Selling A Classic
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Discussion

Sparticate

Original Poster:

42 posts

177 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
Hi All,

Currently trying to sell my frogeye, obviously I've picked the worst time of year to try and sell it! biggrin Currently have ot listed on ebay and carandclassic.

Depending on how things go, I am considering auctioning the car through one of the classic car auction houses, anyone had any experience of this?

Many Thanks

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
Sparticate said:
Currently trying to sell my frogeye, obviously I've picked the worst time of year to try and sell it! biggrin Currently have ot listed on ebay and carandclassic.

Depending on how things go, I am considering auctioning the car through one of the classic car auction houses, anyone had any experience of this?
A friend of mine is involved with Brightwells classic auctions in Leominster - happy to put you in touch, if it'd help.

Sparticate

Original Poster:

42 posts

177 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
A friend of mine is involved with Brightwells classic auctions in Leominster - happy to put you in touch, if it'd help.
That would certainly be very helpful, seems a bit of a minefield and somewhat tricky to understand etc, thank you very much!

Allan L

799 posts

134 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
Don't lose sight of the significant (often huge) difference between what the buyer pays and what the vendor gets, now that the auctioneers take a hefty percentage from both.
Brightwells fees are not as high as some, but still enough to make me prefer a dealer who will sell ones car on commission. e.g. in your area Gavin McGuire

Edited by Allan L on Monday 2nd January 16:55

Sparticate

Original Poster:

42 posts

177 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
Allan L said:
Don't lose sight of the significant (often huge) difference between what the buyer pays and what the vendor gets, now that the auctioneers take a hefty percentage from both.

Brightwells fees are not as high as some, but still enough to make me prefer a dealer who will sell ones car on commission.
That is a fair point and not one that I had considered too much, however I would like a easy sale with as little hassle as possible, some of the traders I have spoken to have not been very obliging!

sim16v

2,177 posts

230 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
If you want a quick easy sale, you might want to consider reducing your asking price.

If you do decide to go down the auction route, make sure you get your reserve confirmed in writing/by email.

My experience, one car didn't get a bid over three auctions.

When we collected it, we found out why.

They'd let it run out of fuel, so it wasn't actually running at the auctions!

Ended up selling it privately for £6k more than the original reserve, so not all bad.

The second car, at the same auction house, they sold the car below the reserve that had been agreed.

Luckily we had a confirmation email, so they ended up waiving the selling fees.

Plinth

765 posts

117 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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I have used auctions to sell stuff:

Bonhams - for "interesting" cars & automobilia
Anglia Car Auctions - for others

Seem to get very good results - especially with Bonhams.


Andy Allenton

652 posts

152 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
quotequote all
How about auctioning it on eBay? If you set a reserve that isn't reached, you then have the option of accepting the highest bid. Remember, something's only worth what someone will pay for it. I appreciate that as the owner of a great car, you don't want to give it away but that's the reality.

mph

2,376 posts

311 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2017
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Andy Allenton said:
How about auctioning it on eBay? If you set a reserve that isn't reached, you then have the option of accepting the highest bid. Remember, something's only worth what someone will pay for it. I appreciate that as the owner of a great car, you don't want to give it away but that's the reality.
Be prepared for the possibility of being messed about though. E Bay seems to attract more than it's fair share of tyre-kickers. The number of cars re-listed because the "buyer" didn't complete is not insignificant.



anonymous-user

83 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2017
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What I've read regarding entries and results Anglia Car Auctions at Kings Lynn seems popular.

mgv8

1,657 posts

300 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2017
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Classic cars are very much the right person at the right time to get a good price to sell it cheep to shift it fast. My MX5 BBR went for asking price with in a week of going on sale (I was asking strong money for it). My MGB Rodster 68 V8 tool months to move and price was lower than I would hope. So out side luck its down to time, even the wright bidder is needed.

mattman

3,192 posts

251 months

Friday 6th January 2017
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Have you considered a sale or return with a local classic car dealer? that may work as some buyers prefer to buy from a dealer rather than private if the price increases.

I used to do this a few years back, agree a price I wanted from the dealer, they advertise at whatever price they want and i got the cash when it was sold - saved me the tyrekickers as well

POORCARDEALER

8,663 posts

270 months

Saturday 7th January 2017
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put into google "sell my classic car" there will be dealers who buy outright and collect

Sparticate

Original Poster:

42 posts

177 months

Saturday 7th January 2017
quotequote all
Thanks for the advice so far, hopefully will be able to get something sorted out!

Selling a classic privately is not something I've had to do for a while.

Frexit

33 posts

116 months

Sunday 8th January 2017
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My recent experience selling an MGA was to make sure the advert goes into every last detail of the service history and to go out of your way to be transparent , put in loads of pictures and to price below what dealers are asking. This will attact private buyers who sometimes hesitate to buy privately.
I was being offered 14.5 k from dealers and sold for 20k privately. Hope this helps

Pothole

34,367 posts

311 months

Sunday 8th January 2017
quotequote all
Sparticate said:
Hi All,

Currently trying to sell my frogeye, obviously I've picked the worst time of year to try and sell it! biggrin Currently have ot listed on ebay and carandclassic.

Depending on how things go, I am considering auctioning the car through one of the classic car auction houses, anyone had any experience of this?

Many Thanks
you're not trying very hard, it's not even in your profile.

v8250

2,747 posts

240 months

Sunday 8th January 2017
quotequote all
You should also try the AH Club. Good quality prospective purchasers will always search/contact the club for the good cars https://www.austinhealeyclub.com/index.html Also, use the power of the internet to your advantage, Facebook has many Frogeye/Sprite pages and there's nearly always someone looking to buy.

e42

211 posts

217 months

Monday 9th January 2017
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Hi, I used Silverstone Auctions to sell my car at their NEC event last November. Excellent experience from start to finish
Will Smith is the man to contact for advice, good bloke