Seriously. I understand why people trade in.

[theguvernor]

I've sold 3 cars privately, one guy turned up, paid full ask, took it home, the other couple showed up, paid £100 less than ask drove away.
I had one guy turn up to buy a car off me, it was a 1.2L punto, he was coming to inspect it for his niece.
It was up for sale for £950 with 6 months T&T, they drove all the way from Penzance to Torquay, took it for a test drive, she said she wanted it, he said i wouldn't buy it as it needs £700 worth of repairs (he claimed to be a mechanic), so they offered me £300 & told me it was the best offer i'd get, i thanked him for his interest & declined, he offered me £350, so i again thanked him & offered him £75 off the asking. He declined & they walked.
A lad came round the next day & paid ask in cash for it.

I decided though the other day to sell a Macbook i had on Gumtree.
Within an hour of it going up, (for £650), i got an email.... 'Will you take £300 for it?' - No.
He then asks what the lowest i will take is, so i reply, what is the highest you will offer? - He offers £325, to which i tell him that is not a near offer to £650, he then offers me cash plus an Xbox one to which i decline.
The next morning i get a message - £600 & i'll collect in the next hour, so i afree, fully expecting him not to show up.
Anyway, chap turns up & he's a middle aged normal bloke & said that he was just trying it on in the hope i was desperate to sell it so he could get it on the cheap... can't knock a guy for trying i guess!

[vinnie01]

surely people know haggling limits? if was buying a car advertised at A6495 the lowest id consider offering is A6000. barter in hundreds sure but never thousands

[J4CKO]

Prime cars that will cause you agro from knobheads are, anything fast and cheap, anything that can be used as a MiniCab, i.e Nissans and Toyotas.

Anything is fair game but they are the ones that will generate the most interest from the more annoying opportunist type of buyer.

[catman]

vinnie01 said:

surely people know haggling limits? if was buying a car advertised at A6495 the lowest id consider offering is A6000. barter in hundreds sure but never thousands

Yes, but you aren't a mong....

Tim

[omgus]

J4CKO said:

We bought our C1 off a lovely couple, price was already competitive, but you always have to negotiate, or at least try, I said I would like the car and he said,

"Ok, it works like this, for £6000 you can take the car, for £5999 you cant take the car"

Cant say fairer than that.

Yep, i don't negotiate. The price i put it up for is what i will sell it for, the price i offer is what i will buy for. Neither are ever rude but i will offer and if .

I went to look at (and bought) an old E190 a few years ago, when i got there it was mint, and not overpriced. Asked why it was being sold at the lower end and the answer was "that was what someone could have haggled me down to, saves us both time now."

Paid there and then, came with a full tank of petrol as well.

[J4CKO]

omgus said:

J4CKO said:

We bought our C1 off a lovely couple, price was already competitive, but you always have to negotiate, or at least try, I said I would like the car and he said,

"Ok, it works like this, for £6000 you can take the car, for £5999 you cant take the car"

Cant say fairer than that.

Yep, i don't negotiate. The price i put it up for is what i will sell it for, the price i offer is what i will buy for. Neither are ever rude but i will offer and if .

I went to look at (and bought) an old E190 a few years ago, when i got there it was mint, and not overpriced. Asked why it was being sold at the lower end and the answer was "that was what someone could have haggled me down to, saves us both time now."

Paid there and then, came with a full tank of petrol as well.

I always allow a bit off as its part of the game, lets people feel like a shrewd negotiator, can then show their missus how much of a hard headed business bd they are

[surveyor]

Well mines sold to two perfect gentleman who haggled to a nice to deal with amount.

[johnxjsc1985]

I hate selling privately its a pain. When I do P/x I never ask how much they will give me I always say I have X amount to spend plus my car. We all know what cars are worth so I don't offer stupid amounts and it seems to work for me.

[PinkRinse]

I'm trying to sell my old car privately at the moment and I'm this >__< close to just selling it to a trader much lower than I want.

I have had people tell me it's too high mileage (then why the eff contact me?!), that they're going to see a much nicer and cheaper one in Tyne & Wear (well bore off there then!) or I get the promising sounding ones who then haven't got the money because they haven't sold their current car yet so I wasted all that time schmoozing them. Dammit. One guy even told me the fact it had been on track made him nervous.. Oh I suppose that means one that has only been on the roads hasn't been ragged to death? If anything taking my car on track means I'm more serious about taking care of it!

After all this palaver I'm never ever selling privately again. It's been months so I might just lob it on eBay just to get rid. Disappointing really

[tumble dryer]

I learned a lesson many years ago.

If the first offer that is asked for, is accepted, then both parties leave feeling that they could have done better.

The seller - that he positioned too cheaply. The buyer - that he could have negotiated better.

Both parties (in a genuine negotiation) like to think that they’ve ‘won’.


The difference might only be £50.00 but the value to both, is well beyond that figure.


Always negotiate, if you doubt me, think back.....

[funkyrobot]

My fiancee's brother, who lives in Surrey, just sold his Y reg Mercedes S Class.

He put the car up for sale and within a couple of days thought he had a buyer. The chap who wished to purchase the vehicle was from Romania. Unfortunately, my fiancee's brother decided to do the deal from his house.

The chap turned up to collect the car and just to show how friendly he was he brought three big blokes with him. A bit of intimidation started and the price was haggled down from £2000 to £1400. Money exchanged hands but before the Romanians left, one then demanded fuel money. Apparently, because my fiancee's brother lives in a nice house, the chap said 'you live in big house so you can give us diesel money'. This part of the deal wasn't agreed and the term 'fook off' was used. It wasn't very pleasant.

The Romanians left in the car. However, the chap is now away on business for a few days and he is worried because his pregnant wife is alone in the house. I'm sure everything will be fine as they have good security and she isn't stupid. Not good though.

So, if ever I sell a car privately, I'm meeting the potential seller in a car park miles away from home.

[anonymous-user]

funkyrobot said:

My fiancee's brother, who lives in Surrey, just sold his Y reg Mercedes S Class.
.

insert other 'ethnic race', the eastern block do come across as intimidating naturally, but 3 big blokes and they only got 600 quid off, seems a fail. the friends misses has nothing to worry about, unless they put a curse on her....

[funkyrobot]

The Spruce goose said:

insert other 'ethnic race', the eastern block do come across as intimidating naturally, but 3 big blokes and they only got 600 quid off, seems a fail. the friends misses has nothing to worry about, unless they put a curse on her....

Apparently, it wasn't a very nice situation and it was definitely done to make him feel uneasy. It wasn't a form of natural intimidation.

He works with a lot of eastern Europeans and knows exactly what they are like normally.

[irocfan]

funkyrobot said:

So, if ever I sell a car privately, I'm meeting the potential seller in a car park miles away from home.

this is the problem though - would you buy a car from someone not selling from their own property?

[Jasandjules]

kuro said:

Its not just cars, no matter what you sell these days you can guarantee there will be a procession of shysters looking for 50% off your asking price!

Pah, even if you freecycle something, you get people asking if you can deliver it to them 20 miles away. Suuuuure, I will give you the item and also take my time and my fuel to drive it to you as well..

[Falsey]

Sump said:

mccrackenj said:

Selling a brand new tyre (was on a car I'd just bought but didn't match the other 3 Michelins so I replaced it). Anyway, advertised for £18, and got a text saying "I'll give you £15 cash. Today!"

Haggling over £3 I ask you?

Who the utter fack wants to start dealing with coins? £15 seems perfectly reasonable here on the convenience aspect. Let's get realistic here, no one is ever going to give a toss about the £3, infact, who even advertises it at such an odd number in the first place?!

I sold a pair of headlights for a BMW 1 series for 97p on ebay. The guy came to pick them up and I tried to give them to him for free, but he insisted on giving me a whole £1.

[SuperHangOn]

funkyrobot said:

My fiancee's brother, who lives in Surrey, just sold his Y reg Mercedes S Class.

He put the car up for sale and within a couple of days thought he had a buyer. The chap who wished to purchase the vehicle was from Romania. Unfortunately, my fiancee's brother decided to do the deal from his house.

The chap turned up to collect the car and just to show how friendly he was he brought three big blokes with him. A bit of intimidation started and the price was haggled down from £2000 to £1400. Money exchanged hands but before the Romanians left, one then demanded fuel money. Apparently, because my fiancee's brother lives in a nice house, the chap said 'you live in big house so you can give us diesel money'. This part of the deal wasn't agreed and the term 'fook off' was used. It wasn't very pleasant.

The Romanians left in the car. However, the chap is now away on business for a few days and he is worried because his pregnant wife is alone in the house. I'm sure everything will be fine as they have good security and she isn't stupid. Not good though.

So, if ever I sell a car privately, I'm meeting the potential seller in a car park miles away from home.

A particularly bad car to flog. Guaranteed to be dealing with those types, been there and done that a few times.

[robsdesk]

Selling my E92 at the moment, time wasters & idiots galore - as someone mentioned previously there's certainly an industry in people calling & clearly aren't interested in buying the car for themselves - you can see it a mile off with the briefest of questions about the material facts & then straight into haggling over the price without querying where you are etc... I've paid for the 3 weeks AT advert, it can run for that, if it's not gone by the time the advert is gone it's going to WBAC, there's less than £1k in it, the hassle isn't worth it & I don't want it hanging around once the new car is here at the beginning of April. Went the broker route for the new car so no trade in (although the WBAC value is still higher than a local dealer offered me on trade in).

[Kj159]

Turkish91 said:

I reckon the next one to really offend me with a ridiculous offer is getting "Yeah mate sure, I'll take that for the car... Here's my address" and then promptly send them roaming around Wood End in Coventry or another delightful area that the Midlands has to offer us.

Most of the people offering you silly money are probably from wood end

[Funkycoldribena]

Slightly o/t but recently put an electric fireplace up for sale,put a description with measurements and a picture with the fire lit up,received email from woman asking "does it have a heat function?".
Replied-"no it only refridgerates",never heard anything back.