Is Autotrader worth the price?

[asphaltgambler]

Originally Posted by speeder

....................If you have some aversion or fear of eBay, you are extremely limiting the exposure of the car. For anything that will not sell easily on CL, I eBay for exposure alone............................................I have only bought one car from AT and never listed there. And I buy and sell a lot more cars than the average person. I look at eBay and CL constantly, including for vehicles I'm not even buying now but just want to track prices. You are using the wrong outlet, although you can never go wrong with free ones like Pelican and CL.

^^^^ I could not agree more and I have a solid track record of success^^^^^^^^^^

[speeder]

Originally Posted by enzo1

also I thought this listing started at 60 and got lowered to where it is now, not positive and could be wrong maybe it was 55, can't remember for sure

When something is $20k over-priced, you get a lot of inquiries wondering who your crack dealer is. Not so many about the vehicle.

[Rick Lee]

I had it on eBay twice. The first time I had 96 watchers by the time it ended. But it got twice as many views on Pelican as on eBay.

[Rinty]

I listed my 993 on Kjiji and the Rennlist last summer. I was fortunate to find 4 then current price points in Western Canada and priced the car realistically, I thought, in relation to those.

It sold in 2 days for my full asking price.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I had it on eBay twice. The first time I had 96 watchers by the time it ended. But it got twice as many views on Pelican as on eBay.

But not as an auction, right?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by speeder

But not as an auction, right?

I had it with a reserve. If you have a reserve or BIN price, it's around $18 in fees, regardless of whether it sells. If I want to relist with no fees, I have to make it a no reserve auction and then pull it down at the last minute if it doesn't get to my price. Not sure I want to do that. And then if someone does buy it and flakes, the car is tied up a while longer while that gets resolved. Frankly, I'm far more impressed with Pelican's view numbers than eBay's.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I love the forums, but 9/10 of those views are window shoppers. I sell probably 3/4 of my Porsches on EBay. Forum shoppers also tend to waste your time. A lot.

[speeder]

Rick, you're confusing page views or watchers with number of buyers. My advice would be to put it on eBay with a reserve and start @ $10k or some ridiculous low starting bid. Don't worry about $18 here and there when you're selling a $40k+ car, fer chrisakes. Ebay is a million dollars worth of advertising for peanuts.

[onewhippedpuppy]

If you want to sell your car for the absolute top of market price, you'll need to spend more than $18. You also need to be very patient.

[Rick Lee]

I've even had a few crackpots on eBay contact me. One guy was from Stuttgart. I answered all his questions in German, was very thorough, and he wrote back that he just wasn't interested in blue. WTF? He didn't know that before he sent me a page of questions? A nutbag from CL called to ask why I just don't try to sell it at a car show. Wow.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by aigel

Your ad is seen, no doubt. But at your price you may be testing the market. It may be too high?

I put my Sequoia on the local CL and getting zilch, figured I'll try Autotrader = same result. This tells me I need to drop the price by at least a grand, which is almost 20%. It isn't costing me anything in my driveway, so I'll wait for the first weekend to pass and if there is still no bites, then relist at dropped price.

George

Sold the Sequoia today. Had it on CL for 5 days. On Autotrader for 3 days. On autotrader 9 people clicked on my ad and 1 looked at my contact info.

For a used car - very used in my case - CL looks to be the way to go. For the 993, I'd definitely do a national advertisement.

Special thanks to OWT for engine detailing tricks. I will miss the nice engine compartment - so much room! Usually I clean the car up really well and sell to literally the first person that shows up to see the car.



G

[glewis80SC]

No

[Cooper911SC]

Here's another data point... I bought a '95 993 Tip today from an Auto Trader ad.

Drove 2 1/2 hours up to Santa Barbara from O.C. To look at the car and finalize the deal.

I have bought and sold cars from A.T. many times.

I agree with others here, skip their up-sell on Premium placement etc.

My wife found the listing. She's been looking to replace another 993 for 6 months now.

Checked anything listed on every site possible.

Cooper

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Pelican, PCA, and sadly Craigslist will bring your biggest pools of buyers.

Big 993 crowd at Rennlist also.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

Big 993 crowd at Rennlist also.

True, but you have to be a paid member to advertise there.

[Rick Lee]

I would think anyone who would search on Rennlist would also come here to search.

[biosurfer1]

I would say there is a 99% chance most of those eBay "watchers" are people with a similar car who want to see how much you car sells for so they can price theirs accordingly.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I've had my 993 on Autotrader for three weeks and have not gotten a single inquiry about it. I've gotten more views on Pelican than on eBay and the only serious inquiries have been through Pelican. I have run into some Porsche guys who had never heard of Pelican, so I figured Autotrader would be a good way to reach those guys, as well as some of the European market.

I got an email from a guy who works at Autotrader, asking me how my ad was working out for me. I replied that it was a total waste of money so far. He called today to discuss and tried to upsell me to their $250 ultimate or whatever package, said my current ad was getting buried at the bottom of the last page.

When I do a search for 95-98 993s, I put a price range of $35-60k, which weeds out the turbos and S'es and then 37 results appear. I don't think 37 is too many ads to scroll through, particularly when each one has a thumbnail photo showing the color. This Autotrader rep. claims I'll get 93% more views and my car will sell quickly with this package. I'm very skeptical. Should I do it?

I skim past the premium listings by habit, used to be they appear twice, so pointless to look at them on the top. Not sure if its still the case, but I still skim right past them.

People looking for a car will look through everything that turns up in their search criteria anyway.

[johnsjmc]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I would think anyone who would search on Rennlist would also come here to search.

I advertised my 993 on Pelican ,Rennlist and both Craigslist and Kijiji all at the same time.
I often asked where the caller saw the ad. I think I got about the same number of inquiries from all 4 sites .
I think eventual the buyer saw it on Rennlist ( a year membership to list is less than $40) but could be wrong.

[speeder]

The bottom line is that a decent 993 that sits unsold for more than a few days in today's market is priced incorrectly. I've said it before but the market price of a car, (or anything else), is what you can sell it for in a reasonably short period of time, marketed properly.

The value is not what some hypothetical buyer in a cave or on a mountaintop in the Himilayas might pay for it if he only had Internet service and could find out you are selling.

If it's an air-cooled 911 listed here, it's marketed properly. Oh haha just sold his 911SC in one day to a guy in Germany from this site for a strong price in relation to condition of the car. Everyone on earth is looking here.