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To see America, sell a used car
In the make the best offer category, I received one email that read:
Now that was a fair question. However, the car was worth over $7000, and I had follow up questions. If that is all you have to your name, why buy a car, how do you pay for gas, or eat, or pay rent, or pay for any of the other essentials. I had a long fun conversation with this one. The "make your best offer" category was a blast but did bring out some shady characters. I then moved to the fixed price model. This one brought out all of the angry people. I think because they felt cornered by the fixed number. I received this email and had to meet the person.
What got me interested was the barking nature of the letter. We made an appointment whereupon he showed up fully equipped with Kelly Blue Book printouts, other car offers, an oil rag and the like. You could tell that he had just read the book, "Buying Used Cars For Dummies." He began his visit by walking around kicking the tires (no joke), raising the hood and checking the oil, at which point I had to point out that he was looking at the transmission fluid and that the oil dip stick was the other one. He snapped back, "I knew that. What do you take me for!?!" After which he did shrink a couple of inches. We went for a drive and on our return he began the negotiations. "I am willing to part with $4000 dollars and no more, even that is paying too much. I have here a Kelly Blue Book report that says ... ", he started nervously and continued for a good five minutes while shuffling one piece of paper to another and pointing at ads, highlighted printouts, and even the transmission fluid rag. He concluded with my favorite line, which seems to be used by all, "I saw a very similar car for a lot less." It was the very last thing he said that negated all else, and always negates everything that people say in the negotiation process. Now I knew that my fixed price was extremely fair as I too had done my homework. So I simply told the man the following, "If you can buy a similar car for a lot less, what are you doing here?" To this question I must have received all manner of idiotic responses from varying people that on further investigation resulted in the following ...
The best crowd was the auction crowd. I set the base price and asked for the best offer above that over a period of time. This ad brought out the most informed, the best debaters, the most patient and calm, and the best overall value. Also, a great networking trick. There were several other techniques that I wished to try had the car not sold. I may still try with my existing car, not to sell it but to see the rest of America. Contributed to Boroumand by M.B., San Rafael, California, 2004
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I recently placed an ad for my used car on a
local website and not only sold my car but to my amazement had a brief visit
with America. In a very short period of time, the entire process became one
of statistical sampling. All controlled by the words found in the auto ad.
For example, I would write "Make best offer" as apposed to a fixed price and
would get an entirely different group of people calling on me.
