Autotrader V Ebay..which is best for sales ?

[big x]

I'm wondering if anyone who's sold a large number of cars has any info on which of these achieves a higher price for cars in the £800-4000 range

?
I've sold one car in the Autotrader a couple of years ago, my Mums Peugeot 406 HDI. I only had one call dispite the 38k miler being below book but the car did sell within the week.The cost was thirty something pounds.
I've sold 3 cars on Ebay and the cost was similar accept when I've accepted an out of Ebay offer.For example this listing with 24 photos cost me a total of £10 with the pics hosted at Photobucket.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4622881771

thanx

adam

 

[Rob77]

I'd imagine that the subjective nature of secondhand car values would render any such research pretty much meaningless.

Having said that, I'm not a regular car buyer but I did buy my last one off Ebay. And as for Autotrader, I've never bought a copy in my life (that I recall).

 

[Spinal]

Does one exclude the other? I have noticed many people putting adverts in local magazines /shops, then putting the car one eBay with their buy-it-now price listed.

Seems to work quite well as you cover both markets...

 

[jaymanek]

ebay reaches a larger audience but find less proportion of serious buyers, infinately more time wasters. Auto trader is way more reliable but the cost outweighs it.
If you are in a rush to sell but it on both, but dont spend on the larger sized advert in autotradere as most buyers search by the web anyway.

 

[jeremytaylor]

As long as you price it right, Autotrader's always worked for me. Most punters are clued up on what a car is worth, so I don't think either medium will get a better price than the other, it's just if you strike it lucky with someone who is naieve when you place the ad. Quite a few times I've only had one call for a car, but if they are the buyer, you don't want any more.

I agree with jaymanek's comments, Auto Trader has definitely improved with the web pages (I remember when there was only the Thames Valley edition).

 

[blassberg]

I've sold twice and bought once using autotrader. Like it.

 

[Shude]

I have only ever bought two cars and both through online autotrader

 

[mobeyone]

all my cars have been bought via AT

 

[blassberg]

bought twice including my bike - I think people like it 'cos you can compare prices vs spec very accurately and then look for the nearest good examples.

 

[david_e]

In the price range you are looking at it has to be ebay at first attempt. Just sold my wife's car, average allround, offered £500 p/x for it, I would happily taken £650. Put it on ebay and got £1,000 exactly. Two buyers bidding merrily away both from outside my local autotrader region, buyer came over 200 miles to collect, no quibbles, paid cash and zoomed away. I think I would have done well to sell it in AT let alone get more than it is worth.

Sale fee is £23, so rather than commit to AT, go for ebay first, like me you might be surprised.

A tip; read the rules and advice, you will then fully understand what is going on.

 

[Vlad]

In my experience you get a more reliable class of buyer when you advertise on Autotrader, ie the interested party has to come out and view the car, can test drive it etc etc and they will only tend to do this if they are really interested in the car.

E-bay is useful for advertising the car to a wider audience but tends to attract the timewasters, drunks, dreamers, chancers, hijacked e-bay accounts etc......on the occasions that the cars have sold on e-bay I have found that it tends to occur when somebody comes and has a look at the car and we then strike a deal there and then and the auction is ended early.

I have also moved away from setting Reserve Prices etc and now just list the car with a Buy It Now price, as this tends to get rid of the bidders expecting to buy the car for £2.50.

E-bay has also proved to be amusing, ie selling my W124 500E....I sold it to a guy sitting on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Asked me to hold the car for a month until he was home. No problem I say, just wire me a £500 non-refundable deposit into my account and pay me the rest when you get back into the UK. Guy turns up a month later, takes the car out for a test ride and decides that he does not like the ride quality...a bit firm for his liking

Then sits in my car with his wife and has a blazing row with her for 20 minutes......I leave them to it. Eventually get a knock on my front door and they have decided that they don't want the car. So off they go, less their £500 and I sell the car the next day to one of the guys who's numbers I had kept who was interested in the car, when it was first advertised.

Some months later, I sold one of our Company Cars on e-bay....a Land Rover Discovery 3.9 V8 with a Buy It Now price. Lying in bed on a Friday night just dozing off to sleep at 11.30 and my mobile goes off.....Christ....who's died, are my first thoughts. Dash downstairs, answer phone.....Oh Hello, we've just bought your Discovery off e-bay and we would like to come and pick it up tomorrow.........sure enough there they are the next day, having driven all the way up from Swansea with the cash. Delighted with the car and off they go.

E-bay.......its another world !!! ........it is going down hill a bit at the moment with lots of spoof bidders and hijacked accounts which is very irritating

 

[big x]

Following up from my original question it does seem Ebay produces more non-local bids.I tend to ask for a 10% Paypal deposit and if people do make a long journey they do seem more likely not to want to walk away empty handed therefore for slightly tatty cars Ebay might be best.Nobody has tryed to chip the price down so far with me when they have turned up.
On the Autotrader people come and expect to haggle so unless the car is A1 it's a test of nerve and skill.
I'm beginning to think that for car in condition 'A' Autotrader is best and for the rest Ebay with a highish BIN but reasonable reserve.

adam

 

[david_e]

How long did it take you to clean the BMW - looks immaculate, is that a bit of overspray on the battery terminal bolt?

 

[jaymanek]

No its not, thats how its supposed to be..

 

[big x]

How long did it take you to clean the BMW - looks immaculate, is that a bit of overspray on the battery terminal bolt?

No,it's all original.Older cars tend to have greater attention to detail if one looks in detail as you have done.The front bolt is the bonnet earth strap.These are all good pointers to the history of a car,if removed for crash repair they become marked.On my C-class the earth is just a bolt that corrodes.
BTW car sold for £795.

adam