Special Report Sell Your Vintage Vehicle Online

The Internet Puts Your Car Before a Large Buying Audience. This Will Help Sharpen Your Sales Pitch.

MAYBE IT WAS an impulsive but heady automotive romance that wasn’t meant to last. Or maybe after years of owning your dream car, you’re ready to move on. Whatever the reason, if you want to sell your vintage vehicle, it’s easier than ever to advertise by leveraging the power of the Internet. You don’t have to be tech savvy to get the word out to thousands (yea, even millions) of online surfers. Nor does it cost much to sell your vehicle online. (For example, currently up to $125 on eBay, depending on the selling price and size of your potential audience.)

I’ve sold numerous vehicles on eBay and craigslist.com. Here are my best tips for getting the top dollar.

Get Your Stuff Together

Gather your vehicle’s information. Before you start writing your ad, you must get all the specs together. Even if you think you know your beauty from bumper to bumper, you may be surprised at the number of details you’ve forgotten. Since most online advertising venues don’t limit words, include all the details you can. Remember, your potential buyers are like you: they want to know all the facts and history of the vehicle inside and out before they consider buying.

Is It a daily driver or a showpiece only? It also helps to include all of the details of the restoration and how much money went into it. If pros worked on it,say so. Tell buyer if you have the documentation on its restoration. List the VIN if it hasone.

Is anything wrong with your vehicle? Be upfront. Buyers prize honesty, especially considering that they are shopping online and not looking the vehicle over in person…just yet.

Brag on any historical significance such as the vehicle’s rarity or any celebrity connections. An Elvis fan would be thrilled to know The King rode in it during a parade, for example, even if you couldn’t care less. Talk about any shows where your car has won an award. And be sure to explain why you’re selling the vehicle; otherwise cynical shoppers might suspect that something’s not right and you’re just getting out from under a difficult problem. These “soft facts” may not seem important, but they could make your car edge out another under consideration.

Although facts such as the vehicle’s color(s) may seem obvious from your photos, list them anyway. Some people like to print out ads and may print in black-and-white to save pricey colored ink. Also keep in mind that computer monitors don’t always show true colors, so your expensive, true-to-original-hues paint job may wind up looking like something that sort of came close to what the factory sprayed when the vehicle was assembled. Furthermore, I’ve found that many people (amazingly) don’t look at photos’ details carefully and ask me numerous questions that the photos would have answered.

Be Clear on the Deal You Expect

Hammer out the terms of the sale. How much do you want? Will you sell to the one with the best offer or the first responder? Or is your sale based upon a fixed, non-negotiable price? Do you want cash or a cashier’s check? Will you consider payments from the buyer? Will you require a deposit within 72 hours of the sale and the balance payable upon delivery (commonplace with eBay)?

Will potential buyers have the opportunity to have their mechanic examine it (at the buyer’s expense)? Will you meet the buyer at a neutral location halfway between your homes or will he need to pick it up at your place? How far are you willing to travel? Buyers like to know all the transaction details ahead of time to avoid unpleasant surprises. And, of course, use common sense in arranging any meetings with a stranger. For instance, if he suggests a midnight meeting along a deserted stretch of highway, you’d probably be better off waiting for the next prospect.

Make an Impressive Presentation

From content to appearance, make your ad look professional to build buyers’ confidence in you. Group the facts together in a meaningful way by mimicking a window sticker at a dealership. I like to start with the important stuff— year, make, model, engine size, transmission type, what’s still original, mileage, condition—and work my way down to less important facts.

Avoid tiny, huge or strange fonts and weird colors or backgrounds. I recommend a 12- to 14-point size in black and Arial, Courier or Times New Roman font because they’re easy on the eyes. In some fonts, numbers can be especially hard to read.

Strange colors or backgrounds distract from your ad and look gimmicky. Don’t use all capital letters, excessive exclamation points or texting jargon, such as the :) smiley face or “lol” abbreviation. Be sure to break the ad up into paragraphs instead of one long block of text which is more difficult to read and may encourage text skimming on the part of readers.

Put Some Thought Into Your Photos

It is absolutely paramount that you provide photos. And they should be good photos: sharp, focused, and accurate in how they portray the vehicle. Stating, “It’s really bright red in appearance than it looks like in the photo” won’t impress anyone.

Detail your vehicle, inside and out, before you take its photos to make it look its best and to demonstrate that you’ve taken great care of this baby. You want to show buyers gleaming chrome, streak-free windows, glossy tires, a clean interior and shining paint. Any dirt they see in the photos makes buyers wonder about the level of overall commitment you’ve given your vehicle during your ownership and it may make them consider talking you down in the price or moving on to another potential purchase

Whole car shots should show just that: the whole car. Accidently lopping off the bumper or part of the tires diminishes the quality of your photos. Fill up the entire frame with your vehicle. Who cares about a pretty background? You’re selling a car, not the lovely wooded lot behind your house.

Andremember,it’sextremelyimportant that you eliminate clutter in the background. The neighbor’s trash cans, your dog, a fender from another project and any other distractions should not be part of your photos. Get your belongings out before you photograph the interior as well.

Choose a clean, plain background that won’t distract from your vehicle. Although having your girlfriend posing in her swimsuit could attract more attention to your ad, it’s not the kind of attention that you want, which is that of legitimate buyers.

Unless your garage has phenomenal lighting, your best bet is to photograph it outside and wait until late in the afternoon for “warm” light rather than the harsh sunlight that you might encounter during the day. Bright sunlight can give you distracting reflections and shadows, and even distort the color of your vehicle’s paint.But even with good lighting, you may have to move it so that you can eliminate any shadows in the foreground as you photograph each side. Also, avoid getting your own reflection in the gleaming chrome or dark windows by photographing from an angle. In general, be sure to take a long, thoughtful look through the viewfinder before you snap your photo.

If your vehicle has license plates on it, consider covering or removing them for privacy’s sake. After all, this is going on the Internet to be available to anyone in the world.

For most of the shots, it helps to get down to what I call the car’s “eye level,” or about where your head would be if you were sitting in the vehicle. Either use a tripod or crouch down a little…and hold the camera steady. If your camera lacks a stabilization feature, it can help to hold your breath a moment while you take the photo and use the palm of one hand to cradle the camera if it’s anything other than one of the extra-small digital units.

Exterior photo angles should include front 3/4, rear 3/4, each side, rear and head-on. Interior photos should show the dashboard, open door/driver’s seat, and rear seat (or bed, if it’s a pickup). Mechanical shots should show what’s under the hood and close-ups of anything else a fellow gearhead would find interesting about your vehicle. Also include close-ups of items such as original badges, custom work, embellishments in the paint job and modified features. “Beauty shots” that show lots of chrome or that showcase your vehicle’s best angles also draw potential buyers.

If you don’t post all the photos you have (and you should post at least five or six different angles), tell browsers that you have more photos available. If they’re interested, they’ll ask.

Don’t Get Too Personal at First

Provide contact information but remember to shield yourself as well. Craigslist allows posters to use an anonymous email address and eBay also allows sellers to hide their email address from the general public. Spammers, unscrupulous advertisers who send out mass, unwanted emails, and scam artists like to cull email addresses from ads like these so they can send out their junk. Using these sites’ fail-safeshelps.

Iadvise against sharing your full name, phone number and physical address in ads for safety reasons.For anyone really interested, you can always send your information to him once he contacts you via email.

Both Craigslist and eBay are structured to include your city and state. It may also help to give buyers an idea of where your city is if it’s a small one, such as “halfway between Rochester and Syracuse, New York, and a one-hour drive north of Interstate 90” describes the location of my town.

I’ve occasionally received replies from shady characters that want to buy my vehicle with an overwritten check so I can cash it and send them back the difference, less a “bonus” to me for helping them out. This is a scam; the check will be no good. Do not reply to these swindlers. Any legitimate buyer will pay you either in cash or with the exact amount via certified check.

Respond Quickly

As replies to your ad come rolling in, answer questions right away. Some buyers may be considering several vehicles, so be flexible on meeting buyers to show them yours.

Before posting to eBay, Craigslist or any other online sales portal, read all the instructions and rules to make sure that you comply and so you can take full advantage of the options available to you as a seller.

With a little planning, you’ll find that selling online can help you find a buyer quickly.