Hey guys, just sold my Passat on Ebay, thought I quickly write up my experiences and perhaps give some tips for forum members that might want to do the same thing. Ive never actually done it myself before so it might be helpful to some....
Firstly, I was quite surprised at the amount of exposure the car got compared to another car I had advertised in Autotrader, the Passat was nothing special but managed to get nearly 800 hits and had 70 watchers, I also got a ton of emails regarding its sale. The fees for Ebay arent too bad either for cheaper cars near the sub £3k level.
I would recommend that you make your advert as clear as possible by taking lots of photos and adding lots of descriptive blurb, things that seem stupidly obvious to you and me still need typing out as theres plenty of idiots out there, good things to note are cambelt changes, time till next service, previous owners.
Another thing, I put my mobile number on the auction as I thought a couple of people might ring to ask about the car and on the first evening had 50+ phone calls of which only one was a genuine question and the rest making stupid offers well below a decent asking price, I guess if people are genuinely interested they will make the effort to email but then again the guy I did sell it to (a Polish guy who came with a few mates) rang a couple of times so it worked out in the end. Also if your selling a large diesel and/or estate car be prepared to get a lot of calls from people who dont have english as their first language, some of whom are just time wasters but some are very genuine.
And lastly, be prepared to have a lot of people asking for a buy it now price especially at the beginning, I think most of these are chancers after a bargain when the price isnt very high so would probably be a good idea to have a rough figure you want for the car and then stick to your guns.
If anyone has got something to add might be worth making this a sticky or adding a new section to the forum to discuss ways of selling a car...
Firstly, I was quite surprised at the amount of exposure the car got compared to another car I had advertised in Autotrader, the Passat was nothing special but managed to get nearly 800 hits and had 70 watchers, I also got a ton of emails regarding its sale. The fees for Ebay arent too bad either for cheaper cars near the sub £3k level.
I would recommend that you make your advert as clear as possible by taking lots of photos and adding lots of descriptive blurb, things that seem stupidly obvious to you and me still need typing out as theres plenty of idiots out there, good things to note are cambelt changes, time till next service, previous owners.
Another thing, I put my mobile number on the auction as I thought a couple of people might ring to ask about the car and on the first evening had 50+ phone calls of which only one was a genuine question and the rest making stupid offers well below a decent asking price, I guess if people are genuinely interested they will make the effort to email but then again the guy I did sell it to (a Polish guy who came with a few mates) rang a couple of times so it worked out in the end. Also if your selling a large diesel and/or estate car be prepared to get a lot of calls from people who dont have english as their first language, some of whom are just time wasters but some are very genuine.
And lastly, be prepared to have a lot of people asking for a buy it now price especially at the beginning, I think most of these are chancers after a bargain when the price isnt very high so would probably be a good idea to have a rough figure you want for the car and then stick to your guns.
If anyone has got something to add might be worth making this a sticky or adding a new section to the forum to discuss ways of selling a car...
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