After 18 years, looking to sell my '84 Cab

[robhamster]

I am not looking for offers here, but rather some advice on the best way to get this car seen by really interested buyers. The Bring a Trailer auction site seems to be dominated by non-bidding trolls from time to time.

Does anyone have a great site, other than our hosts, which of course I will list it on, that might garner a worthy audience.

Why sell? I bought this car in 2000 with 44K miles and it has been a driver. In 2016, I sent it to Eisenbud's in Denver and we decided to do a full engine rebuild, transmission refresh, and all of the "while you are in there" stuff including gas lines, A/C lines (converted to R134a in 2002), changed the heat system a bit to handle Colorado winters, and so on, but kept this a stock configuration. In the process I avoided doing much of a refresh on the exterior as I like the patina of a 34 year old car that runs like a brand new car. The basic reason is I need garage space, had a change in my health and need to let this car go to the next guy who will want tinker and care for it. I have two other Porsche's, a 2007 911 turbo and a 2014 Panny turbo, an R8 and two Aston Martins, so the humble Carrera needs a new home..

I would sincerely appreciate any advice as I dont want this painful experience to become a pain in the a$$.

This forum has guided me well through the years of owning this car. It is my 3rd air cooled 911. I will miss the sound and the smell.

[wildthing]

There will be scammers everywhere so just learn how to spot them. I bought my car from Craigslist. If you say local only with cash in hand, that will reduce your risk. Might reduce your market size but set your priorities...

[McLovin]

I've sold several cars in BaT, and got way more than they were worth for all of them.
Yet, when unsold my G50 carerra a few months agi, I didn't list it there.
Why?
IMO 80s carreras for the most part don't do very well there anymore.
Esp 80s targas and cabs.
Part of it is there are so many auctions there now. 160+ per week. It has diluted prices for most cars there.
They will take your 84 cab, but they know that car likely won't do great there, and will insist on a very low reserve. Be cautious. Don't count on it going too much higher than the reserve they set.
I sold mine here on pelican, very quickly, for over $15,000 more than the reserve BaT tried to force on me.

[RFP]

I bought my '87 M491 on Pelican, and I look on Pelican every day for a "garage mate" for it.

[911SauCy]

Post it on Pelican and avoid "Bring a Porsche"

I'm with McLovin, the quantity of auctions on BaT and the amount of 911s on there has diluted the sellers market

[Cory M]

I've sold a couple of cars on BaT and it's a time consuming process. You have to take a lot of pictures, documentation, etc just to get it set up. Then you have to haggle a bit for a decent reserve price and edit the ad they write. Once the ad goes live you spend some time answering all the questions, but you'll also get some emails and even local folks who want to check it out in person, so a lot of time. The bonus is that after 1 week it should be sold. Both of my BaT interactions have been positive. Nice buyers who are genuinely stoked on the car and not grinding you on price or nitpicking the car since it's already sold.

Pelican used to be a decent place to sell and buy but there are so many dealers on here these days that it kind of sucks. It used to be a lot more personal. Recently, I had a car on Pelican for a couple of months and just got lookie-lou's and lowballers. I put the same car on BaT and ended up getting within 1k of my Pelican asking price, not counting the additional 5% fee the seller had to pay. A serious buyer on Pelican could have gotten the car for less than it sold for on BaT...

Pelican and Craigslist are free so it's probably worth it before doing BaT which has a $100 listing fee.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by Cory M

I've sold a couple of cars on BaT and it's a time consuming process. You have to take a lot of pictures, documentation, etc just to get it set up. Then you have to haggle a bit for a decent reserve price and edit the ad they write. Once the ad goes live you spend some time answering all the questions, but you'll also get some emails and even local folks who want to check it out in person, so a lot of time. The bonus is that after 1 week it should be sold. Both of my BaT interactions have been positive. Nice buyers who are genuinely stoked on the car and not grinding you on price or nitpicking the car since it's already sold.

Pelican used to be a decent place to sell and buy but there are so many dealers on here these days that it kind of sucks. It used to be a lot more personal. Recently, I had a car on Pelican for a couple of months and just got lookie-lou's and lowballers. I put the same car on BaT and ended up getting within 1k of my Pelican asking price, not counting the additional 5% fee the seller had to pay. A serious buyer on Pelican could have gotten the car for less than it sold for on BaT...

Pelican and Craigslist are free so it's probably worth it before doing BaT which has a $100 listing fee.

My experience selling on BaT was great but it is definitely a time consuming process to do it correctly. Listings that are untended where questions and photo/video requests are ignored tend to perform poorly.

When I sold my Scout, I had about 7 people come out to look at it which near the end, I felt like a used car salesman.

That said, I got way more than I honestly expected and the seller was very happy with the truck. It took me a few hours to do a good photo shoot for it and take a driving video for YouTube. I also answered probably 15 different interested buyer questions via email beyond the people who came to see the truck.

[joefrantz]

Rob
If I had the time and space we'd be talking.
Given the comments above, I think BAT is worth a try.
Granted, there are plenty of trolls and uninformed experts, a facination with time wasting fake bids, and remember when stories, but there is a core of informed buyers who appreciate honest cars.

As others have said, the key is as much disclosure as you can put together - especially under side pictures, service records, any body work history, staying in touch and answering questions, and a good driving video. A short blast up Bear Creek Canyon would be a big hit.

The site has a search feature that allows you to look at prior auctions in detail, so you could look up some comparables and decide if the effort it makes sense.