Selling car on ebay

Mumto2

A good friend of mine has asked me to help them sell their car on ebay. It's a sporty mercedes type thing.
I am happy to help them out, but haven't sold a car before so want to make sure I'm am aware of any pitfalls.
Can anyone recommend any good guides which I can read first?

Thanks

melliott1963

Haven't sold a car on eBay, but would assume it is the same as if you were putting an ad in, say, Auto Trader.

But one thing I really would caution is don't sell it on your account. Help your friend to setup their own account. At least this way, if anything goes wrong with the sale it will be their account that gets hit and not yours. There's been too many sob stories on here where people have 'helped out a friend' by selling something for them, only for them to have problems.

verityboo

melliott1963 wrote: »

Haven't sold a car on eBay, but would assume it is the same as if you were putting an ad in, say, Auto Trader.

But one thing I really would caution is don't sell it on your account. Help your friend to setup their own account. At least this way, if anything goes wrong with the sale it will be their account that gets hit and not yours. There's been too many sob stories on here where people have 'helped out a friend' by selling something for them, only for them to have problems.

Agree it could be a problem so would suggest listing as a 'classified ad' . It is then like listing on Auto-trader. You list the car with contact details and the deal is done outside ebay (so cannot affect your account)

Have sold 3 cars this way quite easily. Just make sure you give a full accurate description. Don't put meaningless things like 'long MOT', put the date the MOT expires etc

porto_bello

melliott1963 wrote: »

But one thing I really would caution is don't sell it on your account. Help your friend to setup their own account. At least this way, if anything goes wrong with the sale it will be their account that gets hit and not yours. There's been too many sob stories on here where people have 'helped out a friend' by selling something for them, only for them to have problems.

Excellent advice.

Friends and family who don't have eBay accounts simply won't appreciate the damage that negative feedback will do to your account and the well intended selling of a friend's car simply isn't worth losing that friend over.

CKhalvashi

We've sold various cars on eBay that noone would touch with the proverbial barge pole anywhere else (most of which had upwards of 500k miles) and we've never had any problems.

I will stress, however, that this was done from a separate account from my personal one, as the goods in question were company stock.

CK

Taadaa

I kinda see eBay as a last resort for selling cars. You won't get anything like you will if you go through a private sale like auto trader. I wuold try elsewhere first and if she gets desperate to get rid then take the eBay route. Just my personal opinion.

twinnyabc

Im thinking of selling my Fiesta on ebay. I have only sold a couple of small items before.
Is it best for me to set the price or should I put it to auction?
I think my car is worth about £2,000
Also, what is the safest form of payment to accept? Cash or Paypal or what else.

Taadaa

You should request cash on collection otherwise you are leaving yourself open to a chargeback post collection.

You can do it auction style if you like but you need to start it at a price you would be happy to accept. You might think it's worth 2k but your potential buyers might not. Have a look on ebay at the fee difference (auction or classified) as that might help you decide.

Crowqueen

You should request cash on collection otherwise you are leaving yourself open to a chargeback post collection.

There is no buyer protection on cars but as people usually buy and sell them using cash this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Also eBay do not make accepting Paypal compulsory so there is no reason to fret. (Just don't ask for a deposit.)

Classified ad is the best way to do it.

forgotmyname

I listed a car for a mate, Sold OK . They went and had a good look and bought it.

No feedback left though, But i took no noituce.
Literally days within the time limit to leave feedback they contacted me to say they left feedback and could i leave them feedback.

Is the limit 90 days? It was a sporty car, So no idea if they had done a long trip or done a track day. But i thought what a cheek.

I ignored them.