If you decide to sell cars on eBay, you’ll be selling on a slightly
different, but still connected, site called eBay Motors (at
www.motors.ebay.com). If you search on the regular eBay home
page for a certain type of car, eBay automatically takes you to
this connected site.
eBay is the world’s largest seller of motor vehicles and was
projected to sell $12.9 billion in automobiles in 2005. That
means a car or truck sells on eBay every 60 seconds. This works
out to over 500,000 cars sold every year. That’s a lot of cars!
Fees for selling cars on eBay
The fees to sell a car on eBay are really quite reasonable. In fact,
I can’t understand why eBay doesn’t raise these fees instead of
raising fees on smaller, less expensive items. To sell on eBay
Motors, you pay an insertion fee of $40 for a passenger vehicle.
After a bid is placed or the reserve price is met, you pay a transaction
fee. These are all listed in Table 3.1 by type of vehicle. For
example, if you sell a $15,000 passenger vehicle on eBay, you
pay $40 for the insertion fee and $40 for the transaction fee, for
a total of $80. As a percentage using the $15,000 example, these fees cost you only 0.53 percent, which is a little more than half
of a percentage point!
Selling new cars on eBay
If you deal with cars on eBay, you will most likely be selling used
vehicles. However, you could enter the new-car market if you
own a dealership or have access to cars at a great price from a
local dealer. Also, if there’s a new hot car that everyone wants
and no one can get, you may be able to purchase it at retail and
still make money on it. An example would be the Toyota
Highlander hybrid SUVs, which were selling like crazy in late
2005. The waiting list was very long at some dealerships, and the
people lucky (or forward-thinking) enough to be the first on
the list made money by selling those cars on eBay.
The eBay Motors home page is a great resource to find out
what’s hot. In mid-summer 2005, the top best-selling auto types
listed, in order, were:
1. Ford Mustang
2. BMW 3 Series
3. Toyota Sienna
4. Chevy Corvette
5. Harley-Davidson
6. Jeep Cherokee
7. Chevy Silverado
8. Mini-Cooper
9. Honda CR Series
10. Dodge Ram
Another great resource, if you decide to specialize in automobiles,
is Joseph Sinclair’s eBay Motors the Smart Way. It teaches
you more tips and tricks for selling autos on eBay.
Selling cars on eBay: FAQs and answers
A common question that people ask when considering selling a
vehicle is, “how do I ship it?” Generally, the buyer is responsible
for paying for shipping and will want to have a say in what shipping
company he or she uses, since terms from different companies
will vary. Many buyers and sellers use an auto shipper, such
as DAS (Dependable Auto Shippers), which is eBay’s recommended
shipper (call 866-DAS-eBay). Some car buyers will also
fly out to pick up the vehicle and drive it to their home.
Another question is how can you get the most money for your
item? Here are my tips and tricks for eBay Motors.
� Always have your vehicle inspected by an independent
third party. This gives validation to your bidders and
encourages them to buy. eBay recommends two different
inspection services on its site. One is SGS Automotive,
which offers a 150-point condition report. This company is
nationwide and charges $99.50 per vehicle, which includes
interior and exterior photographs. Contact them at sgsebay.
sgsauto.com/order_inspection.htm. eBay also recommends
an inspection by Pep Boys at pages.motors.ebay.
com/services/inspection/PepBoysinspection.html. The
inspection is not as thorough as the SGS one, but the Pep
Boys’ inspection costs only $24.99.
� Include this report in the listing or link to it and be very
detailed in your description.
� Show as many photos as possible. Show the interior and
exterior from every angle. Show the trunk and the engine.
As you decide how to set reserves or initial bids, here are
some quick pointers to use when you first start selling cars on
eBay. If you’re selling a late model, higher priced automobile,
protect yourself and use a reserve auction set at the price you
hope to receive. As an example, you may want $10,000 for yourcar. This price should be what you feel comfortable letting it go for. It could be the trade-in price that you can get at a dealership or what you see other similar cars selling for on eBay. (I talk about
how to do this eBay pricing research in chapters 9 and 13.) You set a hidden reserve at $10,000 but start the bidding at $1,000. Usually, hidden reserves are at about 10 percent of the reserve price. This reserve protects you so that you don’t have to sell your vehicle if it doesn’t meet the reserve. You can also just start the bidding at $10,000, with no reserve. A reserve price auction or a starting price at your asking price is what most sellers with no experience use to sell a car.
If you have an older and lower-priced vehicle to sell, start
your auction at a lower price with no reserve. This helps get the
bidding momentum going as early as possible. This strategy can
be very effective if you’re in a hurry to sell the vehicle, and the
price is not as critical. As an example, suppose you have a Ford
Mustang that’s worth about $2,000 according to Kelley Blue
Book (www.kbb.com). To generate interest, you start the auction
at $500. Just remember though, that if the car gets only one
bid at $500, you’re obligated to sell it for that price. This strategy
is often used by the experienced sellers on eBay. I would
wait a while and sell several cars before trying this one!
* Now that’s one keyword packed article! 😉
