Selling a 2nd hand car, drowning in a sea of .....

[littlebasher]

Like Bob Hoskins used to say - "It's good to talk", so i'll get this off my chest!

I've been selling a car on the ebay classifieds, something i've done a few times before and never really had an issue with. Previously, questions i've been asked are relevant and aside from a couple of no shows - the cars have eventually sold for near what i wanted.

This time around and as a favour for a colleague, i've offered to sell his car for him, being that he is one of the few people without an Ebay account and was off on holiday for 3 weeks. Figured that an ebay advert would weed out the worst of the Scumtree clientele. Turns out this was not such a good idea!

Dear god, i'm getting literally bombarded every day with a torrent of pointless questions, ridiculous offers and assorted crap that is stereotypical of half the similar threads on Pistonheads!

And they just keep on coming, here's some of todays Gems (i've translated from txt spk to English for your convenience)

"Scrap is only £15 a ton, i'll give you £300 for it"
"Will you swap for a Chinese moped and a PS3"
"What colour is it"
"Will you take £600"
"Will you take £800"
"I'll give you £1000"
"Only worth £700"
"Can i take the car and pay you monthly"
"How much is the insurance for a 19 year old"
"I've seen the same car, with less miles for £500 less. Will you do the same price"

Despite ignoring most of these questions now (initially i was answering them), i'm rapidly losing the will to live!

In the time it's been on, i've had no less than 9 people arrange to come see the car. Despite these people being all over the country, not a single one has turned up so far. Each one has sent a text shortly before they're due to say they're not coming, after i'd made arrangements to be available when they said they'd come.

Infuriating isn't the word!

I wonder what this evenings questions will bring!

[R26Andy]

These type of things seem to go very well or very badly.

The first two times I sold on ebay I had no problems either. However last month, I was close to removing the advert. My biggest mistake was to allow offers and then got people expecting a 30-50% discount on the advertised price (It was already the cheapest for the age and mileage).

At the last minute a sensible buyer came along so hang in there!

[Al U]

The fact you "are selling on behalf of a friend" would put me straight off to be honest. Always steer clear of those sort of adverts.

[Benmac]

What's the car? The type of car seems to be hugely influential on the level of tttishness.

Sell a tidy volvo estate and chances are it'll be a decent sort, sell a leggy corsa and you'll be bombarded with idiots.

[Neonblau]

Al U said:

The fact you "are selling on behalf of a friend" would put me straight off to be honest. Always steer clear of those sort of adverts.

+1. Usually a sign that there's something iffy about the deal and seems to attract a certain demographic. Take a look on Barryboys for some prime examples.

[KrisP]

Agree with the selling on behalf of a friend, but ignoring that, keep persevering. Having countless people interested, a first viewing that was OK but didnt conclude, a viewing in the dark that ended up with me being pissed off at the viewers buying game (and ended with him being told to leave) I then sold it to the third person to view for a very satisfactory price.

I've also sold the wife's car, which although slow and took 10 days to get a viewing on, then sold for the asking price to the first person. Different cars attract different folks?

[swisstoni]

How do auctions go? Never tried with a car myself but would think it would cut down on the pests. Either they get bidding or someone else gets the car.
I suppose it still doesn't stop them not paying at the end.

[lbc]

Al U said:

The fact you "are selling on behalf of a friend" would put me straight off to be honest. Always steer clear of those sort of adverts.

Nobody ever seems to be the owner of cars for sale these days. I avoid all of those.

You will attract nutters if the wording in the advert is poor and the price is over inflated.

[Leins]

When selling my Golf earlier in the year, I got a phone call:

Caller: "It's an auto, yeah?"

Me: "No, it's a 6-speed manual"

Caller: "But it says 'Auto' in the advert"

Me: "No, I checked before posting it, definitely says 'Manual'"

Caller: "But the wife doesn't drive manuals"

Me: "Will she learn?"

Caller: "Not a chance of that. Now you're sure it's not an auto"

Me: "Pretty certain it's not"

Caller: "Well have you any other autos for sale?"

Me: "No sorry, I'm not a dealer"

Caller: "Ah well, that's a pity, the wife will be disappointed. Let us know if you get an autos in"

Me: "Sure, will do"

[motorhole]

Benmac said:

What's the car? The type of car seems to be hugely influential on the level of tttishness.

Sell a tidy volvo estate and chances are it'll be a decent sort, sell a leggy corsa and you'll be bombarded with idiots.

Link to ad?

[Al U]

Neonblau said:

Al U said:

The fact you "are selling on behalf of a friend" would put me straight off to be honest. Always steer clear of those sort of adverts.

+1. Usually a sign that there's something iffy about the deal and seems to attract a certain demographic. Take a look on Barryboys for some prime examples.

For me it's the worry that the actual owner will appear later down the line saying that the person that sold the car was not the owner and therefore it's basically stolen so you need to give it back but don't get any money back, blah blah blah.

[zoom star]

Agree also, selling for a friend I avoid.
I do have an Ebay mobile, its just for Ebay, and I have a ball texting the morons back, when i get fed up I ignore, I never put my own phone numbers, after I sell whatever, I switch the phone off..

[Otispunkmeyer]

I'm having the same with, not a car, but a computer!

I've had numerous guys offer to trade me an old laptop with worse specs, one guy offered me about £2.50, another offered, and I quote: "two powerful speakers and a subwoofer, worth £350". Yeah because thats exactly what the advert asked for and these are probably stolen 6x9's from some chav's car.

Plenty of actual sensible offers who are communicative right up to the point where I say: "yeah, thats a fair offer, I'll take it" only to never hear from them again.

Yesterdays was the best though, from someone called "Alen":

"Hi. Y give. For. Dis. Imac. One. Iphone 6S. New. New. In boks ??"

Great....who'd swap a new iPhone 6S for a 4 year old iMac?

[anonymous-user]

I was volunteered to sell a car for a recently emigrated couple, a nice Volvo v70 2.4 auto FSH and in good nick. Double the price 1 year before I listed it.

Had loads of time wasters, the best was one that wanted me to drive it 70 miles so he could view it and if is was as described would buy it. yeh right. Another wanted to test drive it over the weekend.

I will never sell for a friend again, it is wastes a lot of your time for nothing and you have to communicate back and forth with owner, prospective buyer etc. And at the end maybe a drink out of it..

[Matt106]

The advert might not state it's being sold on behalf of a friend?

I had the same sort of questions when I was selling my car and multiple no shows! It's frustrating when you make plans to sit in and then they text you 10 minutes before they should be arriving.

I actually sold my car to what I thought was a total dreamer! It's a funny world when it comes to selling on the likes of eBay, Gumtree etc.

[RyanTank]

I've sold 2 cars privately. never will again! I thought I'd seen it all during the first sale. but the questions and offers of "swopz" for the £300 knackered fiesta was unbelievable.
the cream of the crop on that one was would I fill the tank up for him, pick him up from the local station, then deduct his travel cost from the price of the car!?

[hairyben]

Please don't I've got a sofa up at £75 on gumtree, the amount of texts asking me dumb st, offers, can I deliver (ad states collection only), can I reduce the price as they have to hire a van, etc etc etc. one fat couaaaaaaaacil slag turned up, lifted and looked under all the cushions (??) then stated it wasn't big enough (despite measurements and photo's being online). Is it these peoples mission in life just to waste peoples time? It's a £75 sodding sofa ffs. Bring back work houses.

Charities want fire labels (is only 5 years old but none on it) and robbing council want £40 to collect and I can't go to the tip because all I have is a van and council logic states that no-one ever uses a van unless they're a business and I'm automatically a criminal trying to commit fraud if I drive it to a tip.

And they wonder why people fly tip. serious question, how much unleaded will a 236cm corner sofa need?

[littlebasher]

I've been open and honest about the "selling for someone else" approach in the advert, figured there was no point in pretending otherwise! In hindsight, you're probably right in that it's putting off the genuine "customers"!

Didn't want to link to the advert in case it looked like i was trying to sneak in a free advert into the thread!

[Jabosoc]

The Spruce goose said:

I was volunteered to sell a car for a recently emigrated couple, a nice Volvo v70 2.4 auto FSH and in good nick. Double the price 1 year before I listed it.

Had loads of time wasters, the best was one that wanted me to drive it 70 miles so he could view it and if is was as described would buy it. yeh right. Another wanted to test drive it over the weekend.

I will never sell for a friend again, it is wastes a lot of your time for nothing and you have to communicate back and forth with owner, prospective buyer etc. And at the end maybe a drink out of it..

Neither will I.

I was nominated to sell a friend's (who lives in the US) late Father's Kia Picanto earlier this year. I used the car for a week to be sure I was comfortable with selling it from my home, had it serviced and gave it ruddy good polishing. I also had her give me the relevant documentation for selling a car that's in the name of someone who's deceased when she was over for the funeral. It was a nice enough car, so I advertised it.

It sat on my drive for 12 weeks up for sale on Gumtree and Ebay, eventually selling to a chap who test drove it, went through the history, looked all around it and was happy with it, and paid the full asking price. Nine weeks after selling it I had an email from him, that went like this:

"really seen me coming on that deal with the car not even got the log book yet and car ready for scrap yard theres problem in the gear box and its £1800 to fix but you probably knew that when you sold it"

What on earth did he expect me to do? I've bought cars before that haven't lasted a fortnight before borkage and I'd never dream of contacting the seller accusing them of foul play.

[Ikemi]

The Spruce goose said:

I will never sell for a friend again, it is wastes a lot of your time for nothing and you have to communicate back and forth with owner, prospective buyer etc. And at the end maybe a drink out of it..

In regards to the latter, it depends on the friend! I've had several drinks provided to me for helping sell a car. The best was a work colleague, who wanted help selling his MGB GT. It was misfiring due to a dodgy spark plug. So I helped him replace the spark plug, I photographed the car, wrote an ad on PH for him and sold it. He gave me 10% of the sale - £250! I was happy to help, even for a couple of beers. £250 was rather nice though!

Also, it's tales like the OP that shows you why 'We Buy Any Car' and other such places, are so popular ...