• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

What types of vehicles should we post on ebay?

JesseJ

Boss
Mar 22, 2011
113
5
First Name
Jesse
Really new to the putting cars on ebay thing. It's possible it's an inane endeavor. I just got a rude awakening when we posted our 2012 Shelby GT500 Mustang. We have no buy it now but our reserve is actually set at MSRP. I had an interested buyer call and detail for me just how unrealistic this is. He wasn't rude or obnoxious and his points were all very logical.

What is ebay's niche in the car business? Obviously a Shelby isn't rare enough at this point to command even close to MSRP. Should we bet putting new or used cars up...should we be using ebay period?
 
I have had some decent luck with putting higher mileage trade-ins on eBay. Vehicles that are over 100,000 miles that don't have to be warrantied by our dealership. We sell them as "Last Chance" vehicles before the auction. Low reserves in the $3,000 to $4,000 range seem to have the best results. Also, if the bids are close to the reserve I ask our manager if he'd be willing to drop the reserve so a bidding war can start. This has been successful in the past as well. Every eBay training I go to says that eBay is more of a lead driver than a place to sell cars. They want you to call every bidder and try to sell them the car off eBay. I haven't had much luck with this yet though.
 
The high mileage concept is an interesting one. I'm not really too involved with the whole auction/wholesale side of things although I would kind of like to be. Dumb question but what circumstance would indicate the car wouldn't need to be warrantied by the dealer. Isn't there always the minimum 30 day warranty?
 
That's correct. Inside NYS, we need to give a 30 day warranty if the sale price is over $1,500. If we sell it outside of NYS, no warranty is needed. We haven't had any problems yet as most of our sales on these units have come from outside the area.
 
...we posted our 2012 Shelby GT500 Mustang. We have no buy it now but our reserve is actually set at MSRP. I had an interested buyer call and detail for me just how unrealistic this is. He wasn't rude or obnoxious and his points were all very logical.

I know eBay verrry well. I was a featured speaker for Ebay at NADA 2004. That being said...

EBAY BUYERS ARE VULTURES.
They circle around your dead carcass and call you with "...what's your reserve price?". After about 500 of these calls I get a lil' testy, so I smoke them out and give them back the truth:

"sir, this is an auction, what your highest bid?"

VULTURES HATE THAT ANSWER ;-)


After they get all nervous, I tell them this. "I reveal the reserve to the current high bidder. After you become the high bidder, I'll tell you what our reserve is".

Rare cars bring out the dreamers and wanna bes. Ask them hard questions and SMOKE 'EM OUT.


(note: AutoTrader customers are in our market and I wish AT would produce these kind of calls, then, we'd spend the time to chase them post-auction).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That's correct. Inside NYS, we need to give a 30 day warranty if the sale price is over $1,500. If we sell it outside of NYS, no warranty is needed. We haven't had any problems yet as most of our sales on these units have come from outside the area.

Ryan,

Back in 2006 or so, the courts rules that the used car lemon law warrenty criteria originate from the SELLERS location, not the BUYERs location. Meaning, a sale across state lines does not take the dealers obligation away.

I took a quick look on google to get you a link but came up empty. Its out there if you look.
 
If you do any market price research on eBay you will see that MAYBE 5% of vehicles listed on eBay actually sell! (Search the completed listings).

The vehicles we advertise on ebay are slightly more niche types.. Not your run of the mill buicks, pontiacs, etc... More like 3 series BMWs, Mercedes, etc.. Anything someone would travel for or would benefit from people in another area of the country to see... Being in Wisconsin trying to sell a $20k custom chopper is not easy but on eBay it was a breeze! Or Similarly a Bullitt Mustang (09) in the dead of winter in wisconsin doesn't sell quick but on eBay it sold in 4 days with B.I.N.

Not only do you have to be selective, you have to be incredibly price competitive and you have to have a quality ad!

One thing we don't do is call all the bidders on the vehicles. Mostly because we don't have the time/man power currently.
 
Ryan,

Back in 2006 or so, the courts rules that the used car lemon law warrenty criteria originate from the SELLERS location, not the BUYERs location. Meaning, a sale across state lines does not take the dealers obligation away.

I took a quick look on google to get you a link but came up empty. Its out there if you look.

Thanks Joe. I'll look in to that. I appreciate the info.