To Ebay or not to Ebay

I am contemplating on putting putting my car on ebay. What's the downside aside from getting critiqued on this site? All kidding aside I've created a website that I was just going to direct ebayers to. Here is the link. http://bigblue111c.tripod.com/1972porsche911s/

[kepperly]

i buy and sell alot of porsche stuff on ebay and have found buy and large its a good deal. your add seem very informative and honest and i think the ebay veiwers will respond accordingly.
good luck with your sale
keith epperly

[epbrown]

The big upside is that people overbid. The big downside is the fact that lots of eBay sales never complete whne the person realizes they've overbid and decides they'd rather have a negative feedback than a white elephant costing thousands of dollars. Besides, there's a reason the cars on eBay tend to be iffy - the nicer cars have no problem selling among the knowledgeable; after all, that's how you got it, reading your web site.

Emanuel

[bell]

i sold my civic through ebay, the purchaser lived about an hour away so it made the transaction a breeze.
don't hesitate to speak to potential buyers on the phone, you can tell alot about someone just by talking to them to see if they're serious, if they're way too excited and agree to whatever you say without question you'll want to be a little cautious.
my.02

[billwagnon]

I think you should exchange a week with the car for some simple website design improvements - smaller images, a narrower page. The loading takes forever!

The car looks like something I could tolerate for a week...possibly longer!

Thanks for the input. Sorry about the web design, or lack of! I've sold not so big ticket items on ebay but never something as big as this. I think I'll list it and see what pans out.

[APKhaos]

Carlo,
Check the deal on your Tripod site hosting ..... some of these freebie sites have limits on the amount of traffic [particularly image serves]. If you go over the limit, your site cannot be accessed. You don't want your eBay listing to point to a blocked site, right?

Guess you may be working on the site right now - it is unavailable.

Good luck with the sale!

[wdarner]

I was honest in the representation. Had lots of pics on my website. Had it detailed before trying to sell it. I did not require a deposit. And I told them that if they did not like what they saw when they came to pick it up, they did not have to buy it. That is the way I would feel comfortable about buying a car on Ebay. It sold to the first guy that saw it. That was 8 months ago. He still emails me about how happy he is. Car missed it's reserve by $1000 so no one had to buy it. 5 guys contacted me after the auction ended and they all wanted it. Just my 2 cents.

[LeeH]

I sold my Audi A4 on eBay. I got $25K (about what the Audi dealer was asking for the same car). The person who bought it knew they would have to haggle and pay sales tax at the dealer.

I also helped a guy sell a '70 911T. As you probably know, Porsche buyers want details. Your web site was locked up due to overuse of bandwidth so I couldn't see what you had done. All I can say is take pictures of everything and be very honest about the condition. I think bidders can often sense the kind of person they are dealing with.

Give as much detail as you can. Another "trust builder" is to publicly post answers to any questions you are asked. That way everyone is dealing with the same info and you don't have to answer the same questions over and over. Make sure to start your auction so that it will end at a time when most people are home and awake - taking into account east and west coast bidders. People like to bid at the end. If your auction closes at 3:00 a.m. you'll miss out on a lot of bidders. My A4 was a few thousand below the reserve 15 minutes before the close.

After my personal experience helping someone try to buy a car on eBay, I doubt I'll ever purchase a car that way. As a seller, you have little to lose. If you give an inspection/refund offer (for misrepresentation, NOT change of heart) the bidders will feel the same way.

[wdarner]

No bandwidth issues there, so far, for me. Plus you get a yourname@rennlist.com email address! And you can have the mail forwarded to your regular POP3 email account. If you are a PORSCHEPHILE, should you not have a rennlist email account? YUP! Plus, you get 170 megs to build a wesite! $18/year = peanuts Mon!

[nostatic]

I couldn't get to the site (bandwidth exceeded). If you want, I'll host the page and images on one of my servers...I'll even do a quick bit of design gratis. Shoot me an email todd@nostatic.fm if you're interested

Just a quick email to thank everyone and all the offers of help I've gotten. Someone is wiring me funds tomorrow on an ad I placed. My gf's stuck in an airport back East and is due to call any minute now. Thanks again!