Is selling a car an art?

I've bought and sold about 40 cars, only one was traded in (my wife did it when I was out of town). I've done Autotrader and Craigslist, but not eBay yet. Over the years I've learned a thing or two about selling cars and the most important one to me is to be 100% honest. Anyway, I've had three people come to me in less than a year and ask if I'd sell a car for them. In all three cases I got about 20% more than either the highest offer they turned down or more then they expected to get. I expect to be doing this for someone else soon. For some reason I don't mind doing it, because I get them sold pretty quick. I've had offers in as little as 22 minutes, but no longer than about 17 days. Is this strange? Has anyone else been asked to sell a car for someone else?

Yup, just did this a month or two ago. A little bit more work than I expected but I have to say that the experience was worth it. I met some cool and interesting people.

Can you sell my motorcycle for me? Noone seems to want it.

It is an art. Presentation (of the car, yourself) is very, very, very important. Some people care to put forth the effort, most don't.

Selling a car is an incredible art and talent, I do not possess in any form.

Not everybody looks as good as you do in plaid pants.

Selling crappy cars is an art, which goes against your 100% honest idea. Detail the car, slather on the Armor-All, change the oil, touch up the paint if necessary, get a prepaid cell phone and arrange meetings in public places far away from your house. I never lied about the condition of a car, but I always encouraged the buyer to inspect it. Some did, some just slapped money in my hand and drove off. I never needed a student loan as long as I had a steady supply of tow yard auction listings.

I've solved that problem by only selling them when they are worth less than $1000, or by totaling them.

slefain wrote: Selling crappy cars is an art, which goes against your 100% honest idea.

Not so. I sold a Grand Wagoneer that had a frame made of swiss cheese and a Saturn with a piston that had been ventilated, i.e. pretty much had no top at all. In both cases I didn't hide anything and in fact informed both sellers of what I knew. In both cases, I made money off the sale. I always have buyers come to my house and even had one buyer call me over a year later looking to see if I had anything for sale because she knew someone was looking.
To me, it's all in the ad. Usually, the car is just about sold before they even come over. I've had more than one person tell me that.

EvanB wrote: Can you sell my motorcycle for me? Noone seems to want it.

Right there with ya, buddy.

Something has changed in the motorcycle market. It was hot the last couple of years, but this year something is different.

For me, I'm selling a vintage, older bike, that is rough around the edges, but has one of the largest aftermarket parts supplies in the world outside of Harley Davidson. Engines are known for decent power, reliability, ease of maintenance and rebuild. Lots of different options to take the bike, but common enough not to feel too bad about cutting the frame.

The problem is that people loves these bikes because they are cheap. Once they are no-longer cheap, the mystique is lost. All the money I've spent on making the bike better, on making it reliable (and safe) in modern terms has been wasted because now its not the cheap barn find that people are looking for.

Cars are a little different. You can "use a car up" to the point where selling it for a few hundred bucks is actually making you money. There also seems to be a high demand for cars at or under $1000, they seem to sell like hotcakes.

I've bought nd sold hundreds of cars and bikes. I don't know if I'd call it an art, but there is definitely some degree of skill involved. Being able to read the situation, and say the right things, or nothing at all. Key for me is pricing. Knowing how to value a car or bike based on the combination of year, market, condition, and desire. The bike market here is dead too, but I sold my KLX 250 in a week, when there are 20 others for sale locally.

Also, selling stock bikes/cars is way easier because you haven't really invested in the vehicle.

Every car I've owned I've made money on. I've sold them all for a profit.

So far every motorcycle I've owned I've broke even...and I'm soon to lose money on this one.

PHeller wrote: There also seems to be a high demand for cars at or under $1000, they seem to sell like hotcakes.

I'm going to do a market study on hotcakes...but I don't think they sell as well as the cliche would suggest

Anyway...a car that will get someone to work tomorrow is worth $1,000 to someone. This has been true for at least 10 years now, in my experience. With scrap prices high...it's hard to find any vehicle with a title for under $500.

Of course, "buy low, sell high" is the key. However, I feel like knowing the market and being able to wait for the right buyer is part of the "art."

If you are Selling a $1,000 to $1,500 an appliance, you need to be ready to sell to someone who needs to get to work tomorrow because their last beater just quit. They are going to be interested in a car that passes inspection, and moves under its own power...not much else. [my experience selling 2nd Gen Ford Escorts comes to mind here.] They won't care if one of the windows doesn't roll up and down, or that the carpet is messed up, or the hail damage, or cracked bumper.

If you're selling a vintage or niche market car (or a bike)...you need to realize that there are few folks out there who want it, but those who do, know exactly what they're getting into. You'll have a lot of tire kickers looking for a bargain, and one guy (your buyer) who knows and wants what you have for sale and will pay a reasonable price...not a premium. [my experience selling my 3rd Gen Z28 and vintage Honda bikes comes to mind here]

I don't know anything about selling nice cars. I've not bought a car for more than $1,000 or sold one for more than $2,500 in recent memory.

I think there's definitely an art to it. Sometimes I wonder if I've priced myself too low on the sales I've made - almost all of my cars have sold within 24 hours or so.

A well-detailed car that the owner seems forthcoming about will sell at a good price a lot quicker than one that seems poorly maintained, being sold by someone who seems to have something to hide. My car ads all have good information in them without being overwhelming, and as DrBoost says, most times the car is sold before the test drive - I've had a couple of times the guy was not going to test it until I prodded them into it.

I always meet the buyer at my house, or if they prefer, a neutral spot. It shows that you don't have anything to hide. If I'm buying a car and someone refuses to have me meet at their house, and refuses to give me any personal details, that gives me the feeling the seller is probably a crook.

I've used autotrader and craigslist, and both work well. I have not sold on ebay though I may in the future - just bought my first car from the site, and it's been a good experience so far.

In reply to EvanB:

I kind of want your motorcycle but I want other things more and I worry about the ergo's on a bike like that. Something about real time in the saddle on a stock V11 seems like it could be bad.

This thread makes me think it might not be so hard for me to sell my stupid Oldsmobile myself. Moving across town over the next few weeks so now isn't a great time but with some time getting it clean and advertised this might not be so hard after all?

Definitely an art. My wife and I make a great team, we've sold a bunch of cars in recent years. Just a few weeks ago, we sold my wife's grandmothers car ('93 Tempo with 43K). We got $1,200 for it without even listing it (a friend of a friend bought it), and she was going to sell it to her mechanic for $500 before my wife intervened. The car was in good shape mechanically, and the interior/exterior condition was perfect. How many Fords do you see from the early 90s that don't have paint issues? Unfortunately, it was a very undesirable model that gets something like 23MPG highway, so you couldn't even tout the gas mileage angle. Proof that cars really have come a long way...

Here's the list from the last six years (as you can see, just about every end of the spectrum):
- 1992 Ford Mustang LX 5.0
- 1992 Ford Mustang GT
- 1993 Ford Tempo LX (wife's grandmother's car)
- 1994 Chevy K1500
- 1997 BMW 328is
- 1997 Nissan Frontier (Father-In-Law's)
- 1998 Honda CR-V
- 1998 Toyota Camry
- 2000 Saab 9-3

My rules for selling are I am honest about the car, I'm very reasonable on the price, and I never meet someone at the house. Too many crazies out there...

I've used just about every medium, forums, CL, Bargain News (local paper that's going extinct due to CL), eBay, GRM, and word-of-mouth.

On the other side of the equation, I get brought into the buying process a lot by friends/family. I enjoy the entire car-buying process, and my wife seems to be great at finding the best deal. I've always wished I could turn our talents into a well-paying job, but I think that's a pipe dream

Coached my friend from a 2k trade into a 6k private sale! I only thought he'd get 4500, I was shocked.

I have a beater Jeep you can sell. If you give me $500, you can keep anything over that. It's a shame you're not in FL.