What types of vehicles should we post on ebay?

[ajholland]

We got the boot from eBay for having watermarks on our images... the hell? I see several dealerships with watermarks????

Don't they frown on watermarks because they want all of the potential transactions going through ebay?

 

[ddavis]

Jeff Kerschner and 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).

Joe gets a "lil' testy" damn, who would have guessed? I get enough mooches doing internet, without the frustration of messing with ebay.
It was good back in the day, I actually really liked it. I don't know any new car dealerships that mess with it. Some independents still do well but they only have auction fees and the cost of a detail on top of the car. I haven't been able to pay the shop fees and pack and make enough to justify the time, effort and aggravation.

 

[Kelly Wilson]

My dealership has only had 2 listings since I started. They were "Crossing of America" Jeeps. The proceeds of the auction were to go to TAPS (wounded vets and KIA families). It went VERY badly. It was a program someone jumped into without due diligence and resulted, as one would expect 2 New Hardtop Wrangler Unlimiteds with $10k of extras-including a lift kit, custom leather and a vinyl American flag wrap, to go-NOWHERE.

We sometimes sell "AS-IS" 100k+ trades. When we decide to sell one it's gone in 48 hours or less with nothing more than our site/Cars/AT. Is the potential for a few extra dollars worth the Ebay listing and everything that comes with it? What potential is there in a $2k shopper for a Dealer?--getting them into an $8k car...them being really mad the car is gone already or that it breaks down...service...family members...others?

We also have dealer or two in the area with every car on Ebay. When automated I can see this being just another face for your dealership like Cars or AT. But as I've seen the question asked before, Do people really still shop on Ebay? What are they shopping for? How did they get to the item? (most likely via something like google shopping). ebay best practices thread (time-warp)

Does anyone place limited edition, numbered units, on Ebay...If so, have you had any luck?

 

[flosho]

Question for those who have sold vehicles on eBay...

Are your sales actual Buy It Now/Best Offer (ending the auction early) or Final Bid w/Reserve Met Sales or End auction early to sell outside of eBay?

We've sold 99% of our vehicles by ending the auction early to sell it outside eBay.

Another question I have that may be tougher to answer... Of the say 8-10 bidders you could get, do you contact them all? How many times does the sale go to say a $5000 bidder on a $15000 item? (They aren't the high bidder but did bid on it when it was cheaper).

We do not do a great job of contacting these bidders, or even the high bidders (because it seems many of our vehicles will end up $5k-10k less than average market price/our selling price) so when we sell a vehicle on eBay its essentially because someone calls us and wants us to end the auction so they can come purchase it.

 

[yagoparamo]

After reading this post I asked several of my clients using ebay and they answered that they really don't "sell the car" on ebay because of the price, etc but that they work every person that bids as a lead. That being said, cars starting at $0 with a "best offer" or a "reserve price" may work best.

Hope my 2 cents help.