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I've bought and sold around 20 cars in the past year (don't ask, long story!).
Sure learned a lot about marketing and car sales during that time.
Some surprises:
1. AutoTrader, the biggest by far source for buying and selling BMWs, Porsches, etc. during my youth, seems dead. I advertised many of the 20 cars on ATrader, I don't think I sold a single one through them. Big surprise to me.
2. eBay: I did ok with ebay. In my opinion, it works pretty well for cars that have something a little unique about them. Even something like an 80s 911, any older semi-classic car, etc. does pretty good with the national exposure of eBay. I sold a couple of Porsches, a 30 year old BMW, a stick shift Mercedes sedan, and a couple of others on eBay. They recently changed the fee structure, overall it's a little more expensive, esp. if the car sells.
3. Craigslist: The BIG surprise! I sold most of the cars through Craigslist. At this time, it works really, really well for your typical, late model car. A LOT of people search Craigslist, way more than I thought. Also, if you take some decent pictures, and string a few sentences together in semi-coherent English, you have a HUGE advantage over most of the sellers. For cars, the big franchise dealerships and big independent dealers do not seem to have figured out Craiglist, or take it very seriously. It is a very fluid market, though. There is a good deal of fraud and some shady characters on Clist. I have a feeling it will continue to change and evolve, and the Clist of 5 years from now will probably look very different than the one today.
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