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Sometimes, being in the internet marketing and SEO field benefits you when you’re on the OTHER end of the fence! Selling something online is much easier when you put your knowledge of internet user behavior and search optimization to good use. I’ve been on eBay since 1998, and never before have I sold such a big item as a used car before, so figured that this should be my first experience. Having bought a new car already, I was leery of putting my old car in the paper and having a bunch of creeps come over and haggle prices with me, so, good old eBay seemed to be the better option. Here’s an account of everything I went through during the process!

First of all, there are two ways to sell a used car on eBay: eBay Motors Local Classified Ad and regular auction (which we all know of). Local Listings is actually 100% free. Yes, that’s right – it doesn’t cost you a thing, and there’s absolutely no fine print. HOWEVER…it is not your typically-formatted eBay transaction: all you do is post your car and desired price. There’s no auction, nor is there a Buy It Now. It’s just like putting your car into one of those free circulars in town, except you have a much bigger audience on a site like eBay.

I tried eBay Local Classifieds for a 7-day period, and wound up getting 5 queries. Every one of them asked if they could come over to see the car, which is understandable. However, the obvious drawback here is that I’d have to put up with the same usual haggling and lowball offers that I would in the local paper. Once the eBay Local Classified Ad had ended, I decided to go for the tougher option, and put the car up for sale as a regular auction.

There’s one thing you’ll have to keep in mind when selling your car on eBay: it comes with a hefty fee. Therefore, list your car with the price you want to get for it, PLUS the cost of listing it. The cost for selling a used car on eBay is a $125 successful listing fee (that means your car hits the reserve price or someone buys it with “Buy It Now”), plus a Reserve fee of $7 (if you used it), as well as a Buy It Now fee (if you used that, too). I wound up using these two options.

Doing Your Research on Comparable Cars

Your first stop is Kelley Blue Book – here, you’ll be able to get a relatively close appraisal for your car. Don’t be too generous with the final step when it asks you for the “condition” of your car. Very few people truly have used cars in “excellent” condition, unless the car is dent-free and has a fresh paint job. The middle value is usually the way to go, unless you’ve really beaten the crap out of your car or never got it fixed from past accidents. Regardless of what car salesmen and insurance adjusters tell you, the KBB value is pretty spot on in regard to what your car is worth in the used car market.

Before listing your used car on eBay, check out what they’ve gone for in the past. The best way to do this is to do a search for your car (i.e., “2000 toyota camry LE”), then on the left hand column, click “Completed Auctions,” click “submit,” and see the auctions for other similar cars that have sold. Note their final price, and compare it to your car’s mileage and options. This will give you a good idea about what your car should be selling for.

Now, you have two great sources dictating what your car should be worth. It’s now time to actually create the listing!

Writing for Success on eBay

When you list your item, there are ways you can make your listing much more attractive. First of all, your title should be VERY descriptive. Use a format like this: “2000 Toyota Camry LE in Queens NY.” Why that format? It lists the year, make, model, trim and location in one title. You’ve just eliminated everyone who wasn’t willing to buy “LE” trim camry or a car located in “Queens NY”, and attracted the ones who do…all by seeing your listing on an eBay search result page!

Within your description, write a nice summary paragraph. Mention who the original owner was (it’s always a bonus if it was you, and if it never had any previous owners). Talk about the condition of the car.

Don’t mention accidents – let that be a “don’t ask, don’t tell” issue. It’s not dishonest, unless you lie when someone asks you! Know that anyone can very easily run a Carfax report on your car, which lists every single accident it’s been in. Yes, Carfax costs money, but it’s really common to go to any car forum and find people asking others, “..hey, can you get me a Carfax on this car that’s up on eBay?” Your car’s VIN number is forced to display on your auction page. If you lie about accidents and come across one of these people, you’ll look really stupid.

Make the listing as positive and attractive as possible. List everything you’ve put into the car, with the dates when you’ve purchased them: brake pads, belts, tires, tune ups, replacements, etc. It shows that you care about the next owner by giving them the information that they not only want to see, but the information that might help influence them further. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather consider a eBay used car listing with a readily available list of improvements over one that has no information at all. Always think in the shoes of the buyer and what they’d like to see as a potential used car owner.

Aside from the description, you’ll want to post pictures. Unfortunately, eBay charges too much for additional pictures. Fortunately, you can post as many as you want, for free :)  Simply go to PhotoBucket or Flickr, create a free account if you don’t already have one, and upload all of the pictures of your car (they should include all angles: head-on, front quarter panel, full side, rear corner, back, interior facing dashboard, backseat, and finally, the engine bay and the trunk). Make sure the images aren’t too big – 600px by 450px should be more than enough. When you’ve posted these pictures, simply copy and paste the “direct URL” of these images, and insert them into your eBay auction under the description using plain HTML image tags. You’ve just saved yourself money by not paying for a worthless eBay feature.

Setting the Price

The final step is to choose how you want the auction to run. Will you let it go as a plain old auction, hoping for the best as the week goes by? Or, do you want a little security in case the auction doesn’t go as well as you had hoped? I wanted the latter, so I opted in for both a Reserve Price and Buy It Now. The Reserve Price is the least you’ll accept as an offer, it’s an invisible number that only you can ever see. Unless someone hits this number throughout the course of the auction, you are not obliged to take the winning bid. On top of that, you can make things easy on others (and yourself) by setting a Buy It Now price. This is the set price in your mind that you really want to get for your used car. If it’s overblown, then don’t waste your time or anyone else’s. Another good tactic is to mention “This car’s Blue Book value is $X” directly on your auction, so that people know you took the time to do research…don’t worry, they did research, too. Let it be a couple hundred bucks below your car’s KBB value. Once someone uses Buy It Now, your auction ends immediately and they have purchased the item, making it an invaluable service for the seller.

So, I set my Buy It Now price at the price I really wanted for my car ($5,900), the reserve price at $5,700 which was the bare minimum I would have accepted, and the starting price at $4,000 to get people interested. I already knew what comparable cars went for, so I was pretty confident. My auction got 4 bids in 24 hours, and finally, someone did the Buy It Now.

Setting the Auction Terms

Take it from me, you’ll want to do two things when you sell a used car on eBay. First of all, make it be cash only. Why? Well, personal checks, bank checks, cashier’s checks and PayPal can all be canceled. So, they can pay you, pick up the car, disappear, then stop payment. You’re pretty screwed in that case, and nobody on Earth wants to be in these kinds of court battles. Protect yourself and demand cash. Either that, or clearly state that checks and PayPal are accepted only when the money has successfully been deposited in your back account – until then, the transaction will not happen, and they understand and agree to these terms when they bid on your auction. When you put that in writing ON your eBay auction, it’s as good as gold.

Secondly, be sure to state that you will not help in any way with the transportation of the used car once it has been sold. It is entirely up to the buyer to figure that out for him/herself, no exceptions.

Stand Firmly – Take No BS

People are people, that’s for sure, and they might attempt to swindle the deal after it’s over. Here are several scenarios that can happen after you’ve sold your used car on eBay:

• They might want to ask if they are obliged to buy this car in case they see it and don’t like it. The answer is “yes,” they have entered a contractual agreement by clicking “bid” or “Buy It Now.” This is clearly stated in eBay’s terms. Refer them to read the terms in case they ask this question. eBay even reminds them that they commit to buy once pressing the big button. It doesn’t matter if your car is a beauty or a total piece of crap – when they bought it, they committed to it.
• They might want to persuade you to help them transport the car. Now you know why I told you to explicitly say that you will not help with this! Be firm and reiterate that you stated in your terms that this would not be included in the transaction. If they don’t like it – it’s too bad. It’s in writing.
• They might beg you to reconsider payment terms. If you asked for cash, they might insist on PayPal, and mention that they’re not comfortable carrying thousands of dollars in cash. Once again, that’s too bad – they bid on this auction having read your terms, and clearly knowing what they are. If they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t or shouldn’t have bid on it.

The Receipt

Once the buyer arrives (and hopefully all went well), count your cash to make sure it’s all there, and give them a receipt. This usually says “On (date), I, (your name), sold a (car year, make, model) to (buyer’s name) for (dollar amount). Signed (your name, date), (buyer’s name, date).” Make two of these, so that you both have a copy.

That should be it! Selling a car on eBay is relatively painless. What I like the most is that the buyer HAS to buy it when they’ve won it (otherwise, don’t delay and start the dispute resolution process). It doesn’t go that way when you put an ad in the paper. I don’t have the time, patience nor people skills to deal with hagglers and hardcore negotiators. This was truly a great experience, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to list their used car on a massive site that gets a lot of eyeballs. From the research I’ve done, it seemed as though most cars wound up getting sold after being put up on eBay, so, why not try it out for yourself?