Craigs List Woes

[Raymo]

About 3 weeks ago I tried to sell my 56 3100 on Craigs, with 5 pics. Now, I gotta say she is in excellent condition so my starting price was fair and was willing to negotiate. I expected some calls, but I knew money is tight right now, so I advertised in the Denver area about 250 miles from me in WY. I got one legit call that offered me a crazy low price over the phone without ever seeing my truck! This gripes me. I'd never make an offer on a car or truck without being there in person to look at it! Thats why ebay is out of the question for me to buy on. I like to touch it, get under it, drive it and shoot the s*#$ with the owner. Well there's the only real call. The others are from dealers wanting to sell my ride for me. Heck, if I wanted a dealer, I wouldn't have used Craigs right?! All in all it didn't work for me. Even worded the ad as "will also trade for 67-72 Chev truck". Thought that might get a little attention. I pulled my ad after one week.
How many of you have had success with Craigs List? And if you have, can you give us some suggestions on wording the ad etc.

[elf w/capital T]

Ill tell you this...one week isnt anything. I have seen trucks and or parts for one pricee, maybe a month or so later, is back and maybe much cheaper, not everyone uses CL, some do, relay it to their friend or family...if you want to sell, you must have patience...keep your head up.

[Raymo]

I got tired of the "Dealers" calling me. That's why I pulled it. I did make a mistake in listing though. I used my cell. Not on a zillion minutes cell phone plan so won't do that again.

[kcsa75]

My experience with Craig's list is everybody who has something for sale, thinks is made of solid gold. Everybody looking to buy wants to steal it. Having said that, there are some bargains, but elf is right, you have to be patient.

[mgchevyparts]

Cars and trucks don't sell real fast these days unless you're giving it away. Don't put your email addy on the ad and don't even use the email contact through CL as it's too easy for looky loo's to send email BS questions and low ball offers. Put your number with a fair price and be patient, do not negotiate over the phone, tell anyone calling to come see the truck and make a legit offer, all others can phuck off. The way it is.

[Raymo]

I thought the "will trade for comparable 67-72" might have pulled out the people like me who might just want to move on to something else, and or don't have the cash. I'd rather drive it than show it. I'm tired of having a "Prima Donna" in the garage(singe car garage) 95% of the year.

[mgchevyparts]

Originally Posted by Raymo

I thought the "will trade for comparable 67-72" might have pulled out the people like me who might just want to move on to something else, and or don't have the cash. I'd rather drive it than show it. I'm tired of having a "Prima Donna" in the garage(singe car garage) 95% of the year.

Trades are difficult, been there done that. Every one wants to trade you for some piece of junk.

[gale]

Originally Posted by Raymo

How many of you have had success with Craigs List?

I have looked at Craig's List a few times but haven't used it to buy or sell. It just looked like too much trouble to search, etc.

I have used eBay buying and selling all sorts of stuff including cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

When selling I try to be as honest as possible about the condition, and when buying I have learned to ask plenty of questions, mainly about rust and/or Bondo.

In my opinion eBay reaches a MUCH broader range of potential buyers. I sold a 2004 GMC stepside to a dealer in Kuwait. The money was wired to my bank and I dropped the truck off at the Port of Houston.

Several deals have been made with buyer and seller meeting at a halfway point.

[1968aj]

i do not put my phone number on craigslist without spelling out some of the numbers. i have had good luck buying and selling on craigslist. i just bought a 1959 short fleetside yesterday off craigslist.

[meter swinger]

CL is probably the wrong market for your truck. Most guys on there are looking for projects and parts, think online swapmeet. Your need to go to a nice online site where you pay to list your add, hot rod hotline etc. I see nice classic trucks on cl all the time and the adds are up for 6-8 mths. With asking prices from 15-30k. I just dont think the odds of finding a buyer in that price range on cl is all that great right now. You might even have better luck on facebook, instagram or varagesale.
The biggest mistake guys seem to make is pictures. If your asking 18k for a truck you better have 18k quality pics. A seller can have a description a mile long but it the pics are not proffesional quality it will not get a second look.
Posted via Mobile Device

[LockDoc]

-
I put this at the end of all of my c-list ads. It may look hokey but it works for me...

Scammers save your time and mine, I know all your tricks. Also, I don't need any help selling it. Thanks

Very few scam artists and no one wanting to help me sell.

LockDoc

[Raymo]

Yea, I'm wondering if I should try another ad site. My ride is in the $15 thousand range. Photos do make an ad for sure.

[meter swinger]

I would get it on one of the bigger sites. Guys in europe, japan and austrailia will snatch that up if no one in the states does. A german guy comes around here about once a year. He buys a bunch of cars in the northwest on the internet, then he flys over and gets them to seattle to be shipped out.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Raymo]

Any suggestions on top sites?

[Cape Codder]

I just got a great 98 swb on Craigs list and sold my old truck there also. I have bought two boats and sold on there too. It works for me. If you list something for sale and don't get a responce just relist it a week or two later.

[mr48chev]

Hotrod Hotline dot com is spendy but I think they keep your rig on until it sells. Probably less than an add with photo in the local paper or drifty nickle though.

Lowballing you on the phone seems to be the trend for some Craigslist buyers or shoppers. It doesn't matter what the vehicle is or what the price is there are guys who must sit there and make one low ball call after another until someone bites.

A lot of rigs are hard to sell locally because of the stigma of having bought Raymo's or Rob's old truck hangs around all too long and local guys who have been in love with your truck for as long as it has been finished may pass on it because they would be driving Ray's old truck and not their "new" truck.
I'd take it to an event in the Denver or Salt Lake area that was far enough away that it is an all new vehicle to those hunting for a truck. Maybe put a simple add with a few really top notch pro quality photos in it saying that you will be at the event.

As my neighbor 60 miles down the road said the quality of your photos in your add are a real deal maker or deal killer. Cell phone photos in bad light don't cut it. I got the ebay bargain of the year 11 years ago on my sailboat because the seller posted some terrible photos and a terrible but actually fairly complete description. I bid a "this won't kill me if it's junk" bid and got the boat with one jump up from the starting price by a guy who tried to snipe me and ran out of time to bid again.

Two things that are deal killers for a lot of guys are rigs that are quite nice but obviously dated and you can look at them and tell exactly when they were built but the asking price is the going price for a nice up to date rig or a nice timeless traditional rig.

The other thing is over personalization. Gaudy pinstriping, murals on the tailgate that depict a personal event of the builder. The owner/seller may think that they are so cool but potential buyers are calculating the cost to remove them and clean the vehicle up.

I looked at a very interesting Model A roadster hot rod a year ago that was priced real friendly but the car had been a local painter's hot rod in years past and was too well known for the murals that covered the entire body and I figured I'd catch way too much flack from some of his fans if I hauled it to the media blaster and had it stripped.

[mechanixman]

I bought a go kart on craigslist for $75, spent $150 fixing it up, and found out it was worth $1300.
It took me 5 months (but it was out of season...) and I sold it for $650.


A week later, I bought a 52 chevy (also on craigslist )

[spinned]

I have bought and sold a lot on CL. Being 250 miles away is an issue and is likely why you are just getting the lowballers. I am not sure I would drive 250 miles to "look" at a truck. It would take maybe two days time (there and back plus time to check it out and eat)... so i know if I am going to that kind of trouble, it better be a sweetheart deal from the get go, especially since I dont know anything about the truck... and thus the lowball. Lets be real... You have to take some of the risk out of driving that far.

That is how I got my truck. The market is only as good as what someone will pay. I have sunk a lot of money into the hotrods that I have ownes. To be honest most of them have been a loosing deal at the time of sale. I get a chuckle when I hear people say "oh these parts and expenses are an investment". They arn't for most items. If you spend 8k on a paint job and body work, I doubt that you are going to recover that. A new IFS...hmmmm doubt it. New disk brakes... uh maybe a little. Certainly with those types of improvements the whole truck is going to look awesome and you will probably get top dollar for the truck, but I doubt you would recover your what you put into it.

If you really want to sell it, get some good pictures of it embedded into the CL page (instead of the crappy ones you can upload) and price it low enough that you will get calls. Simple as that.

[gale]

Originally Posted by Raymo

Any suggestions on top sites?

Hemmings goes out to a huge audience.

[oldcouple]

I have discovered a few sites on Facebook for my local area. Several deal with cars, car parts, man stuff, yard sales, etc. Was able to sell my riding mower on there faster then CL, and the advantage of you know who they are because you can see their page.

[meter swinger]

Originally Posted by oldcouple

I have discovered a few sites on Facebook for my local area. Several deal with cars, car parts, man stuff, yard sales, etc. Was able to sell my riding mower on there faster then CL, and the advantage of you know who they are because you can see their page.

Same here, i have pretty good experiences with som local buy/sell/swap groups on FB.

As for making offers over the phone, if the buyer is local or close by, i would expect an offer in person, however if they were long distance or out of state i would not be put off by it.
I bought a 55 wagon in butte montana last year, and made the guy an offer over the phone, i wasn't lowballing him, as i felt his price was decent, but i had to know how firm he was before i hooked up a trailer and took off for montana. I did get him to come down a little and we were both happy. A couple years ago i sold a 63 ford to a guy in portland off CL, he made me an offer over the phone and i was ok with that. I wouldn't expect him to pull a trailer four hrs to my place without making an offer...but, if it was some local I would expect them to get off thier butts and come look at the rig in person.
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[donthekawguy]

I got my truck off CL. I kinda lucked out. The last night of the ad I wrote the number down to take a look the next day. I tried calling the number and found out I had written down wrong. I went back to check the ad and it was expired. Knowing the town where the guy lives isn't real big I typed the name of the town in the search area and found a few ads by the same guy. The moral to this story is- leave the ad up, someone might be trying to get the cash together to get it or the right person hasn't seen the ad yet.

[PDW HOTRODS]

Don't give up. More expensive things take longer to sell any where, and there are always flakey people and scamers, but there are good people willing to pay a fair price. Place your add in your local CL, and every couple days put it on a CL in an area near by. Update or delete and repost about once a week or so. Anyone looking sereously will look farther than there own town and will travel to see what they want. I live in the middle of Oregon and post only in towns within a 2 hour drive or so, and I have sold 2 trucks to people from Calif. Buyers will search for what they want.

[Raymo]

I see the point of leaving the ad up longer. Just got tired of the dealer calls. Thought I had some good pictures, took them w/digital camera on a sunny day.
Where I live, we're 100 miles from the nearest Walmart-no kidding. If you pull up Wyoming on Craigs you'll notice there are no choices of towns-just "Wyoming." Reason being not much population. So closest bigger populations are probably Denver or Salt Lake City areas. Originally this is how I bought this truck, by scouring the KSL website in Utah.
So I'll put it in again and wait a little longer. Some good advice on this thread.

[RootBeer 6117]

Before Craigslist I let the car/truck sell its self,I stuck a for sale sign in the window and set it on a parking lot.I was next to a car wash on a busy street and friends with the owner so it wasn't a problem. Other times I would leave it a Wally World for a few hours and move it some were else near a busy road. I sold a lot of them this way.
I use Craigslist all the time I currently have 4 ads on Craigslist for stuff, I think some were in the add is a code that says if you are a total idiot please call. I make it very clear I will Not answer email or text if you want it call me. Be patient it takes time but it will happen. I did not read every post so please ignore me if this has been suggested.