Cars for sale on this site

[seattle_Jerry]

I was thinking after Dan's comment about wanting to get the car he had sold...Most of the cars and items for sale here don't have pictures with them.

There is a reason dealers have lots on busy streets. Most purchases are on impulse. I think adding pics to your ads would bring more interest.

As far as tweety bird...its the same thing as selling a house with intense colors. As a painter I am often called into "beige out" a house that isn't selling because the majority of the population prefers to stay around the baseline. For all the colors in the Sherwin-Williams Fan-Deck, our customers most frequently choose one called "Practically Beige". So you are stuck waiting for someone who isn't afraid of coloring outside of the lines.

1967 230SL Havana Brown Auto with A/C

[Benz Dr.]

I'm sure a picture would help. I didn't grow up using computors so I don't always know how to do things like adding pictures and things like that.

Probably why I work on older cars without a lot of fancy hardware.

Dan Caron's
 SL Barn
benzbarn@ebtech.net
 slbarn.mbz.org
  1 877 661 6061

[mdsalemi]

Hello Seattle Jerry,

With my connections to the Seattle area, and your comments, I'm reminded that there is a color in the palette in those environs called "Bellevue Taupe"...

Note also that I live in a subdivision of 339 homes here in Michigan; 337 of which are painted some form of Beige or Taupe.  I'm "daring" enough to be one of the 2 with the audacious "color" of Cape Cod Grey!

And that being said, compare the photos of the W113's at Blacklick this summer with a lineup of Mercedes at a dealer today.  While we didn't have anything quite like Tweety Bird, we did have a refreshingly different array of colors besides black, white and silver.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red 568G w/Black Leather (Restored)
President, International Stars Section
Mercedes-Benz Club of America

[Peter van Es]

If I were selling my car, I'd spend quite a lot of time on getting a good set of sales literature together. I've not sold cars on ebay, but have sold lots of other stuff, including high-end camera equipment, a home-trainer, a large designer double bed and even a fireplace.

I've picked up quite a bit of experience on how to do this. Here's my 2 cents worth:
 

• research the market. What did other items sell for, who attracted the most bids, what do buyers for the thing you are selling look for. It will be different for cars than for e.g. camera lenses.
• write a painstakingly honest appraisal of the goods. Point out all the bad bits, so that it does not come back to bite you. That does not mean that you cannot sell your item at the same time. Point out the good bits too, show how little it costs to fix the bad bits, write a good sales description. For example, many people do not point out the obvious benefits of owning the item you are selling. Just do, it might get you an impulse buyer.
• Photographs. Take them with a good camera, in good light, with a non-distracting background. It is amazing how many shoddy photographs I come across on ebay. If there are two similar items for sale, and one has lousy photographs, and one has great photographs, which one would you bid on?
• the psychology of selling. Also known as the behavious of the herd. If there are two similar items for sale, and one has 10 bids, and one has none, which one would you bid on? Even though from a purchasers perspective bidding on the item with zero bids is likely to be better (it's cheaper, you have less competition) 9 out of 10 buyers will bid on the item which already has bids. So it is more important to attract bids early on, than to set a minimum price. I have a lot of experience selling even high-ticket items with a start price of $1. It gets you bids, and sets you apart from the competition.
• the size of the herd. Be prepared to ship internationally. The bigger the audience you reach, the more likely you are to find exactly that buyer who needs your item. I always sell quality stuff on ebay, and research the cost of shipping the item around the world ahead of time. My camera equipment found new homes in 8 different countries in Europe.

So I am not very surprised that people who list items for sale on this board don't sell it. Selling a car without paying serious attention to it (just have a look at what Bob at Cascadia does to present his cars... excellent work), and with just a picture, is unlikely to work.

The same holds for spare parts. Present them honestly, and fairly, but also in a way that makes it appealing to buy. To enlarge your audience, post it here in the for sale section, and then, if there are no takers after a week, post it on ebay and add a link to the item saying that it's now listed there...

Peter


Also known as 'admin@sl113.org' and organiser of the Technical Manual (http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php). Check out http://bali.esweb.nl for photographs of classic car events and my 1970 280SL.