If I couldn't have a project vehicle ready to sell before Thanksgiving I'd usually hold off until near springtime. My reasoning, people (claim) ain't got no money for their own toys in Christmas shopping season and are still paying Christmas debt off in Jan./ Feb.
April/ May seemed prime time to sell for people to pick up a project and complete in good weather. Speaking NE here.
Ready to sell my Chevy 4X4 project. Too much weekend work got in the way to finish. Advertise as winter project?... prolly too tall to fit in a standard garage. Also, rifle buck season starts tomorrow for two weeks then it's Christmas, prolly lose a lotta potential lookers.
What say GRM, does it really matter when you sell?
It seems like fall ought to be a good time to sell projects, like there should be people out there looking for something to do over the winter, but in my experience my stuff always moves better once those tax refund checks start rolling in. Probably what you're saying, people have to spend on the holidays, then pay off the holiday spending in January.
i know i'm putting my rambler away for winter and getting it back on the market in april.
Strizzo
UberDork
12/1/13 10:54 p.m.
April is also when people tend to get their tax refunds too
Not a project, but I'm not even going to bother to try to sell the NC until March/April. Of course it's a convertible so that impacts with the cooler weather, but I figure the tax return checks will help motivate someone to buy.
bluej
Dork
12/2/13 7:03 a.m.
march/april = refund checks and an itch for new toys.
the exception in this case would be anything someone might find a useful winter vehicle in appropriate regions. those should go on the block now.
Fall is the best time to buy. Even more so with motorcycles. People want that E36 M3 out of the garage and gone before winter.
My situation is the project been sitting under the car port and I'd really like to park my '12 Sierra pickup there for winter so I don't have to do the whole snow/ ice removal thing.... well the less of it the better.
Project just been cleaned up enough for sale but now must sit out in the weather as it won't fit in the garage. I imagine I'd take some kind of a hit on the price being close to Christmas n all.
Woulda been finished/ gone earlier but I got roped into working too many weekends... so I did make money overall I guess even if I take a loss on the project.
Might float it out there on CL just to see. I can always say no to obnoxious offers and wait till spring. 
oldtin
UltraDork
12/2/13 4:17 p.m.
somebody got a hell of a deal on a v8 mgb gt because I wanted to clear out my crap before winter hits in full force.
want so bad. trade you a rambler for it 
When I started looking to sell my Miata and find another car back in mid October, there were a ton of cars I would have bought if my car was gone and I had the cash. After selling it two weeks ago, there are almost NO cars on the market that even interest me. I still keep looking though. I think people just don't even want to waste time washing a car to sell in the freezing cold, let alone do any maintenance for a sale.
I have noticed that right after Christmas is the best time to sell parts on on Craigslist. Last year I made over $500 selling some parts I had stockpiled around the house. Put things up for crazy high prices and had emails on most items within minutes of posting the ad. People can't spend Christmas money fast enough.
i'm planning on having the highlander project back up and running by christmas to take advantage of all the christmas money burning holes in people's pockets, we'll see how it works out.
