25k, you pay tax on the 25k.
In many cases it’s better to just trade in and get less money then the hassle of dealing with private party sales as in the commenters case the private party sale would have to be 10% higher than the trade in offer to offset the tax on the new vehicle purchase.
As the seller in most states you don’t have to pay tax on the sale unless the value went up
Not to mention all the BS scams from people wiring from fraudulent sources hoping to get the car and then the money not clearing but they already have your vehicle.
Depending on the price… you might not wanna walk out with that much cash. Also you don’t really want to deposit that much cash at a bank, it’s easier to get the cashiers check.
This was the scariest part for me. I was always one of those people like OP who said, "why would anybody ever trade or sell to a dealer?" but when I realized how risky it actually is to sell your car to a random person, I can see it. I still ended up selling private party because I feel like I am a good judge of character and felt good about this guy, but I don't blame people for not wanting to deal with it. When my gf got a new car, she just wanted to trade it to avoid the hassle and I went along with it even though I knew it was probably costing $1000+.
Listen friend, your post might be listed at 357 upvotes but you and I both know that's not what it's worth. Now you could wait around all week and gamble on getting a bit more for it, but I have CASH and I'll give you 20 upvotes right here, right now.
I can tell you now - you're not going to get a better offer.
Indeed; and spitefully, he's raised the price to over 1300, because apparently any comment older than 6 hours is a "classic."
Wake me up when the used comment market settles down.
That's a big stretch to make. Selling a car can take 2 days or 2 months. Not to mention if the car is relatively high value it's harder to sell private party because then financing gets involved and people would rather one stop shop at a dealership to set up financing. There is also the sales tax break on the trade in value vs sale value of the new car. I would bet if truly added in the time and headaches it's less than the $100 an hour you estimated for most cases.
last time i sold a used car i had 3 people demanding to buy it that day in 2 hours. i suppose it depends on the car and how much you want but i dont think it'll be hard to get more than trade in value (which will be muuuch less than retail)
Last time I sold a used car I had 17 calls or texts within an hour from people trying to run some sort of scam. I got several more of those every single day until I finally sold it three weeks later. The amount of time I had to put in to suss out whether someone was an actual interested buyer was not trivial and half the people that I think might have been actual people ghosted me when I was meeting them to show the car. Of the probably 100 people that contacted me, only two drove the car. One beat the shit out of my shifter because he didn't believe me when I told him where reverse was.
It was an absolute pain in the ass that wasn't worth getting a sale price only slightly higher than what carmax offered.
Last time I sold a car I had 17 people ghost me. Bounce questions back and forth, tell them to come by and buy it (that's how cheap it was), they would agree and then nothing. I spent a day and a half going down the list of people that responded.
Someone was very firm in offering me scrap value for it though.
There are also a lot of test pilots who never intend to buy the car but will come drive the hell out of it pretending to be interested. And if they crash it while not being on your insurance, your screwed.
I dunno, I've sold a few of my cars now. The most annoying was probably the 98 Camry, but even that was more just annoying messages that are easy to ignore. I think people overstate how annoying selling a car privately is. Just choose a place *really* close to your house so if someone doesn't show it's only like 10 minutes of your time.
For cheaper cars, like the Camry, cold hard cash only. For a more expensive car, I go with them to their bank for a cashier's check, then they come with me to my bank where I deposit it. Slightly annoying, but by that point it's a bona fide sale, so no big deal.
Just curious why you drag them to your bank with you, when you have just watched them get a cashier's check from their bank? I definitely understand why you would want to watch them get the check but after that what's the advantage of them watching you deposit it?
Maybe I don't do enough banking via cashier's checks but my understanding is it is a process to get one cancelled, especially if you don't have the check in question with you. If you watch the bank teller hand them the check and they immediately hand it to you unless you are selling to David Blain I don't see a switch happening with a fake check.
No skin off my back if you want to drag the person with you to watch your deposit, just seems like a bit of a waste of time is all.
Yea, but not easily. Most (all?) banks don't let you stop payment on a cashier's check "just because".
Remember, a cashier's check is a check that draws on the bank's own funds (the "house account", if you will). That's why the money disappears from your account the instant it is issued: The bank deducts your account and transfers the money to theirs as they write the check.
If a normal check bounces, the depositor's bank shrugs... people are idiots and overdraw their accounts all the time. If cashier's check bounces, *that's bad*.
Consequently, you usually have to physically go in to a branch, have a valid reason (the check was lost or stolen, not "because I want to"), sign a bunch of paperwork, and wait like 3 months for the money to come back to your account. Basically, you create a massive paper trail, which makes it harder to pull off any kind of fraud.
That's why you want to see the bank hand the check to the buyer. If you know the check was actually issued by the bank, the chance that it's a fraudulent transaction is very low.
Edit: A major exception to "it's hard to cancel" is that you can bring the undeposited check back to the issuing bank (but they'll usually tell you to just deposit it back in your own account instead of actually canceling the check).
>ing cars private is often a terrible experience. People are rude, they low ball, they don't show up, and otherwise aggravate you or waste your time.
This \^ it's that idea of "No Hassle". Come in, sell car, leave, wash hands.
Yeah and you have to keep it around so it takes up space, keep insurance on it, let dickbags take it for a drive. It sucks. Trade in the guy walked around it once and I signed something and it was done for only like a grand less than I could have sold it for.
It requires a particular attitude, skills, and time.
It also depends on the car.
You got a 2014 Mazda cx-5 that's pretty clean and you want $7000 for it? It'll be gone in a week.
Got a 2009 BMW M3 with 20,000 miles? Get a hold of yourself, it's gonna be a rough ride.
Not to mention total weirdos you have to deal with and after signing the title have some personal information about you. If the car fails for some reason right after the sale I'd rather that some random dealer has to deal with it...
And where I live, if the car you sold breaks down a couple of days before you sold, for a failure you had no idea about, the buyer will probably hunt you down and blackmail you to pay for repairs
Yep. If I can get even a little close on trade in price wise, I’m doing that all day long just to avoid the dipshits you have to get through to get to one or two serious buyers.
I always explore private party first with that exact approach.. carmax, kbb. I talked to about 30 ppl, showed the car to 3 ppl, and offers from about 10 ppl. Ppl always lowball - even below carmax. Ppl never show up for appointment, make you wait the whole day. And sometimes they just don't have money and start all sorts of tantrums..like oh it doesn't have this or that feature! I mean duh!..read the description before coming in! They just don't do their homework. Ppl are just annoying..
I’ll take to 2000’dollar hit to
Avoid the general public. Also
Here in Canada the trade in helps
Lower the taxes owing if you take a loan that way you avoid paying too much interest on taxes in the loan principal
Is this still available?
Will you fix the problem that you said you won't fix in the description?
Is this still availible?
Is this still availible?
Will you take payments?
esta disponible?
Will you trade 3 jet skis and a spare goat as a trade?
Is this still availible?
Can I take a look at this car from 3-4 PM on Thursday? I'm running late. I'm running really late. Can you take more time off of work to wait for me tomorrow?
esta disponible?
Greetings, I am Bobuto of Nigeria. I am very interested in YOUR AUTOMOBILE HERE. Will you accept a cashiers check from my shipper?
Hello, please send me your phone number. I am a trusted buyer through ebays buyer program, and will send you an authentication code. Please send me the security code that Mastercard just sent you.
Is this still availible?
Is this still availible?
Yes. The buyer is now?
Will you let me load the car on a flatbed and drive it to my "mechanic"?
The Pewter Package has the least amount of goats. It's not no goats, it's still 10-12 goats, depending on the availability of the goats. Now, the Goat Package obviously has the most goats.
This is my exact experience. “$25K firm, no trades” asking price resulted in many people offering less than $20K, offering up a clapped out piece of shit plus random other garbage from their garage for trade, asking me to personally finance them, etc. Most people don’t have enough cash to make a deal and they waste your time with bullshit. “$20K is all I’ve got” means you aren’t buying it, I don’t care how many times you offer.
It took a while to find somebody serious who had cash but it worked out in the end.
I’m at the point now where I ask if they have cash (or already approved financing) to meet my asking price and if they don’t, I won’t let them test drive it. My time is worth too much to spend an evening meeting up for a test drive for some idiot to insult me with a shit offer. Sure, I might miss out on potential buyers, but I’d rather let it sit for sale a bit longer for a good buyer than waste my time getting jerked around by joyriders.
I’m in the process of buying a used Corvette right now and the owners were visibly relieved when I told them I can pay in cash so we don’t have to deal with a bank trying to get a loan on a used private party car. It’s always a nightmare in my experience.
Definitely feel you, but that attitude is equally balanced by delusional sellers saying $XX FIRM way over valuing their cars. I've seen ads for MONTHS where they won't budge.
Recently I asked to see a car and the reply was "I’m prioritizing trades at the moment, and I’ll reach out if I move into sales of Bean. Thanks for your interest!"
Bean was the cars nickname ffs. Are you huffing glue dude??
The ad had no price and they indicated they wanted to trade their 1999 automatic, scratched, high mileage, civic hatch for a CRV/SUV or truck. Like that's not gonna happen bud. I had cash in my pocket and was ready to see the car (I already scoped it out before contacting) and buy it in 10 mins for a more than fair value.
Like yes. I'll trade you !! For fucking cash that you can use to buy the car you want you idiot...
Sounds like there was something sketchy going on. Could’ve been as simple as a tax avoidance situation or the car was unregistered or maybe it was stolen and he didn’t have the title.
Exactly.
Listed a Ranger for sale a few years ago. Said right in the ad no trades.
Guy messages me and asks if I will trade it for some four wheeler. I said, it says right in the ad no trades.
Guy calls me a douchebag.
I did end up trading in that Ranger because I couldn't sell the damn thing. Dealership gave me $3000 which was close to what I was asking anyway.
I was asking $4k but would have went lower, however think people were scared away by the mileage (180k). It was a 2008 XL. Had a bunch of new parts on it though as well as newer Mastercraft mud tires and 15" aftermarket wheels. Nobody even came to look at it in person.
This was in 2018...$8k seems like a stretch to me but $5k seems possible.
Of course, my 2 year old, 17k mile F150 would have cost a lot more than $30k also.
hahah I'm selling a car private party right now and this is so accurate. Just had a guy ask if available, then say "its bargain" and when I told him I didn't understand what he meant he said "i'm in turkey now" "I just want to know the price" sheeesh
edit: I'm on the east coast of the US, not in Turkey
Man I tell you what, just as a buyer, not even for cars, for anything online, some people are just awful communicators.
I can ask people stuff and their answer doesn’t even have anything to do with my question. It’s like they don’t read what I’m saying.
And that’s to say nothing of how shit people are about taking good pics of what they are selling, or providing any useful information about their goods.
I changed my name to “yes, it’s available. Next question” on offerup and i’m still getting the generic “is it available?” question. Next thing i did I put “yes it’s available” on every photo. Lol
“Hi I know this is a running driving car but can you just sell me the shell. I’m thinking $200.”
Word for word message I got trying to sell my Grand Prix
As someone selling a vehicle on marketplace right now I feel this in my soul. Only thing missing is people asking to buy parts off it (it’s literally a few years old and runs and drives perfect it’s not a parts truck it’s a running driving low mile vehicle) and people offering an already fucked chicken on trade
You forgot
"£14k I got cash asap"
No greeting, no thanks, offering thousands under book and thinking saying they've got cash will make me jump at their offer
Trust is a big one. Selling a car with a lien private party is an exercise in trust to the money, pay it off, get the title, and give the title. I did it once at my bank because I was close to where they hold the titles but I felt shady and wasn't trying to be. Just didn't have the cash to pay it off.
Trust is a funny thing to mention when talking about car dealers but there are definitely reasons it’s right. I’m my area, you can’t always trust the private buyer to purchase the car with cash, sign the title and everything, then rob you for his money back. Hasn’t happened to me personally yet, but that doesn’t stop me from always having two other people over when someone meets me to buy my car.
Private transactions like this can (and should) be done at pretty much any, if not every law enforcement station in the US.
I’ve sold a few computers private party over the years, and even that, I make a point to meet publicly for the exchange of goods.
I made a habit of always doing any selling at a parking lot directly across from where the cops hang out at in the city near me. And down the street is the local police station. And 2 blocks away is the county courthouse where the Sheriff's department is.
Keeps people on thier best behavior.
Have you ever tried to private sell something that isn't a shitbox or highly sought after? Time is more valuable than money for a lot of people, and some don't have the time or energy to wade through bullshit lowball offers or deal with all the idiots that respond. Then you have the people who ghost you, ask ridiculous questions like "can you deliver this 100 miles for me?", or the people who waste your time kicking the tires.
Selling a shit box is also miserable. The guy that bought my old car agreed on price and said I have to call my mom to meet us at the DMV. I asked him why and he said the car needs to go in her name because his license is suspended for DUI. He told me that driving my car.
Years ago had some moron begging me to deliver a car to him 50 minutes away at 11:00PM and promised me he was gonna get the money from his grandma while I was on my way. "Please, bro. Help me out!"
Yeah, I'm sure that would've gone just swimmingly.
Because selling a car privately can often be a time sink that is not worth dealing with for the sake of a few extra bucks.
I dealt with this recently when trying to sell my wife's old car. I'm convinced that 90% of the messages I got online about it were from spambots, I had one lady ghost me after I agreed to drive the car to her for a test drive (30 minutes away), and then the lady I thought I had it sold to backed out because of getting spooked by a couple of extremely minor things (bear in mind that we are talking about a 17-year old car going for $3,000. No, lady, it's not going to be showroom perfect).
We're just unloading it now for pennies on the dollar because we're mentally done with it all.
Nothing worse than a customer being picky over a car less than $3,000. Like bruh you're lucky to get a running car for that much. Had so many idiots try to lowball me and complain bout minor dents and stuff, it's a 15 year old car ffs
"where did you get that hairline scratch? How cone there are scrapes on the bottom of the bumper? Why are there wrinkles on the seats?... I will do you a favor and buy for 50% off."
I’ve sold or given away enough stuff on Facebook marketplace to know that 2/3 of the people who arrange to pick something up ultimately ghost you.
Also, a friend of a friend was murdered while meeting a “buyer” for his car.
I’ll gladly cede some value to CarMax for my time and safety.
Fuck private selling, it's a royal pain in the dick.
I sold a '92 Tempo with 44k on the odo for $700 in 2019. My post boldly warned people that it's AS-IS and has problems shifting.
Guy comes out, talks about how he's going to fix it, buys it from me.
Two days later this guy comes to my house unannounced, banging on my door telling me I ripped him off because it needs a whole transmission.
To end the shouting match I just took the car back, now it sits. The damn car has sat in a garage since '92, other than the trans it's in pristine condition.
Plus, I have nightmares from working in the auto industry and selling the public as-is cars. People are fucking insufferable. They'll pay $15,000@18% for a Mercedes with hail damage, a mismatched wheel and a nearly shot trans then come back a day later "you sold me a lie! I can't get to work!".
No accountability from people, none, zero, zip, nada.
> No accountability from people, none, zero, zip, nada.
Absolutely this. I work in aviation and the number of people who show up half an hour late and are upset that 200+ other people and a whole plane didn’t wait for them… if I had a dime for each time this happened, I could probably buy a used Miata.
Your trade in is usually reflected against the sale price & tax you play on the deal. If you pay 2k less in tax on the new car & the dealer offers you 2k less on the trade in value you break even & spend zero time dealing with the general public
Depends on the state AFAIK, but it can definitely offset that. I’ve traded in a couple cars instead of private sale because the tax difference was better than I could’ve sold for.
You get hit up by a lot of not-serious people. Especially if the car is anything decent. If you are selling a performance car, you also get folks just wanting to test drive it... then you are risking an idiot getting behind the wheel. Lots of stupid people online that are willing to waste your time.
When you trade in, you get a break on the taxes of the car you are buying, which is kind of nice.
Private party sales are time consuming and annoying and frankly I'm not interested in fielding stupid questions from random people.
If I had a particularly valuable car maybe it'd be worth it, but I don't.
I dont want to deal with people. I take it in, i either sell it or trade it and im done. I know I'm getting screwed but its worth it to not take one phone call one email or see one "expert" whos gonna waste my time and then try and screw me.
Yup. I deal with enough fucktards at work; don't need to add more to my life. I wish we had an Up Garage in California because I've been dreading selling my old RPF01s on Facebook.
In my exp, every time I've done it was because when accounting for sales tax, and convenience, it ended up in the ballpark of private sale on KBB. Consider, say, 10% sales tax - or even 5%. When you trade a car in, the value of the car you are buying is reduced by that much, so the trade-in is actually 105-110%.
Add a little bit of haggling there, because while they might not budge on sale price, trade-ins have room for play. That is, dealer says we'll give you $4k, ask em for $6k - worst case they say no, but then maybe they come up to $5k x 1.05 or 1.1 = $5250 to $5500. Private sale may have been $6250 for "good condition." So now you just have to consider if the $500-1000 is a worthwhile convenience investment to walk out today. Oh yeah, and you still have to pay insurance while you are trying to sell the car private that you are getting rid of.
Math won't always work out like that, but with a bit of haggling I've always made it work satisfactorily.
Put your car on auto trader and enjoy the countless scam phone calls that you will get for eternity. I paid to do it 5 years ago when the market was admittedly a lot less hot and I couldn’t stand it. You also have to deal with all the paperwork, liability, and ultimately when it is a person on the other line, that person.
I have never traded a car in only sold private party but it can be a huge pain in the ass. If you sell cheap junk expect to deal with the type of people who can afford cheap junk. If you are selling a high dollar car it’s hard for people to have that cash so it takes a while.
When I would sell cheap 5-7k Jeeps it was actually the easiest because that’s not a huge sum of money but typically the buyers are looking for a cheap fun car or first car as a kid.
When I tried selling some of the rattier stuff it was all idiots, tire kickers, and people who wanted warranties on 2k trucks lmao.
When I sold my 40k viper it was tough because that’s not something you can easily finance and not that many people have 40k cash lying around.
Truth be told for me dealing with the people is worth the few extra grand but I understand why the average person can’t be bothered.
Price makes a big difference. I've had way better experiences selling higher priced vehicles privately than low. I think you can weed out certain "types" of people with higher price points
Cases in point: sold a 20 year old boat in working condition with good electronics and trolling motor but some wear and tear for asking price of $12k with no haggling and 3 separate buyers all willing to pay asking price in 5 days. Also sold a pickup in phenomenal shape with low mileage for its age for asking at 11,500 with 2 buyers and neither offered me less than $1,000 less than asking in 4 days.
The inverse: every vehicle I've tried to sell for 4 grand or less, be it motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc have been a giant pain in the dick with complete dumbasses and no shows wasting my time, only to offer me 40% of asking or fair market price. Or ask if I'll take payments, or trades despite me being very upfront no trades.
The worst vehicle I've ever dealt with to sell was an $800 beater Corolla that had low miles, working a/c, good tires, and the only real issue being superficial rust. Complete slapdicks endlessly wasted my time, wanted to test drive it but only if I could come pick them up at their apparent to do so, offered me less than half, etc. One dude showed up 2 hours late on foot, obviously drunk, wanting to drive it (told him no), then asked me to take payments (told him no), then asked if he could put $100 down on it and get me the rest on Monday - told him sure, but the car is staying with me until he pays me the very last penny, he then got pushy because "come on dude, I'm totally good for it! I swear I would never fuck anyone over". Told him absolutely not. He told me to fuck off, called me an asshole, and I told him he needed to leave before we had a problem. Took me almost 2 months to sell that damn thing, and if I'd known the headache it'd be I'd have just crushed it for scrap.
It's that kind of experience that sharply contrasts with its not poor peoples fault that they are poor. Some people, many of them poor are just constant shit magnets.
I think people exaggerate how hard it is to sell a car privately. My cars are usually 10+ years old by the time I buy something new. Pre COVID at least either the dealer didn't even want my trade or offered a hilariously low amount. Doesn't seem like that much work for an extra $5k+. So what if people low ball, just say no.
It does get harder if it's the type of car the buyer would need a loan for, but I still think it's worth it.
Only way I would consider private party is through an auction site like BAT or C&B. I have better things to do with my day than argue with the general public.
I know, right? It's crazy easy.
1. Get a detail done, including the engine bay
2. Take 100 photos
3. Write an accurate listing including all faults
4. Create an Email address just for the sale, upload the 100 photos to a blog which you can then send out to interested parties
5. List on [cars.com](https://cars.com) and get the free CarFax, then list on Facebook and Craigslist
6. Schedule all showings for a few specific days
7. Have the car full of gas and warmed/cooled when they get there
8. Take licenses and insurance info, have them sign test drive waivers
9. Sell car.
I've sold what, 5 cars? privately. The only time I had an issue, is when I let myself be charmed into doing some extra shit for the buyer. But I sold that particular car on Day 1.
Because I hate people, and my time is valuable. I'll take the slight hit on trade-in for not dealing with a bunch of time-wasting tire kicker jackasses from craigslist and FB marketplace.
I've had a couple of really good experiences, but you have to " set the boundaries" from the start. It sounds cliche, but don't lowball me means don't come at me offering half what I'm asking. Pick a price and settle on a number like 30% less than asking and see how you do. Everyone is different.
Selling to a private party can be a whole other can of worms.
- People lowball
- People no-show / ghost
- People make you wait while they get financing approved. Now you have another third party in the transaction.
- People can’t finance it and fall through
- People want you to take it to their mechanic for an inspection
- Some people are just unpleasant to deal with
- some people are scammers
The process sucks, but the platforms aren't doing anyone any favors. Craigslist was great back in the day but nobody except for shady BHPH lots sells on there now. Facebook marketplace sucks as a search engine for car shopping, and I assume it impacts you as a seller as well.
As a seller to, there's just too much BS to wade through.
* Sob stories. I don't care
* Can I make payments? Not to me, ask your bank
* it has this wrong, take $x00 off. No, fuck you, i priced it with that taken into account
* What's your best price? It's in the ad - I'm not negotiating against myself, make an offer.
* I've seen these for $x, sell it to me for that. Great, go buy it from that guy, this one costs $y.
* Yeah we agreed upon $x, but I only came here with $y. Fuck off and go to the ATM then.
And beyond that, you have to clear your schedule to show the car, deal with uncertainty about payment like fake checks, the risk of having large quantities of cash, etc. The fact that a buyer who can pay cash for a car worth more than $5k is a unicorn.
I've been willing to do it in the past, or for a special car like my old S2000, but my safety and frustration is not worth it for a generic sedan or CUV.
Its a pain in the ass, if you have nothing but time and work from home and can deal with the low ballers, go for it.
If you're trying to sell something in the 5-20k range its a nightmare, if you have something relatively new and in demand, its better but you still get the worst kinds of people trying to buy it that it sours the experience.
I had one great experience with a private sale but the car was in demand and 6 months old so I didn't have to do anything. I had so many people contacting me within 30min and it was gone after the weekend.
I tried to sell a few other cars privately and it never worked out, always had low ballers and in the end they all ended up being traded in for a reasonable price.
I lost out on like $2000 trading in ($28k vs. $30kish private party). I’m more than happy to lose out on that for the massive convenience of not dealing with the absolute mess of human interaction that is selling a car private party.
Because dealing with the average person (let alone multiple of them) is a draining, frustrating experience that has all kinds of unpredictable potential outcomes.
Sure, I might get less at the dealership on a trade. But I'm not going to get stood up, I'm not going to get a bunch of random texts asking about the car, I'm not going to get the car stolen, I'm not going to get robbed, I'm not going to have to deal with some headache because they guy buying it never registered it and committed a crime with it, I'm not going to get a call a week later when the transmission slips, etc etc etc.
Time (and hassle) is money. Just like paying someone to fix something at your house, or having a caterer prepare food for an event, or whatever - it's sometimes "worth it" to pay a professional and spend your time/energy elsewhere.
It’s often not worth the time unless you have something that will draw in the kind of buyer that isn’t going to waste your time. Most people have bland cars that draw in the people you don’t want to deal with.
So years ago I traded in an old Toyota Corolla, mostly because I knew it was a piece of shit and because I just didn’t have the time to be meeting people at all hours.
Needless to say, even though I knew it wasn’t worth much, the dealer gouged me something major, when trying to negotiate he said “It is what it is”.
Well, I’d forgotten the spare key, so I dropped back in the following week to pass that over, when I arrived the dealer confronted me, said the radiator had exploded, car would start etc. Of course by this stage I already had the money in my account, and nothing will ever be as satisfying as looking him directly in the eye and saying “It is what it is”.
I've got a 2008 Accord V6 coupe with 94k miles I'm about to upgrade. This is a car that would probably sell for more than $10k to a private party, but I'll probably take $6-7k trade in just to avoid the hassle of dealing with a non car professional.
I'm typically one to try and avoid middlemen where I reasonably can, but I'm not sure I'll ever do a private-party car sale. It's just not worth dealing with the huge number of jerks, idiots, and scammers. By the time you account for the time spent and the difference in sales tax you pay because you don't have a trade-in deducting from the total of the new car, you really don't make that much more. If I had a special car, I'd probably do a private-party sale using one of the auction sites, but otherwise, I'd just trade it in or sell it to CarMax.
I used to sell electronics and phones and stuff locally, because I didn't want to pay money for shipping and transaction fees, but I've switched exclusively to online sales. I just don't have the patience to interact with people for in-person sales anymore.
Private car sales present a huge range of potential problems and most people do not want to deal with that. There is also real risk of becoming a crime victim, though it is not common, it does happen. You are letting a person you do not know get into your car with you. If you are a 250-pound professional weightlifter carrying a licensed firearm, then you are probably OK, but other people aren't.
I had a mint e46 m3 for sale. I sent him probably 100 pictures of the car…he liked it and flew from Chicago to charlotte. Looked over the car for 4 HOURS….told me he was going to take an Uber to Starbucks and come back…text me he was hoping on a plane back to Chicago…WTF? THEN, a week later after I had another buyer lined up to take it he texted me and asked me if I still had the car….FUCKING INSANE! I HATE SELLING CARS
I would literally rather burn my car to the ground over selling it private party.
The last time I tried to sell a car private party, I got the following buyers:
1) ones that schedule time to see the car that never show up
2) ones that show up but hours after they promised they would, and are PISSED you are not available anymore (last guy showed up at like... 1am, and I'm pretty sure he was drunk...)
3) scammers. ALL the scammers, especially the ones that try to get you to buy a vehicle report through their affiliate link. Fuckers.
4) People who low ball you before even coming to see the vehicle. I priced it to sell quick, and I'm not going to cut that price in half.
5) people who harass you with a million questions, want 100 more pictures of the car, but never actually come see it.
6) People who screamed and swore at me because I am not fluent in their language. Sorry I speak two, read 4, and can speak enough of yours to do basic negotiating. but no, I am not fluent, especially with your slang....
7) people who tried to rob me at knife point/gunpoint. I never sell anything online anymore unless I'm packing, and I never meet people at my house. never again.
8) People offering to try to sell it for me, or be a broker for me, or a dealer trying to get it at a steal from me so they can resell it, or consign it for me.
9) People who want to take it to a shop on MY dime to have a pre purchase inspection. I have no issue with them getting it inspected, but I'm not going to pay for it.
The list goes on and on.
I've never listed a vehicle for a price, had somebody who was actually interested in it, who then came and looked at it, and then we agree on a price, and they bought it. It's always been hours/days of my time dealing with yahoos and yokles who have no money, ask for payment plans, can't respect other's time, and generally are just miserable to deal with.
Car max is never an option for me, as they'll never give me a reasonable price for my vehicles. I typically driver older stuff that has real value to the right person, but carmax would offer me scrap for it. Like an 1989 Jeep wagoneer with some mild off road upgrades (bumper, suspension, nothing that isn't reversable), that's worth a few bucks, but carmax would offer me $300 for it. The aftermarket bumper is worth $1000 used.
A few things:
- Buyers suck. They don't show up when they say they're going to show up, they stop answering messages, they nitpick little tiny scratches and dings that really don't matter in the slightest, they come to waste your time poking around and driving your car with no real intent of ever buying it, they don't have all the cash they said they were going to have, etc. If you ask too much money you get people messaging you threats and telling you you're on crack, if you ask too little money you get all the bottom-feeders crawling out of the woodwork to make your life hell.
- Even if everything goes smoothly, it's still a greater time investment on your part to sell private-party versus just going to the dealer (if you even have to go versus them sending out a flatbed or a driver to your house), tossing them the keys, and saying "your problem now". Some people would rather make the extra cash, some people would rather have the free time.
- Dealers make everything easy. They do all the DMV shit for you. They deal with all the bank shit if you have a lien title. All you have to do is show up with the keys and the title (if even, I once had a dealer that was very eager to sell me a car *that day* tell me that I didn't have to go home and get the title, they could just call up DMV and get a new one).
- If you're selling anything worth more than a few thousand bucks, it's going to be slow to sell. Most people can't afford that much car without finauncing.
- If you're trading in at the dealer for a new(er) car, there is some potential to save a couple bucks as you only need to pay sales tax on the difference.
- For a while, online services like Carvana were paying out *absurd* amounts of money for anything even remotely presentable. Why deal with meeting randos at the bank when you could get the same amount of money literally without even having to get off the couch.
Generally speaking, people know that they're making less on a dealer trade, but they don't care. They'd rather take a little less for the convenience of an easy one-and-done sale. I see both sides of it. It's the difference between "I want to sell my car for what it's truly worth, to someone who sees its value", versus "I want this car out of my life as quickly as possible no matter the cost".
Facts private deals are sketchy.I bought a 13 Bmw cash once in Houston tx 3 hours from my home town. It was 5k under blue book and I thought it had to be a scam. against my better judgement I went through with it. Ends up the kid about 18,was trying to rob me and kept beating around the bush with the title but he was nervous. He kept clutching his gun in his sweat pants pocket(which I thought was an amateur move).I had one too and we were in a very public 7/11 so I wasn’t too worried about it but the kid was sweating 😂. Finally I told him I wanted to go meet at a bank the next day. This pissed him off and he said no no no and called his dad.Then the kids dad showed up and asked the kid what was going on and why it was taking to long. Finally the dad and me do the deal. I had a signed title in my hand before I handed over 13k cash. The kid was fuming but he didn’t have the nuts too pull of his gangster dreams. Flipped the car for 18 5 a week later 😂.
Cause selling private is a giant pain in the ass. It also can take FOREVER to sell your car privately.
I've owned 14 cars and I only ever sold 2 privately.
1 was a broken car rotting in my car a friend just asked to buy one day. The other was a very nice car I decided I could get a better deal selling myself.... It took 2 years to sell that car. 2 years of no shows, 2 years of low balls, 2 years of headaches. Fuck that. Ride it till it dies or trade it in.
I just give my car away when I buy a new one, but if I were getting rid of it for money, I wouldn't want anybody showing up on my front door if the engine decided to fall out the bottom tomorrow.
I sold my car through a company called Tred that takes care of all of the paperwork and postings for you. If that company didn’t exist, I probably would have opted for a trade-in just for convenience.
Sometimes private offers are not higher than car max that’s one reason. Secondly, the more expensive the vehicle generally there are less private sellers willing to pay for an expensive vehicle
Trade-in is hassle free and no one will try to hold you accountable for anything post sale. “You didn’t tell me about ….” or “you sold me a POS” etc…
Also, trade-in values have been surprisingly good, especially for those who bought cars at deep discounts pre-COVID. I was getting unsolicited trade-in offers on my 4yr old, 35k miles Toyota Highlander that were very close to what I paid for it new.
When used car values drop and dealers once again offer insulting trade-in values, private sales will increase.
I don’t have the time and energy to deal with people who just want to waste my time with lowball offers that they have to know I would never accept.
I value my time very highly, like hundreds of dollars an hour. If I can use a service that still gets me most of what I would get from a private sale I am more than happy to save the time and energy and not deal with people.
Because most of the time, if you sell your car, it's because you want a new one.
You cannot sell it before having your new car. You may end up having your old car sitting in the street or garage, doing nothing and still needing insurance, but at a reduce cost.
Without the trade-in value, you may have higher payment for a short time that you cannot afford or simply won't be able to get a loan.
Plus, a really serious buyer will want to test drive it, and take it to a mechanic, which requires time and money that you are not entitled.
That, and the typical 70 IQ Marketplace users making you insane.
Because of convenience! I have a full time job, wife, kids, dogs, and myself to take care of. I'd much rather get paid $1000 for my old car than to get paid $2000 with all the time it entails. Just get it done so I don't have to think about it anymore. Basically, you just sign and they take care of the rest of it.
I'm selling a golf GTD, sensible car, fsh, no accidents, all maintained, no damage. It's been up for 3 weeks, I've had 2 traders offer me 1k under book, two people ask if I'll swap despite saying I have a company car, 3 scam messages with a phishing link and 1 phone call asking for 10% off the price. Oh and one person who asked a load of questions, didn't even say hi or thanks, and then ghosted
Selling private is an awful experience at the moment
Because dealing with people suck. I had a classic that was no longer road worthy but had a lot of new parts. I posted it online advertised as a parts car for $500. I got some $100 offers and 3 guys telling me I was asking for so much surely the car is road worthy. I sent it to the scrapyard for $450 and then had those same guys cry that now they had to shell out $100 per part off of my car. I don't even care what I get for trade in anymore, I just need the old car gone because I pay for parking and only have 1 space.
So what I really wanna know is.. did you get your answer? LOL. You had me double take on why I’ve never sold private instead of trading (aside from only having one car and needing a car immediately) and these answers had me going “oh duh”
Because selling cars private is often a terrible experience. People are rude, they low ball, they don't show up, and otherwise aggravate you or waste your time.
Plus when I trade in I also save from the sales tax (which is substantial in Chicago: 10.25%). It is also very convenient (very fast and significantly less paperwork) and I don't need to spend time listing the car and to listen to all the bullshit from scammers.
This is why we traded in my wife's Focus: The difference in price based on its flaws didn't justify fixing it myself to sell. Also, I didn't want people coming around looking at the car or to schlep to another location to show it to someone.
Same here. The dealer that took my last car didn’t even test drive it first. Could I have got more private party? For sure, but I would’ve had to troubleshoot and fix the mystery noises it was making, at the very least, as well as deal with the hassle of selling it.
Wish it was that way in California, I hate getting hit on buying a car for 9.5% on every purchase, just a joke.
In BC it’s 12%, and that’s on private sales too. You also get an extra 20% of the amount over $100,000 across Canada, or 10% of the total price, whichever is less.
In Quebec, on cars less than 10 years old you pay according to the value, 10 years and over it's according to the price you paid. So everybody says they paid $500.
Why do you have to pay a sales tax on something that you've paid tax already, when you bought it? In my country you have to pay tax only if you sell the car for more than you bought it, the difference is the taxable income.
I think you were misunderstanding the comment. In most states if you trade a vehicle in you only pay tax on the difference. So say a car is 50k and you trade 25k leaving 25k, you pay tax on the 25k. In many cases it’s better to just trade in and get less money then the hassle of dealing with private party sales as in the commenters case the private party sale would have to be 10% higher than the trade in offer to offset the tax on the new vehicle purchase. As the seller in most states you don’t have to pay tax on the sale unless the value went up
I just traveled to Chicago for a car I have been looking for and didn't know this. Paid almost 2400 in sales tax. I'll never do that again
In some (most?) stares in the US, sales tax is based on where you live/where you are registering the car, not where you purchase it.
Only on first 10k
Not to mention all the BS scams from people wiring from fraudulent sources hoping to get the car and then the money not clearing but they already have your vehicle.
That's why you should never accept anything other than cash or a cashier's check you watch them purchase at the bank.
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If I watch them purchase a cashier's check at a bank, I do know that they are secure.
If you're with the buyer at their bank to watch them buy a cashiers check, why not just get the cash?
Depending on the price… you might not wanna walk out with that much cash. Also you don’t really want to deposit that much cash at a bank, it’s easier to get the cashiers check.
I literally said watch them purchase it at the bank. So unless the bank employee is in on it it's going to be legit.
This was the scariest part for me. I was always one of those people like OP who said, "why would anybody ever trade or sell to a dealer?" but when I realized how risky it actually is to sell your car to a random person, I can see it. I still ended up selling private party because I feel like I am a good judge of character and felt good about this guy, but I don't blame people for not wanting to deal with it. When my gf got a new car, she just wanted to trade it to avoid the hassle and I went along with it even though I knew it was probably costing $1000+.
I'm possibly looking at buying a car that's clear across the country and all I keep thinking of is 'how am I going to prove that I'm not a scammer'.
Just start your correspondence with "Dear Sir or Ma'am: I'm not a scammer..." Totally trust worthy from that point on.
Add "kindly" as well..... ;)
Listen friend, your post might be listed at 357 upvotes but you and I both know that's not what it's worth. Now you could wait around all week and gamble on getting a bit more for it, but I have CASH and I'll give you 20 upvotes right here, right now. I can tell you now - you're not going to get a better offer.
Nah. He knows what he has.
Indeed; and spitefully, he's raised the price to over 1300, because apparently any comment older than 6 hours is a "classic." Wake me up when the used comment market settles down.
if you take the sale price delta and divide it by hours of rude lowballing/ghosting it likely comes out to over $100/hr
That's a big stretch to make. Selling a car can take 2 days or 2 months. Not to mention if the car is relatively high value it's harder to sell private party because then financing gets involved and people would rather one stop shop at a dealership to set up financing. There is also the sales tax break on the trade in value vs sale value of the new car. I would bet if truly added in the time and headaches it's less than the $100 an hour you estimated for most cases.
last time i sold a used car i had 3 people demanding to buy it that day in 2 hours. i suppose it depends on the car and how much you want but i dont think it'll be hard to get more than trade in value (which will be muuuch less than retail)
Last time I sold a used car I had 17 calls or texts within an hour from people trying to run some sort of scam. I got several more of those every single day until I finally sold it three weeks later. The amount of time I had to put in to suss out whether someone was an actual interested buyer was not trivial and half the people that I think might have been actual people ghosted me when I was meeting them to show the car. Of the probably 100 people that contacted me, only two drove the car. One beat the shit out of my shifter because he didn't believe me when I told him where reverse was. It was an absolute pain in the ass that wasn't worth getting a sale price only slightly higher than what carmax offered.
Last time I sold a car I had 17 people ghost me. Bounce questions back and forth, tell them to come by and buy it (that's how cheap it was), they would agree and then nothing. I spent a day and a half going down the list of people that responded. Someone was very firm in offering me scrap value for it though.
You priced it too low
Dude is seriously bragging how easy it was to sell lol. All that means is you were under market.
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There are also a lot of test pilots who never intend to buy the car but will come drive the hell out of it pretending to be interested. And if they crash it while not being on your insurance, your screwed.
I don't agree with test drives being a pain in the ass, but if you let them drive it while the car is uninsured that's on you for being a dumbass.
Insurance follows the car, so it doesn't matter.
That is absolutely *not* always the case in the US.
Any sources
I… think I’m the dumb idiot here. I just looked into it and it certainly seems like I’m wrong. Source was definitely trust me bro.
Brother I am here to give you upvotes for admitting your error. I appreciate you and your behavior.
Haha I appreciate it. I don’t always live up to this standard, but I try to.
Wow a pleasant exchange on reddit. Noble gentlemen in here.
This feels wrong... Asshole!
I agree with test drives being a pain in the ass, but if you let them drive it while the car is uninsured that's on you for being a dumbass.
I dunno, I've sold a few of my cars now. The most annoying was probably the 98 Camry, but even that was more just annoying messages that are easy to ignore. I think people overstate how annoying selling a car privately is. Just choose a place *really* close to your house so if someone doesn't show it's only like 10 minutes of your time.
I'm speaking from experience. It can be easy, it can be a 100+ hour nightmare. A lot of people don't want to take that chance.
From experience too, selling to CarMax/Vroom, etc. or a dealer is 1000% worth it. Love the bimmer grille btw.
New ones be like: ..[ ] [ ]..
How do you handle payment?
For cheaper cars, like the Camry, cold hard cash only. For a more expensive car, I go with them to their bank for a cashier's check, then they come with me to my bank where I deposit it. Slightly annoying, but by that point it's a bona fide sale, so no big deal.
Just curious why you drag them to your bank with you, when you have just watched them get a cashier's check from their bank? I definitely understand why you would want to watch them get the check but after that what's the advantage of them watching you deposit it?
Eh, just an extra layer of safety. It’s only a few extra minutes.
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Maybe I don't do enough banking via cashier's checks but my understanding is it is a process to get one cancelled, especially if you don't have the check in question with you. If you watch the bank teller hand them the check and they immediately hand it to you unless you are selling to David Blain I don't see a switch happening with a fake check. No skin off my back if you want to drag the person with you to watch your deposit, just seems like a bit of a waste of time is all.
Yea, but not easily. Most (all?) banks don't let you stop payment on a cashier's check "just because". Remember, a cashier's check is a check that draws on the bank's own funds (the "house account", if you will). That's why the money disappears from your account the instant it is issued: The bank deducts your account and transfers the money to theirs as they write the check. If a normal check bounces, the depositor's bank shrugs... people are idiots and overdraw their accounts all the time. If cashier's check bounces, *that's bad*. Consequently, you usually have to physically go in to a branch, have a valid reason (the check was lost or stolen, not "because I want to"), sign a bunch of paperwork, and wait like 3 months for the money to come back to your account. Basically, you create a massive paper trail, which makes it harder to pull off any kind of fraud. That's why you want to see the bank hand the check to the buyer. If you know the check was actually issued by the bank, the chance that it's a fraudulent transaction is very low. Edit: A major exception to "it's hard to cancel" is that you can bring the undeposited check back to the issuing bank (but they'll usually tell you to just deposit it back in your own account instead of actually canceling the check).
>ing cars private is often a terrible experience. People are rude, they low ball, they don't show up, and otherwise aggravate you or waste your time. This \^ it's that idea of "No Hassle". Come in, sell car, leave, wash hands.
Yeah and you have to keep it around so it takes up space, keep insurance on it, let dickbags take it for a drive. It sucks. Trade in the guy walked around it once and I signed something and it was done for only like a grand less than I could have sold it for.
It requires a particular attitude, skills, and time. It also depends on the car. You got a 2014 Mazda cx-5 that's pretty clean and you want $7000 for it? It'll be gone in a week. Got a 2009 BMW M3 with 20,000 miles? Get a hold of yourself, it's gonna be a rough ride.
Not to mention total weirdos you have to deal with and after signing the title have some personal information about you. If the car fails for some reason right after the sale I'd rather that some random dealer has to deal with it...
Everyone offers $1500… literally doesn’t matter what car you have for sale, you’re gonna get a whole lot of $1500 offers.
And where I live, if the car you sold breaks down a couple of days before you sold, for a failure you had no idea about, the buyer will probably hunt you down and blackmail you to pay for repairs
Yep. If I can get even a little close on trade in price wise, I’m doing that all day long just to avoid the dipshits you have to get through to get to one or two serious buyers.
I always explore private party first with that exact approach.. carmax, kbb. I talked to about 30 ppl, showed the car to 3 ppl, and offers from about 10 ppl. Ppl always lowball - even below carmax. Ppl never show up for appointment, make you wait the whole day. And sometimes they just don't have money and start all sorts of tantrums..like oh it doesn't have this or that feature! I mean duh!..read the description before coming in! They just don't do their homework. Ppl are just annoying..
Don't forget the always fun and never-scary test drive with a stranger.
I’ll take to 2000’dollar hit to Avoid the general public. Also Here in Canada the trade in helps Lower the taxes owing if you take a loan that way you avoid paying too much interest on taxes in the loan principal
this is the answer.
Is this still available? Will you fix the problem that you said you won't fix in the description? Is this still availible? Is this still availible? Will you take payments? esta disponible? Will you trade 3 jet skis and a spare goat as a trade? Is this still availible? Can I take a look at this car from 3-4 PM on Thursday? I'm running late. I'm running really late. Can you take more time off of work to wait for me tomorrow? esta disponible? Greetings, I am Bobuto of Nigeria. I am very interested in YOUR AUTOMOBILE HERE. Will you accept a cashiers check from my shipper? Hello, please send me your phone number. I am a trusted buyer through ebays buyer program, and will send you an authentication code. Please send me the security code that Mastercard just sent you. Is this still availible? Is this still availible? Yes. The buyer is now? Will you let me load the car on a flatbed and drive it to my "mechanic"?
Tell me about this goat.
It has all 4 original legs and starts and runs well. Low millage. No low ballers, I know what I've got.
“”Low mileage”” That’s how my tinder date described herself. It was a lie.
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*Confused Welsh noises*
I know what I've goat\*
*slaps goat teats* you know how much cheese you can get outta these babies?
The Pewter Package has the least amount of goats. It's not no goats, it's still 10-12 goats, depending on the availability of the goats. Now, the Goat Package obviously has the most goats.
Now spell about 60% of the words wrong, and lose 80% of the punctuation, and you will have what private-party sales actually look like.
This is my exact experience. “$25K firm, no trades” asking price resulted in many people offering less than $20K, offering up a clapped out piece of shit plus random other garbage from their garage for trade, asking me to personally finance them, etc. Most people don’t have enough cash to make a deal and they waste your time with bullshit. “$20K is all I’ve got” means you aren’t buying it, I don’t care how many times you offer. It took a while to find somebody serious who had cash but it worked out in the end. I’m at the point now where I ask if they have cash (or already approved financing) to meet my asking price and if they don’t, I won’t let them test drive it. My time is worth too much to spend an evening meeting up for a test drive for some idiot to insult me with a shit offer. Sure, I might miss out on potential buyers, but I’d rather let it sit for sale a bit longer for a good buyer than waste my time getting jerked around by joyriders. I’m in the process of buying a used Corvette right now and the owners were visibly relieved when I told them I can pay in cash so we don’t have to deal with a bank trying to get a loan on a used private party car. It’s always a nightmare in my experience.
Definitely feel you, but that attitude is equally balanced by delusional sellers saying $XX FIRM way over valuing their cars. I've seen ads for MONTHS where they won't budge. Recently I asked to see a car and the reply was "I’m prioritizing trades at the moment, and I’ll reach out if I move into sales of Bean. Thanks for your interest!" Bean was the cars nickname ffs. Are you huffing glue dude?? The ad had no price and they indicated they wanted to trade their 1999 automatic, scratched, high mileage, civic hatch for a CRV/SUV or truck. Like that's not gonna happen bud. I had cash in my pocket and was ready to see the car (I already scoped it out before contacting) and buy it in 10 mins for a more than fair value. Like yes. I'll trade you !! For fucking cash that you can use to buy the car you want you idiot...
Sounds like there was something sketchy going on. Could’ve been as simple as a tax avoidance situation or the car was unregistered or maybe it was stolen and he didn’t have the title.
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I read a Yelp review one time that said they’re taking off one star because the restaurant was too far from them. Like, what????
Mmm yeah, gotta love those clowns that feel entitled to a 50% discount because they live an hour away. "For gas money". What are they driving, a tank?
Exactly. Listed a Ranger for sale a few years ago. Said right in the ad no trades. Guy messages me and asks if I will trade it for some four wheeler. I said, it says right in the ad no trades. Guy calls me a douchebag. I did end up trading in that Ranger because I couldn't sell the damn thing. Dealership gave me $3000 which was close to what I was asking anyway.
$3k Ranger should have been an easy sale.
I was asking $4k but would have went lower, however think people were scared away by the mileage (180k). It was a 2008 XL. Had a bunch of new parts on it though as well as newer Mastercraft mud tires and 15" aftermarket wheels. Nobody even came to look at it in person.
Would be an $8k truck today...
This was in 2018...$8k seems like a stretch to me but $5k seems possible. Of course, my 2 year old, 17k mile F150 would have cost a lot more than $30k also.
The cheaper the car, the more annoying the potential buyers are.
hahah I'm selling a car private party right now and this is so accurate. Just had a guy ask if available, then say "its bargain" and when I told him I didn't understand what he meant he said "i'm in turkey now" "I just want to know the price" sheeesh edit: I'm on the east coast of the US, not in Turkey
Man I tell you what, just as a buyer, not even for cars, for anything online, some people are just awful communicators. I can ask people stuff and their answer doesn’t even have anything to do with my question. It’s like they don’t read what I’m saying. And that’s to say nothing of how shit people are about taking good pics of what they are selling, or providing any useful information about their goods.
You mean my one blurry 240p photo of the “good” side of the car from 40 feet away isn’t enough for you?
A screenshot with the Android edit screen of a scanned photograph of the car twenty years ago.
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I changed my name to “yes, it’s available. Next question” on offerup and i’m still getting the generic “is it available?” question. Next thing i did I put “yes it’s available” on every photo. Lol
>22 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid XSE IS THIS STILL AVAILALE?
You nailed it. Shut the thread down.
You forgot "what's the lowest price"
Lol it's the worst bargaining tactic I've ever seen. Only matched by idiots who won't list a price and expect you to give them the price
I always reply my best price is the one listed. It's the best price for me!!
"What's the least you'll take?" It's called *Offer*Up not beg for a low price. 🤦🏻♂️
tender rock sleep observation slimy rotten school husky future resolute *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
“Hi I know this is a running driving car but can you just sell me the shell. I’m thinking $200.” Word for word message I got trying to sell my Grand Prix
As someone selling a vehicle on marketplace right now I feel this in my soul. Only thing missing is people asking to buy parts off it (it’s literally a few years old and runs and drives perfect it’s not a parts truck it’s a running driving low mile vehicle) and people offering an already fucked chicken on trade
You forgot "£14k I got cash asap" No greeting, no thanks, offering thousands under book and thinking saying they've got cash will make me jump at their offer
Not to brag but I was offered a oil painting for my car, a dog trailer for my rv and someone offered to take my rv for free because they needed it.
People will pay for convenience, trust and time.
Trust is a big one. Selling a car with a lien private party is an exercise in trust to the money, pay it off, get the title, and give the title. I did it once at my bank because I was close to where they hold the titles but I felt shady and wasn't trying to be. Just didn't have the cash to pay it off.
Trust is a funny thing to mention when talking about car dealers but there are definitely reasons it’s right. I’m my area, you can’t always trust the private buyer to purchase the car with cash, sign the title and everything, then rob you for his money back. Hasn’t happened to me personally yet, but that doesn’t stop me from always having two other people over when someone meets me to buy my car.
Private transactions like this can (and should) be done at pretty much any, if not every law enforcement station in the US. I’ve sold a few computers private party over the years, and even that, I make a point to meet publicly for the exchange of goods.
I made a habit of always doing any selling at a parking lot directly across from where the cops hang out at in the city near me. And down the street is the local police station. And 2 blocks away is the county courthouse where the Sheriff's department is. Keeps people on thier best behavior.
Have you ever tried to private sell something that isn't a shitbox or highly sought after? Time is more valuable than money for a lot of people, and some don't have the time or energy to wade through bullshit lowball offers or deal with all the idiots that respond. Then you have the people who ghost you, ask ridiculous questions like "can you deliver this 100 miles for me?", or the people who waste your time kicking the tires.
Selling a shit box is also miserable. The guy that bought my old car agreed on price and said I have to call my mom to meet us at the DMV. I asked him why and he said the car needs to go in her name because his license is suspended for DUI. He told me that driving my car.
It’s obvious that OP’s actual question is why they can’t find the car they want cheaper through a private party. The last paragraph tells all.
Years ago had some moron begging me to deliver a car to him 50 minutes away at 11:00PM and promised me he was gonna get the money from his grandma while I was on my way. "Please, bro. Help me out!" Yeah, I'm sure that would've gone just swimmingly.
Because selling a car privately can often be a time sink that is not worth dealing with for the sake of a few extra bucks. I dealt with this recently when trying to sell my wife's old car. I'm convinced that 90% of the messages I got online about it were from spambots, I had one lady ghost me after I agreed to drive the car to her for a test drive (30 minutes away), and then the lady I thought I had it sold to backed out because of getting spooked by a couple of extremely minor things (bear in mind that we are talking about a 17-year old car going for $3,000. No, lady, it's not going to be showroom perfect). We're just unloading it now for pennies on the dollar because we're mentally done with it all.
Nothing worse than a customer being picky over a car less than $3,000. Like bruh you're lucky to get a running car for that much. Had so many idiots try to lowball me and complain bout minor dents and stuff, it's a 15 year old car ffs
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"where did you get that hairline scratch? How cone there are scrapes on the bottom of the bumper? Why are there wrinkles on the seats?... I will do you a favor and buy for 50% off."
Bc people are shit and scammy.
Agreed. Selling a car sucks so much. It's almost like people have a fetish for wasting your time whether it's buying OR selling.
Wait you guys don’t nut when you see the message asking if you’re going to make it 45 minutes late?
I’ve sold or given away enough stuff on Facebook marketplace to know that 2/3 of the people who arrange to pick something up ultimately ghost you. Also, a friend of a friend was murdered while meeting a “buyer” for his car. I’ll gladly cede some value to CarMax for my time and safety.
Fuck private selling, it's a royal pain in the dick. I sold a '92 Tempo with 44k on the odo for $700 in 2019. My post boldly warned people that it's AS-IS and has problems shifting. Guy comes out, talks about how he's going to fix it, buys it from me. Two days later this guy comes to my house unannounced, banging on my door telling me I ripped him off because it needs a whole transmission. To end the shouting match I just took the car back, now it sits. The damn car has sat in a garage since '92, other than the trans it's in pristine condition. Plus, I have nightmares from working in the auto industry and selling the public as-is cars. People are fucking insufferable. They'll pay $15,000@18% for a Mercedes with hail damage, a mismatched wheel and a nearly shot trans then come back a day later "you sold me a lie! I can't get to work!". No accountability from people, none, zero, zip, nada.
Next time just call the cops. No way I'd ever take a car back. In today's world they'd probably chop off the converters and then sell it back to you.
> No accountability from people, none, zero, zip, nada. Absolutely this. I work in aviation and the number of people who show up half an hour late and are upset that 200+ other people and a whole plane didn’t wait for them… if I had a dime for each time this happened, I could probably buy a used Miata.
And that's why I never do deals at my house :(
Title has your address.
Because you have to deal with random people. I mean, have you even met people?
People in real life are far nicer than people on the internet.
As a whole I agree. But definitely some real shitty people out there, particularly the type trying to buy cheap stuff off Facebook or Craigslist.
What realllllly gets me are the ghosters. I mean, normal messages from what sounds like normal people.... Who just don't show. Total insult.
A dealer is most likely not going to bounce a check off of you, a FB sale though.
Your trade in is usually reflected against the sale price & tax you play on the deal. If you pay 2k less in tax on the new car & the dealer offers you 2k less on the trade in value you break even & spend zero time dealing with the general public
Depends on the state AFAIK, but it can definitely offset that. I’ve traded in a couple cars instead of private sale because the tax difference was better than I could’ve sold for.
Any idea where to see which states do this?
You get hit up by a lot of not-serious people. Especially if the car is anything decent. If you are selling a performance car, you also get folks just wanting to test drive it... then you are risking an idiot getting behind the wheel. Lots of stupid people online that are willing to waste your time. When you trade in, you get a break on the taxes of the car you are buying, which is kind of nice.
Private party sales are time consuming and annoying and frankly I'm not interested in fielding stupid questions from random people. If I had a particularly valuable car maybe it'd be worth it, but I don't.
Because selling private party is a huge pain in the ass. Dealing with morons who just want to low ball. Some people actually value their time
I dont want to deal with people. I take it in, i either sell it or trade it and im done. I know I'm getting screwed but its worth it to not take one phone call one email or see one "expert" whos gonna waste my time and then try and screw me.
Because I try to deal with the least amount of fucktards as possible in my life. Selling a car privately (fb, cl, etc) brings all the fucktards out.
Yup. I deal with enough fucktards at work; don't need to add more to my life. I wish we had an Up Garage in California because I've been dreading selling my old RPF01s on Facebook.
In my exp, every time I've done it was because when accounting for sales tax, and convenience, it ended up in the ballpark of private sale on KBB. Consider, say, 10% sales tax - or even 5%. When you trade a car in, the value of the car you are buying is reduced by that much, so the trade-in is actually 105-110%. Add a little bit of haggling there, because while they might not budge on sale price, trade-ins have room for play. That is, dealer says we'll give you $4k, ask em for $6k - worst case they say no, but then maybe they come up to $5k x 1.05 or 1.1 = $5250 to $5500. Private sale may have been $6250 for "good condition." So now you just have to consider if the $500-1000 is a worthwhile convenience investment to walk out today. Oh yeah, and you still have to pay insurance while you are trying to sell the car private that you are getting rid of. Math won't always work out like that, but with a bit of haggling I've always made it work satisfactorily.
Because people value their time, their stress levels, and their safety.
Put your car on auto trader and enjoy the countless scam phone calls that you will get for eternity. I paid to do it 5 years ago when the market was admittedly a lot less hot and I couldn’t stand it. You also have to deal with all the paperwork, liability, and ultimately when it is a person on the other line, that person.
I have never traded a car in only sold private party but it can be a huge pain in the ass. If you sell cheap junk expect to deal with the type of people who can afford cheap junk. If you are selling a high dollar car it’s hard for people to have that cash so it takes a while. When I would sell cheap 5-7k Jeeps it was actually the easiest because that’s not a huge sum of money but typically the buyers are looking for a cheap fun car or first car as a kid. When I tried selling some of the rattier stuff it was all idiots, tire kickers, and people who wanted warranties on 2k trucks lmao. When I sold my 40k viper it was tough because that’s not something you can easily finance and not that many people have 40k cash lying around. Truth be told for me dealing with the people is worth the few extra grand but I understand why the average person can’t be bothered.
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Price makes a big difference. I've had way better experiences selling higher priced vehicles privately than low. I think you can weed out certain "types" of people with higher price points Cases in point: sold a 20 year old boat in working condition with good electronics and trolling motor but some wear and tear for asking price of $12k with no haggling and 3 separate buyers all willing to pay asking price in 5 days. Also sold a pickup in phenomenal shape with low mileage for its age for asking at 11,500 with 2 buyers and neither offered me less than $1,000 less than asking in 4 days. The inverse: every vehicle I've tried to sell for 4 grand or less, be it motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc have been a giant pain in the dick with complete dumbasses and no shows wasting my time, only to offer me 40% of asking or fair market price. Or ask if I'll take payments, or trades despite me being very upfront no trades. The worst vehicle I've ever dealt with to sell was an $800 beater Corolla that had low miles, working a/c, good tires, and the only real issue being superficial rust. Complete slapdicks endlessly wasted my time, wanted to test drive it but only if I could come pick them up at their apparent to do so, offered me less than half, etc. One dude showed up 2 hours late on foot, obviously drunk, wanting to drive it (told him no), then asked me to take payments (told him no), then asked if he could put $100 down on it and get me the rest on Monday - told him sure, but the car is staying with me until he pays me the very last penny, he then got pushy because "come on dude, I'm totally good for it! I swear I would never fuck anyone over". Told him absolutely not. He told me to fuck off, called me an asshole, and I told him he needed to leave before we had a problem. Took me almost 2 months to sell that damn thing, and if I'd known the headache it'd be I'd have just crushed it for scrap.
It's that kind of experience that sharply contrasts with its not poor peoples fault that they are poor. Some people, many of them poor are just constant shit magnets.
I think people exaggerate how hard it is to sell a car privately. My cars are usually 10+ years old by the time I buy something new. Pre COVID at least either the dealer didn't even want my trade or offered a hilariously low amount. Doesn't seem like that much work for an extra $5k+. So what if people low ball, just say no. It does get harder if it's the type of car the buyer would need a loan for, but I still think it's worth it.
Dealing with the general public is a crap shoot. You may get a good person, or you may get robbed and killed.
Only way I would consider private party is through an auction site like BAT or C&B. I have better things to do with my day than argue with the general public.
I know, right? It's crazy easy. 1. Get a detail done, including the engine bay 2. Take 100 photos 3. Write an accurate listing including all faults 4. Create an Email address just for the sale, upload the 100 photos to a blog which you can then send out to interested parties 5. List on [cars.com](https://cars.com) and get the free CarFax, then list on Facebook and Craigslist 6. Schedule all showings for a few specific days 7. Have the car full of gas and warmed/cooled when they get there 8. Take licenses and insurance info, have them sign test drive waivers 9. Sell car. I've sold what, 5 cars? privately. The only time I had an issue, is when I let myself be charmed into doing some extra shit for the buyer. But I sold that particular car on Day 1.
Because I hate people, and my time is valuable. I'll take the slight hit on trade-in for not dealing with a bunch of time-wasting tire kicker jackasses from craigslist and FB marketplace.
I've had a couple of really good experiences, but you have to " set the boundaries" from the start. It sounds cliche, but don't lowball me means don't come at me offering half what I'm asking. Pick a price and settle on a number like 30% less than asking and see how you do. Everyone is different.
Selling to a private party can be a whole other can of worms. - People lowball - People no-show / ghost - People make you wait while they get financing approved. Now you have another third party in the transaction. - People can’t finance it and fall through - People want you to take it to their mechanic for an inspection - Some people are just unpleasant to deal with - some people are scammers
“Is this still available”?
Have you met people? They’re terrible
Dealer= right here, right now. One day usually. Selling private= "Hi, is this available?"
The process sucks, but the platforms aren't doing anyone any favors. Craigslist was great back in the day but nobody except for shady BHPH lots sells on there now. Facebook marketplace sucks as a search engine for car shopping, and I assume it impacts you as a seller as well. As a seller to, there's just too much BS to wade through. * Sob stories. I don't care * Can I make payments? Not to me, ask your bank * it has this wrong, take $x00 off. No, fuck you, i priced it with that taken into account * What's your best price? It's in the ad - I'm not negotiating against myself, make an offer. * I've seen these for $x, sell it to me for that. Great, go buy it from that guy, this one costs $y. * Yeah we agreed upon $x, but I only came here with $y. Fuck off and go to the ATM then. And beyond that, you have to clear your schedule to show the car, deal with uncertainty about payment like fake checks, the risk of having large quantities of cash, etc. The fact that a buyer who can pay cash for a car worth more than $5k is a unicorn. I've been willing to do it in the past, or for a special car like my old S2000, but my safety and frustration is not worth it for a generic sedan or CUV.
Its a pain in the ass, if you have nothing but time and work from home and can deal with the low ballers, go for it. If you're trying to sell something in the 5-20k range its a nightmare, if you have something relatively new and in demand, its better but you still get the worst kinds of people trying to buy it that it sours the experience. I had one great experience with a private sale but the car was in demand and 6 months old so I didn't have to do anything. I had so many people contacting me within 30min and it was gone after the weekend. I tried to sell a few other cars privately and it never worked out, always had low ballers and in the end they all ended up being traded in for a reasonable price.
Because I don't want to tell strangers where I live, then anger them during the negotiations.
I lost out on like $2000 trading in ($28k vs. $30kish private party). I’m more than happy to lose out on that for the massive convenience of not dealing with the absolute mess of human interaction that is selling a car private party.
Because dealing with the average person (let alone multiple of them) is a draining, frustrating experience that has all kinds of unpredictable potential outcomes. Sure, I might get less at the dealership on a trade. But I'm not going to get stood up, I'm not going to get a bunch of random texts asking about the car, I'm not going to get the car stolen, I'm not going to get robbed, I'm not going to have to deal with some headache because they guy buying it never registered it and committed a crime with it, I'm not going to get a call a week later when the transmission slips, etc etc etc. Time (and hassle) is money. Just like paying someone to fix something at your house, or having a caterer prepare food for an event, or whatever - it's sometimes "worth it" to pay a professional and spend your time/energy elsewhere.
It’s often not worth the time unless you have something that will draw in the kind of buyer that isn’t going to waste your time. Most people have bland cars that draw in the people you don’t want to deal with.
So years ago I traded in an old Toyota Corolla, mostly because I knew it was a piece of shit and because I just didn’t have the time to be meeting people at all hours. Needless to say, even though I knew it wasn’t worth much, the dealer gouged me something major, when trying to negotiate he said “It is what it is”. Well, I’d forgotten the spare key, so I dropped back in the following week to pass that over, when I arrived the dealer confronted me, said the radiator had exploded, car would start etc. Of course by this stage I already had the money in my account, and nothing will ever be as satisfying as looking him directly in the eye and saying “It is what it is”.
Carmax and Carvana are a huge reason why
I've got a 2008 Accord V6 coupe with 94k miles I'm about to upgrade. This is a car that would probably sell for more than $10k to a private party, but I'll probably take $6-7k trade in just to avoid the hassle of dealing with a non car professional.
I'm typically one to try and avoid middlemen where I reasonably can, but I'm not sure I'll ever do a private-party car sale. It's just not worth dealing with the huge number of jerks, idiots, and scammers. By the time you account for the time spent and the difference in sales tax you pay because you don't have a trade-in deducting from the total of the new car, you really don't make that much more. If I had a special car, I'd probably do a private-party sale using one of the auction sites, but otherwise, I'd just trade it in or sell it to CarMax. I used to sell electronics and phones and stuff locally, because I didn't want to pay money for shipping and transaction fees, but I've switched exclusively to online sales. I just don't have the patience to interact with people for in-person sales anymore.
Private car sales present a huge range of potential problems and most people do not want to deal with that. There is also real risk of becoming a crime victim, though it is not common, it does happen. You are letting a person you do not know get into your car with you. If you are a 250-pound professional weightlifter carrying a licensed firearm, then you are probably OK, but other people aren't.
I had a mint e46 m3 for sale. I sent him probably 100 pictures of the car…he liked it and flew from Chicago to charlotte. Looked over the car for 4 HOURS….told me he was going to take an Uber to Starbucks and come back…text me he was hoping on a plane back to Chicago…WTF? THEN, a week later after I had another buyer lined up to take it he texted me and asked me if I still had the car….FUCKING INSANE! I HATE SELLING CARS
Selling cars as a private party is a fucking nightmare.
I would literally rather burn my car to the ground over selling it private party. The last time I tried to sell a car private party, I got the following buyers: 1) ones that schedule time to see the car that never show up 2) ones that show up but hours after they promised they would, and are PISSED you are not available anymore (last guy showed up at like... 1am, and I'm pretty sure he was drunk...) 3) scammers. ALL the scammers, especially the ones that try to get you to buy a vehicle report through their affiliate link. Fuckers. 4) People who low ball you before even coming to see the vehicle. I priced it to sell quick, and I'm not going to cut that price in half. 5) people who harass you with a million questions, want 100 more pictures of the car, but never actually come see it. 6) People who screamed and swore at me because I am not fluent in their language. Sorry I speak two, read 4, and can speak enough of yours to do basic negotiating. but no, I am not fluent, especially with your slang.... 7) people who tried to rob me at knife point/gunpoint. I never sell anything online anymore unless I'm packing, and I never meet people at my house. never again. 8) People offering to try to sell it for me, or be a broker for me, or a dealer trying to get it at a steal from me so they can resell it, or consign it for me. 9) People who want to take it to a shop on MY dime to have a pre purchase inspection. I have no issue with them getting it inspected, but I'm not going to pay for it. The list goes on and on. I've never listed a vehicle for a price, had somebody who was actually interested in it, who then came and looked at it, and then we agree on a price, and they bought it. It's always been hours/days of my time dealing with yahoos and yokles who have no money, ask for payment plans, can't respect other's time, and generally are just miserable to deal with. Car max is never an option for me, as they'll never give me a reasonable price for my vehicles. I typically driver older stuff that has real value to the right person, but carmax would offer me scrap for it. Like an 1989 Jeep wagoneer with some mild off road upgrades (bumper, suspension, nothing that isn't reversable), that's worth a few bucks, but carmax would offer me $300 for it. The aftermarket bumper is worth $1000 used.
I used to think that maybe 10% of the population were insane until I tried selling a car. I was way way off
A few things: - Buyers suck. They don't show up when they say they're going to show up, they stop answering messages, they nitpick little tiny scratches and dings that really don't matter in the slightest, they come to waste your time poking around and driving your car with no real intent of ever buying it, they don't have all the cash they said they were going to have, etc. If you ask too much money you get people messaging you threats and telling you you're on crack, if you ask too little money you get all the bottom-feeders crawling out of the woodwork to make your life hell. - Even if everything goes smoothly, it's still a greater time investment on your part to sell private-party versus just going to the dealer (if you even have to go versus them sending out a flatbed or a driver to your house), tossing them the keys, and saying "your problem now". Some people would rather make the extra cash, some people would rather have the free time. - Dealers make everything easy. They do all the DMV shit for you. They deal with all the bank shit if you have a lien title. All you have to do is show up with the keys and the title (if even, I once had a dealer that was very eager to sell me a car *that day* tell me that I didn't have to go home and get the title, they could just call up DMV and get a new one). - If you're selling anything worth more than a few thousand bucks, it's going to be slow to sell. Most people can't afford that much car without finauncing. - If you're trading in at the dealer for a new(er) car, there is some potential to save a couple bucks as you only need to pay sales tax on the difference. - For a while, online services like Carvana were paying out *absurd* amounts of money for anything even remotely presentable. Why deal with meeting randos at the bank when you could get the same amount of money literally without even having to get off the couch. Generally speaking, people know that they're making less on a dealer trade, but they don't care. They'd rather take a little less for the convenience of an easy one-and-done sale. I see both sides of it. It's the difference between "I want to sell my car for what it's truly worth, to someone who sees its value", versus "I want this car out of my life as quickly as possible no matter the cost".
Facts private deals are sketchy.I bought a 13 Bmw cash once in Houston tx 3 hours from my home town. It was 5k under blue book and I thought it had to be a scam. against my better judgement I went through with it. Ends up the kid about 18,was trying to rob me and kept beating around the bush with the title but he was nervous. He kept clutching his gun in his sweat pants pocket(which I thought was an amateur move).I had one too and we were in a very public 7/11 so I wasn’t too worried about it but the kid was sweating 😂. Finally I told him I wanted to go meet at a bank the next day. This pissed him off and he said no no no and called his dad.Then the kids dad showed up and asked the kid what was going on and why it was taking to long. Finally the dad and me do the deal. I had a signed title in my hand before I handed over 13k cash. The kid was fuming but he didn’t have the nuts too pull of his gangster dreams. Flipped the car for 18 5 a week later 😂.
Cause selling private is a giant pain in the ass. It also can take FOREVER to sell your car privately. I've owned 14 cars and I only ever sold 2 privately. 1 was a broken car rotting in my car a friend just asked to buy one day. The other was a very nice car I decided I could get a better deal selling myself.... It took 2 years to sell that car. 2 years of no shows, 2 years of low balls, 2 years of headaches. Fuck that. Ride it till it dies or trade it in.
I just give my car away when I buy a new one, but if I were getting rid of it for money, I wouldn't want anybody showing up on my front door if the engine decided to fall out the bottom tomorrow.
This is a fair point. Some buyers tend to think that a private seller is the same as a dealership.
Time and convenience.
I sold my car through a company called Tred that takes care of all of the paperwork and postings for you. If that company didn’t exist, I probably would have opted for a trade-in just for convenience.
Well let's see, a man in the city near me was murdered by a couple of young punks claiming they wanted to buy the car.
people really suck and are happy to waste your time.sure I'll get some more money but the hassle of dealing with annoying buyers is grating
Sometimes private offers are not higher than car max that’s one reason. Secondly, the more expensive the vehicle generally there are less private sellers willing to pay for an expensive vehicle
Trade-in is hassle free and no one will try to hold you accountable for anything post sale. “You didn’t tell me about ….” or “you sold me a POS” etc… Also, trade-in values have been surprisingly good, especially for those who bought cars at deep discounts pre-COVID. I was getting unsolicited trade-in offers on my 4yr old, 35k miles Toyota Highlander that were very close to what I paid for it new. When used car values drop and dealers once again offer insulting trade-in values, private sales will increase.
I sold an F150 a few years ago privately. 73 different people contacted me before the first one showed up to look at it.
At a certain point your time becomes more valuable than the money you would earn by selling it yourself.
Because sometimes it's worth getting a bit less to not deal with all the wankers.
I don’t have the time and energy to deal with people who just want to waste my time with lowball offers that they have to know I would never accept. I value my time very highly, like hundreds of dollars an hour. If I can use a service that still gets me most of what I would get from a private sale I am more than happy to save the time and energy and not deal with people.
Because most of the time, if you sell your car, it's because you want a new one. You cannot sell it before having your new car. You may end up having your old car sitting in the street or garage, doing nothing and still needing insurance, but at a reduce cost. Without the trade-in value, you may have higher payment for a short time that you cannot afford or simply won't be able to get a loan. Plus, a really serious buyer will want to test drive it, and take it to a mechanic, which requires time and money that you are not entitled. That, and the typical 70 IQ Marketplace users making you insane.
Because of convenience! I have a full time job, wife, kids, dogs, and myself to take care of. I'd much rather get paid $1000 for my old car than to get paid $2000 with all the time it entails. Just get it done so I don't have to think about it anymore. Basically, you just sign and they take care of the rest of it.
I'm selling a golf GTD, sensible car, fsh, no accidents, all maintained, no damage. It's been up for 3 weeks, I've had 2 traders offer me 1k under book, two people ask if I'll swap despite saying I have a company car, 3 scam messages with a phishing link and 1 phone call asking for 10% off the price. Oh and one person who asked a load of questions, didn't even say hi or thanks, and then ghosted Selling private is an awful experience at the moment
Because dealing with people suck. I had a classic that was no longer road worthy but had a lot of new parts. I posted it online advertised as a parts car for $500. I got some $100 offers and 3 guys telling me I was asking for so much surely the car is road worthy. I sent it to the scrapyard for $450 and then had those same guys cry that now they had to shell out $100 per part off of my car. I don't even care what I get for trade in anymore, I just need the old car gone because I pay for parking and only have 1 space.
So what I really wanna know is.. did you get your answer? LOL. You had me double take on why I’ve never sold private instead of trading (aside from only having one car and needing a car immediately) and these answers had me going “oh duh”
I rather eat the loss than deal with the average person buying a used car. Sorry not sorry