Hey everyone.
In the spring I will be putting my GT-E on ebay. Having never sold a vehicle on Ebay I am not sure of costs etc. Was wondering if anyone can give me a good understanding of cost, # of pictures you can post without paying a ton of extra fees etc. Also any pointers are welcome.
If you are interested in the car PM me and I can get you info but I have posted in the Cars For Sale forum before 
Thanks
Chris
look around the site, there are some great examples of what to do and not to do.
Pictures are your friend in any ad, Ive never sold on ebay but plenty on here have and will probably chime in shortly.
A good start would be to post up everything here - you never know one of the guys & gals here may want it.
Thanks Chris…I have tons of pics. Documented the drive train fully etc. I have seen it done wrong so many times LOL. I figure the best way is to answer the questions before they come up.
If you have a website to host the pictures, you can have as many as you want in your listing without a fee. You just link to them from inside the listing. The fee kicks in when you want eBay to upload them and host them while the listing is active. If you don’t have a website to host them on, or if your website has a traffic limit of some kind, send me a PM. If I can host them for you, I will. I’ll also send you a sample listing I’ve created so you can see how I link to the photos.
Other tips include giving as complete a description AND history of the car as possible. Tell the story of that particular car, not the history of Cougars in general. GT-E facts are fine, of course, but not in place of information about your specific GT-E. One of the ways I look to do it is to organize the pictures to flow with the story I want people to get from the listing. Then I can effectively use the pictures and text together to create an illustrated story. If there are problem areas on the car, make sure those are highlighted.
You said it all, basically, in your earlier post - answer the questions before they come up.
Thanks so much for the info. I currently have them on photobuket but have not seen the rework so may look to host them elsewhere. Seems there is another new site that I have heard of and can not think of the name at the moment.
Nice part is the story is pretty complete. Thanks for the feed back. When you sold your vert on ebay how big a bite did they take if you dont mind my asking. I remember the car going through as I thought it would have been a great one to add to the clouder.
Chris
If I remember correctly, the max final value fee for a vehicle listing was $125.00. The listing fees were only about $2.00 because I hosted my own pictures and I didn’t use any of their bells and whistles. If you take a deposit via PayPal, you’ll also have to account for their 2.9% fee so you’ll want to keep the deposit limited in size. When I sold CatVert, I restricted the payment options to cash or wire transfer.
Whatever site you use, just make sure there isn’t a bandwidth limit. You don’t want the pictures in your listing to show up as either broken links or the “Bandwidth Exceeded” substitute image. Also, there’s a chance that eBay won’t deep-link to other the Photobuckets of the world. You’ll want to test that to be sure or maybe someone here knows that answer.
Thanks again. Was looking at my photos and most are well under a MB in file size. Photobucket has a 10GB per image per month so should be good there. Appreciate the offer to host as well. Will play with it as I get close and PM you if needed.
Will be sad to see her go but time to sell with where life has me. Will still have a 68 Std 302 car that I love. Will just miss the HP of the BB car.
Please keep the feedback coming guys appreciated.
Chris
… and don’t put 22" wheels on it
C’mon Leon I would not put smaller than 24’s on this sweet ride LOL
You can place a reserve on the auction for a fee, which strikes me as prudent insurance against shenanigans and the remote possibility of a lack of bidders. Keep in mind also that many sales of high-value cars occur after an eBay auction ends with no winner.
If you haven’t already, let Jim Pinkerton know you are going to market the car… I suspect he has a list of people looking.
Edit to add: Here is link to eBay’s explanation of fees: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/motorfees.html
When I sold my Aqua convt. in August 2011, the fee was $7 to have a reserve, $2 to have the “Buy it now” option, and $125 for the final value fee (only payable if auction successful). There is a listing fee ordinarily, but it was free when I listed.
Thanks for the link. I had read through it but the whole local vs national thing was throwing me for a bit of a loop.
The reserve is definitely a no brainer IMO. Would not put any car on with no way to protect my investment. I am ok with it selling after the auction as I see Ebay as a marketing tool for items like this.
Jim P is a good friend of mine and is aware of my situation but thanks for thinking of it. Better to suggest and have me say already on it than to not suggest it and have it go by the wayside
Personally I would rather sell it to a cougar enthusiast but so far has not worked out. Had a few interested parties but have not come to a deal yet. Spring will be the time I think.
Chris
Chris, when I mentioned file size and bandwidth in my previous post, I was getting at two different things so let me clarify them a bit in case there was any misunderstanding. The file size should be as small as possible. A 1MB file will take some time to load on someone’s screen and they may click away rather than wait. The file size should be less than 100K and preferably even smaller than that. I usually size my photos for medium quality and 700 pixels wide, which produces a size of less than 50KB in most cases. That’s what I use Photoshop to accomplish. BTW, the quality reduction is typically invisible since the average PC display is not capable of actually showing the higher quality anyway.
The bandwidth issue is different. If Photobucket sets a bandwidth limit of 10GB per photo (for example), that means that a 1MB photo can only be viewed 10,000 times within a certain period (usually a month). All viewings from whatever source count against the bandwidth total. Once that limit is reached the photo will no longer be served up on request. Instead, a different message or image will be displayed indicating that the photo has reached it’s bandwidth limit for that period. So, again, the smaller the file the less likely you are to hit the bandwidth limit.
Thanks for the clarification What I was saying in my reply is based on my file sizes I am not concerned about hitting photobucket bandwidth. Had not thought about time to load but glad you brought it up. Most of the files I saw were around 100K per. But I have a buddy that does graphic design so might be able to get him to help if I am stuck. Thanks again for the help
Chris
Good luck with the sale of the car Chris.
All that I can say is include lots of clear photos showing closeups of the underside, and engine compartment, along with exterior from all sides, interior shots of various angles, show the car in good light, and please, don’t say that you will include more pictures only for serious buyers. Post them all, hide nothing, and be honest about any possible blemishes or defects.
The key thing is to have a very polished ad that includes every detail and leaves nothing out. Make sure that you have at least a deluxe Marti report to post. If you feel the least bit hesitant pay someone to help you market this very rare and valuable car. Your goal is to make sure that it sells during the first go around. Consider paying a professional photographer too. High quality pictures and marketing help bring the big bucks.
Consider selling sooner if the Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson Auction brings in the big bucks. Joe Valenti’s 1970 Eliminator Cobra Jet is poised to set a record. The rest of the Cougars at this auction will probably bring in strong money too.
One thing I would add is that I have been accused of talking too much in my ads. Go figure! Serious, stick to the facts and stay away from the personal side.
Good luck.
Chris,
I assume that you have checked with Jim P to see if there are any GT-E buyers pestering him this week?
Look at any of Don Rush / WCCC auctions. The key to a successful sale is honesty. Don’t avoid taking pictures of the worst parts of the car, instead show them and get the bad points out in the open. Don’t set unreasonable expectations on the price. I recommend starting the car at $9.99 and setting the reserve at a number that is the least you will take. If it does not reach the reserve then you know exactly what two buyers would bid. You won’t know what the high bidder’s ceiling is, but even a “did not meet reserve” auction can result in a sale if you negotiate honestly. No games, no BS, just present the car for what it is and get paid - money in your account - when it sells before handing over the keys and title.
You really have to sell the car in the first week it is online, otherwise you will not get top dollar because buyers will stop looking at the car.
One mistake sellers make is putting in barriers like, must pay in full in 7 days, must be wire transfer only, no out of country bidders, no trades. Throw a very wide net and you will double the amount of bidders. Yes! I will accept a $10k non refundable deposit and wait 30 days for you to liquidate your gold coin collection. Yes! I will give you wholesale blue book for your 2010 Honda Accord in trade. Yes! I will let an appraiser of your choice come to my home. Yes! I will pay for enclosed shipping if you hit the BIN for $150K. This is not 2006-7 so you have to be willing to flex.
Chris the only thing that I can add to what has already been said is to be honest and straight forward as possible. Don’t make prospective buyers jump through hoops to get their questions answered. In my experience with the XR7G purchase everyone of my questions along with my brothers questions were answered quickly via photos (178), email, text and phone calls. Our purchase went quickly because of this straight forward approach. Good points, bad points can be pointed out with a well worded description along with quality photos of the areas mentioned. I am posting the thread topic for the XR7G sale to help give you a feel of how it was listed for sale and the techniques that were used.
XR7G Sale Thread Topic
https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/1968-xr7-g-for-sale/1713/1
Good luck with your sale.
Steven
Sorry Everyone…was on Hiatus for the weekend. Thank you so much for all the information. Really appreciate it. I certainly want it to sell and sell well. I am sure you will all get to watch it unfold
Happy New Year
Chris
Pay Bill or Don to do an ad for you. They have had some of the best I’ve seen on Ebay.