What's a fair selling price for my car?

Hi All, I’m looking to sell a car, want to know what fair and optimistic asking prices would be. Details on the car are as follows: 2005 Honda Accord EX 4-door sedan V6 engine, automatic transmission 84,000 miles on the odometer (only 10,000 miles put on the car in the last 2.5 years during my ownership) Leather seats; dual power front seats XM satellite radio Moonroof All other specifications are standard for the model. Overall, the condition is excellent (I can send you guys pictures if you’re curious) – the car has had regular oil changes, routine maintenance records have revealed no mechanical problems in the last 2.5 years, there’s no rust, and brakes are pretty fresh as they’ve been recently replaced. I have never sold a car before, and would appreciate advice on how to develop an advertisement for it. Specifically, what do people benchmark their asking prices against (i.e. anything besides Kelley Blue Book?), and what do you guys think is a fair asking price? Please let me know what sources you use. I’d really appreciate the help.

I use NADA for pricing- its what many auto sales lots use But if you really want to know what its worth, go on Ebay and check the completed auctions. Its usually brutally low and you will always feel like its worth more, i did a quick check, looking like they arnt selling to hot- probably because people are asking to much for them or have a sky high reserve as well as buying over the internet freaks people out! Id seriously look into craigslist- its free so if you got a few weeks throw it up there and see what happens. Start it at a higher price and over time repost and reprice, check the competition to make sure your $200-$500 under them or something like that. as for developing an advertisement- LOTS OF PICTURES, in a nice place- not an ally ya know. If there are any dings or dents mention it in the ad because if you dont it gives them a reason to bargain you down and you dont want to give them any reasons… Sorry for the lack of price estimations but its really a right place right buyer and most importantly—what are the substitutes in your area on sale for. hope this helps

Thanks for the advice, Ski2Much. I agree that the eBay quotes are a bit sobering. I appreciate the suggestion to look into Craigslist. I’ll also be listing it on AutoTrader. I have a bunch of pictures of the car, and I really believe that it’s in as good a condition as it can be, especially considering the total mileage on it. I always keep my belongings in good condition and my car is no exception. In the meantime, I have one other request – does anyone here have access to Carfax or AutoCheck? I’d greatly appreciate a report on my car. E-mail me, and I can send you the VIN. Thanks again.

Try KBB.com V6 Accords are almost always good value holders.

12-13k is my guess.

What I do is go to craigslist and look for owners selling a similiar car

I usually model out how much crack rock I am going to need for the week. I factor in the price of my hoe and the fair market value of my babies. Then I factor in depreciation exp. due to woman having babies and adjust my model accordingly. Finally, I check the LIBOR rates to see what kind of BJ’s vs. Lending decisions I need to take. So I would sell for about 50 dollars on avg.

Hey Numi, I would check out MSN Autos, I find them to be a pretty good resource. Compare your car against those listed. http://autos.msn.com/ I don’t trust Ebay all that much for autos, many times the auction prices are low since someone is bidding on a car that they have never driven/seen. Other times the Buy It Now price is way too high from a greedy seller. Regardless, Ebay has had a lot of trouble with their Ebay Motors sales portal; lots of fraud and lots of unhonored winning bids.

Hi guys, thank you all for the advice. QuantJock_MBA, I share your reservations about eBay Motors – it’s tough to buy a car sight unseen. In any case, for any of you that are wondering, here are some other car pricing websites that were recommended to me: AutoTrader.com Cars.com Edmonds.com Black Book Online (which from what I hear from some people has become the “standard” these days – according to them, KBB pulls data on a 30 day cycle and base their quote on that aggregate number, but BBOL actually does a daily data pull and also calculates the average, giving you the best fair market value)

numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi guys, thank you all for the advice. > QuantJock_MBA, I share your reservations about > eBay Motors – it’s tough to buy a car sight > unseen. > > In any case, for any of you that are wondering, > here are some other car pricing websites that were > recommended to me: > > AutoTrader.com > Cars.com > Edmonds.com > Black Book Online (which from what I hear from > some people has become the “standard” these days > – according to them, KBB pulls data on a 30 day > cycle and base their quote on that aggregate > number, but BBOL actually does a daily data pull > and also calculates the average, giving you the > best fair market value) I use KBB when I sell and NADA (less than) when I buy…

For a floor price, go to CarMax and ask for a quote. Walk around for about 45 minutes while they price up your car and then get ready to be disappointed. You can probably sell your car to an individual somewhere between CarMax and KBB.

Post a few pictures on craigslist and filter through the scammers to find the buyer. We sold my wife’s car on craigslist. It was a 2001 Grand Am with maybe 80-90k miles on it. The air conditioner broke and when you took either a left or right turn the tire squealed really bad. We put the car up for sale without any pictures - just a text description of the car. No e-mails (filtering out the scams, of course) The moment we posted a picture, we started getting e-mails. You kind of have to be an arsehole to everybody because at first pass, you don’t know who is trying to scam you. After exchanging a few e-mails, a woman and boyfriend showed up to our home to test drive the car. They gave it a drive and came back with a counteroffer maybe $800 under what we were asking. We accepted the offer. We asked for a cashiers check, which she got about 15-20 minutes later from a local bank. Crazy that this was THE HOTTEST DAY of the year and the air conditioner was not working and we still sold the car!

CPierce – that’s an interesting anecdote. Can you tell me more about these “scammers,” i.e. who are they and what do they do?

numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > CPierce – that’s an interesting anecdote. Can you > tell me more about these “scammers,” i.e. who are > they and what do they do? As a seller, watch out for inquiries that say, “This is JUST what I was looking for. Since I’m short on time, I will send payment via paypal/cashiers check if the car can be delivered tomorrow.” Plenty of scammers have stolen credit card numbers and pay via paypal. You’ll see payment from an UNVERIFIED payer. The transaction will go through and the funds will reach your bank. Then, once the card is reported stolen (weeks/month later), the funds will be reversed and taken back from you. You’ll have a headache dealing with paypal regarding the scam. I’m sure you know how safe/secure cashiers checks are these days. As a buyer, watch out for car deals that are too good to be true. On eBay, again with a stolen credit card, a listing will appear that is too good to be true. The seller will demand $1,000 within 10 hours of auction close. You’ll pay the earnest money, and you’ll never see your item. After complaining to eBay how you were scammed, they’ll shrug their shoulders and say it was a phony add, buyer beware. I think eBay has improved in this department, but in the recent past, they did not really do much for scammed buyers. Also on CL (this happens more than one would like to think) - An ad will appear around 1am with the caption, “iPhone 4 for sale! Need $100 cash by 10AM!!” You’ll reply and the seller will instruct you to meet in a certain vicinity. You’ll try and pick a good spot, but it’s hard to find a populated area at 1 AM. So you show up, and no one is there. All of a sudden, two thugs approach you demanding the cash, or else. So you give it to them for fear of your life. Meanwhile the recourse you have is null.

QuantJock_MBA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also on CL (this happens more than one would like > to think) - An ad will appear around 1am with the > caption, “iPhone 4 for sale! Need $100 cash by > 10AM!!” You’ll reply and the seller will instruct > you to meet in a certain vicinity. You’ll try and > pick a good spot, but it’s hard to find a > populated area at 1 AM. So you show up, and no > one is there. All of a sudden, two thugs approach > you demanding the cash, or else. So you give it > to them for fear of your life. Meanwhile the > recourse you have is null. DID THIS HAPPEN TO YOU?

Fortunatly not. But it is a story I heard from a friend in local law enforcement. This version of the scam is not reported often, but the hunch is it happens the most. Here is the downright ugly (another story from my friend). You know those casual encounter/erotic section of CL? You’ll reply to an ad late at night thinking you can get it wet for 100 or whatever they charge. So you email back and forth and figure out a meeting place. She shows up, but then her p!mp jumps your as and leaves. You’re too embarrassed to call the police and file charges, you lose again.

numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > CPierce – that’s an interesting anecdote. Can you > tell me more about these “scammers,” i.e. who are > they and what do they do? As other have mentioned, it’s the sight unseen purchase. The english in the e-mail alone should tip you to figure out that this is a scammer. Stuff that looks like this: “I would like,tobuy your car. Where can i send the cheque?” If you really felt like it, you could lead them on … start raising the price of the car on them. Watch them up their offer. It’s actually pretty fun.

Similar to CPierce, I also had a positive experience selling a car via Craigslist. Posted a few picks and was pretty honest about the car’s condition and I had over 100 inquiries in a few hours and actually sold it for cash later that same day. It was at a farily low price point ($3k), but I thought the process was near perfect and I didn’t have to split the proceeds with anyone (see Ebay).