I'm selling a car but the price is a secret be
Discussion
I spotted a car I wanted on ebay. On an auction, 4k start no bids. The car was modified and messed about with and rang a few alarm bells definitely not what the market is looking for so I expected he wouldn't get a bid on it. I wanted it to break for parts so none of that concerned me, it had a lot of good parts on it.
I messaged him a day before the auction was due to end "if it doesn't sell on ebay, are you open to negotiations?", he replies saying yes so I decided to wait it out. The auction finished this morning, as predicted, no bids on it.
I message him to arrange to come up and view it tomorrow. He wants to know what my offer is, this seems a little odd so I just said I'd rather look at the car before making an offer but I'm not coming to waste time. I give him a phone call to work out some details, on the call he let's me know there is someone else interested that's coming Wednesday. I felt like it's probably a pressure tactic but I decide I'll try to and make arrangements to come up this evening just in case. I manage to sort out a lift and get the funds in place.
We are back to text messages to sort out time and other details, he then asks me to make an offer before I come. I offer £3500 but tell him if it's like he's said I'll pay the £4000 asking price (expecting I'll find a couple of things wrong and end up somewhere in the middle)
I get a shirty response about how much the wheels cost, etc. I give him a call, he proceeds to tell me he "wouldn't sell it for 4k I'd rather give it to my nephew. You need to make a better offer than that. " I'm thinking WTF is this guy on? I say you "obviously know what you want for it, so what is it?". His response is for me to just make an offer. I already know its a lost cause, a bloke selling a car but refusing to give me a price, he must have something wrong.
I change tact, "the person that's coming tomorrow, they know it's not 4k?", him - "yes, we've agreed a price, they are professionals and not messing about". I'm smelling bull but carry on "and what are they offering?", "I don't want to say, just come see it and make me an offer if you're serious". At this point I'm getting pissed off with him, "it's not a sealed bid auction mate, it was on ebay and nobody wanted it at 4k, the market has spoken, did you seriously expect me to offer more?". He says a load of waffle about how ebay was to generate interest and that he started it low to get bids (which he didn't get) and he doesn't like my tone (whilst I'm not being rude or abusive I'm making my annoyance clear). I did ask him what would have happened if I'd bid on ebay and won, he went kind of quiet and didn't really give an intelligible reply.
I leave it with him to sell it to the professionals instead, if they don't want it (I doubt they exist, who's offering more than it's in it's on ebay for?!) , you've got my number.
I'm left scratching my head wondering whats just happened? How does someone watch their car not get a bid on ebay and expect to be offered more? How am I supposed to believe he's got someone lined up that's agreed a higher price than it was on ebay for? How can you try to sell a car and refuse to put a price on it? I'm baffled by it all.
I should have probably stuck a bid on it in hindsight although I'm not sure how that would have turned out. I'm glad I didn't travel to see it.
Not sure why I'm writing this, just venting I guess.
I messaged him a day before the auction was due to end "if it doesn't sell on ebay, are you open to negotiations?", he replies saying yes so I decided to wait it out. The auction finished this morning, as predicted, no bids on it.
I message him to arrange to come up and view it tomorrow. He wants to know what my offer is, this seems a little odd so I just said I'd rather look at the car before making an offer but I'm not coming to waste time. I give him a phone call to work out some details, on the call he let's me know there is someone else interested that's coming Wednesday. I felt like it's probably a pressure tactic but I decide I'll try to and make arrangements to come up this evening just in case. I manage to sort out a lift and get the funds in place.
We are back to text messages to sort out time and other details, he then asks me to make an offer before I come. I offer £3500 but tell him if it's like he's said I'll pay the £4000 asking price (expecting I'll find a couple of things wrong and end up somewhere in the middle)
I get a shirty response about how much the wheels cost, etc. I give him a call, he proceeds to tell me he "wouldn't sell it for 4k I'd rather give it to my nephew. You need to make a better offer than that. " I'm thinking WTF is this guy on? I say you "obviously know what you want for it, so what is it?". His response is for me to just make an offer. I already know its a lost cause, a bloke selling a car but refusing to give me a price, he must have something wrong.
I change tact, "the person that's coming tomorrow, they know it's not 4k?", him - "yes, we've agreed a price, they are professionals and not messing about". I'm smelling bull but carry on "and what are they offering?", "I don't want to say, just come see it and make me an offer if you're serious". At this point I'm getting pissed off with him, "it's not a sealed bid auction mate, it was on ebay and nobody wanted it at 4k, the market has spoken, did you seriously expect me to offer more?". He says a load of waffle about how ebay was to generate interest and that he started it low to get bids (which he didn't get) and he doesn't like my tone (whilst I'm not being rude or abusive I'm making my annoyance clear). I did ask him what would have happened if I'd bid on ebay and won, he went kind of quiet and didn't really give an intelligible reply.
I leave it with him to sell it to the professionals instead, if they don't want it (I doubt they exist, who's offering more than it's in it's on ebay for?!) , you've got my number.
I'm left scratching my head wondering whats just happened? How does someone watch their car not get a bid on ebay and expect to be offered more? How am I supposed to believe he's got someone lined up that's agreed a higher price than it was on ebay for? How can you try to sell a car and refuse to put a price on it? I'm baffled by it all.
I should have probably stuck a bid on it in hindsight although I'm not sure how that would have turned out. I'm glad I didn't travel to see it.
Not sure why I'm writing this, just venting I guess.
I’m with you on this one. I bought a car recently, seller told me to make an offer, I did and he declined, told me to make a better one, which I did and was declined, so I asked him what he wanted to actually sell me the damn thing, his response was for me to make a better offer 
I really struggle to see why people make selling a car such hard work, I sell literally hundreds a year and never, ever make it this hard. Stick a price on it, either budge or don’t, if you don’t accept an offer, make a counter offer. Pretty simple.
I really struggle to see why people make selling a car such hard work, I sell literally hundreds a year and never, ever make it this hard. Stick a price on it, either budge or don’t, if you don’t accept an offer, make a counter offer. Pretty simple.
Had very similar recently trying to buy the Mrs a cheap car (£2k ish). Guy on the phone wanted me to make an offer, the car has no bids and was starting at £1800 with a few hours left to run.
Went:
£1750? "no, better offer"
£1800? "no, better offer"
£1900? " I've already turned down £2100"
So tell me what you f
king want for the car you moron. I gave up when he said he had turned down £2100.
Went:
£1750? "no, better offer"
£1800? "no, better offer"
£1900? " I've already turned down £2100"
So tell me what you f
king want for the car you moron. I gave up when he said he had turned down £2100.hairykrishna said:
You're lucky that you didn't put a bid in because now he'd be dicking you about refusing to sell it to you. He's probably spent a small fortune on modifications and thinks he'll get it back.
You might be right that he'd mess me about if I had put a bid in. I actually think he was prepared to take 4k or less there is no way that me saying "if it doesn't sell on ebay are you open to negotiations" I can't see how that can be taken as anything other than me going to offer less than that base price. If he'd of said no, I'd have put a bid in.Also, when we ended our last phone call he said "if the others don't turn up, I might consider your 4k offer". 5 minutes before it was the biggest insult he'd had. I think he was playing games but didn't know exactly what he wanted to achieve. I'm half expecting a call off him tomorrow evening.
Ahbefive said:
Had very similar recently trying to buy the Mrs a cheap car (£2k ish). Guy on the phone wanted me to make an offer, the car has no bids and was starting at £1800 with a few hours left to run.
Went:
£1750? "no, better offer"
£1800? "no, better offer"
£1900? " I've already turned down £2100"
So tell me what you fking want for the car you moron. I gave up when he said he had turned down £2100.
What did it end up going for? Went:
£1750? "no, better offer"
£1800? "no, better offer"
£1900? " I've already turned down £2100"
So tell me what you f
king want for the car you moron. I gave up when he said he had turned down £2100.POORCARDEALER said:
Get this a lot when buying classics....seller hoping you are going to bid him far in excess of what they had in mind....I know just say contact me when youve decieded on price, lifes too short for dealing with morons
Used to get it with trade ins - "oh i've no idea what its worth, hadnt really thought about it". Ok (and just to get a reaction) i value it at £500. "What???? The cheapest out there is £1,500 and one with these miles and in this condition recently sold for £1,925. Ah right, so you do know what its worth then?
yellowstreak said:
I think its a symptom of ebay taking over how people buy and sell things, hence his wanting bids rather than revealing his hand and him being thick. Don't get worked up over it, they walk among us.
The other one i see more frequently now - and usuallly on Facebook marketplace - is "I'm just testing the water..."Really? OK, so what you're saying is if I fawn over your car and give you ridiculously more than its worth, you might consider letting it go?
Sellers like that really aren't worth the time of day.
Best thing to do is wish him the best of luck with the sale, and ask very nicely (hat in hand) if he could send you details for the new owner once it's sold... Then give them a call and see if they wanna part ways
Very unlikely... but has worked once before
Best thing to do is wish him the best of luck with the sale, and ask very nicely (hat in hand) if he could send you details for the new owner once it's sold... Then give them a call and see if they wanna part ways
Very unlikely... but has worked once before
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