Date:         Thu, 31 May 2001 21:32:20 -0700
Reply-To:     Daniel Schmitz <djs@GENE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Daniel Schmitz <djs@GENE.COM>
Organization: Genentech, Inc.
Subject:      Re: buying/selling vans on ebay (longish)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

This is a reply to David Marshall's question about possibly using Ebay
to sell his Double Cab.

I purchased my '87 Westfalia on Ebay last year. The whole transaction
went without a hitch, and I was fortunate to be the winning (and only)
bidder, no one else entering the fray, so I got it for the opening bid.
(I did not, however, use PayPal in this endeavor :)

For me, I knew exactly what I was looking for, so I merely needed to
bide my time until a good example came along. However, when I found this
camper listed on Ebay, prior to bidding on it, I contacted the sellers
and asked lots of questions about it. They were nice enough to furnish
lots of additional info and more pictures, so I bid with a fair degree
of confidence. As the sellers were in Colorado and I am in San
Francisco, I suppose my risk was making the trip out there for nothing
if the camper turned out to be a misrepresentation. But it was fine and
I drove it back home with no problems.

No particular downsides for me, other than the reasonable anxiety about
purchasing something only seen in pictures and not experienced first
hand. But that has nothing to do with Ebay. As a seller, you are on the
opposite end of my experience. Since your vehicle is unique, and if your
price is reasonable, I'm sure you will be able to sell it this way. And
you have the additional advantage of getting a price for your VW that is
above your minimum selling price if multiple bids ensue.

My advice would be to have a ***realistic*** minimum selling price in
mind that you would accept and make that your Minimum Bid amount. If
there is more than one person out there who really wants what you are
selling, selling it on Ebay will allow you to get a better price for it
because of the competition of the market place.

You can also specify a "Reserve Price", which is hidden, but sometimes
this turns off prospective bidders because they don't know what that
price is and they don't want to risk having to continuously increase
their bid to meet it.