Classic car owners that want to sell their classic quickly find that there are some important guidelines that need to be adhered to in order to effectively sell the car for the highest price possible. Cars that are taken care of physically as well as mechanically will always go for a higher price than a car that lacks maintenance and overall care. If you are a seller you can keep the following tips in mind to help enhance your sales experience and really be able to get the most for the car you trying to sell.
- Check around to see how much other sellers are pricing similar cars or trucks and what a buyer will realistically pay for yours. You do not want to underprice the car but it is also not a good idea to price too high either.
- Anytime you have a classic car, or any other car for that matter, to sell, you need to have it thoroughly checked out by a mechanic to see if there is anything that needs to be repaired that may affect the value. If you can have a few minor repairs taken care of it can greatly increase your selling power to allow you a chance to sell for a much higher price than you originally expected.
- Be sure to advertise the car in a way that gets attention from potential buyers and be sure to respond immediately when they call or get back to them in a timely manner if they call at a time that you are not able to answer. Many buyers will move on to another sales outlet in order to get the car they want if one seller does not respond quickly enough.
- If you are not familiar with the internet and with locating websites that cater to classic car owners, now is the time to start learning as much as possible about it. The quickest way to sell a classic car is via the internet because most buyers tend to look online to find deals and lower pricing when they want to look for a car to buy. Once you are online it will be easy to make connections with other classic car enthusiasts that may want your car or may know someone else that will.
How to Advertise Your Classic
When you need to advertise to sell a classic car, it is imperative that you not only word the ad correctly but that it is placed where the largest number of potential buyers can view the ad.
Print Ads. You can usually find a classic car sales paper in a local convenience store or grocery store or even find sales ads in the local newspaper. Something that you may want to keep in mind if you decide to run a print ad is that there are many people that will try very hard to get you to drop the price once they meet you face to face to look at the car. To combat this, make sure that there is nothing visibly wrong with the car and that all mechanical issues are either repaired or mentioned in the ad when you place it. This way, the buyer cannot bring up any flaws to try to get you to wiggle on the price that you have set. Also, be sure to advertise in the antique or classic car section if the paper has a spot for that. If you advertise in the regular motor vehicle section, some may see the car as “just an old car” and will expect the price to be lower than when you advertise it as the classic and valuable beauty that it truly is.
Online Ads. In today’s “always on the go” society, online advertising for your classic car is going to reach far more people than advertising in a print newspaper or other print ad. With websites that cater specifically to the classic car enthusiast that wants to buy a classic car, you are bound to find that you will get a much larger response when you place an ad to sell the car. Quite often you will find that you will be able to place free ads as well as paid ads for your car. This will allow you to place ads that will reach as many people as possible in order to really get your car noticed. Paid ads will usually allow you to add a larger number of detailed pictures as well as mechanical details about the car that a free ad may not have room to post. When you want to work with buyers that know what they want and will be willing to pay you what the car is actually worth it is best to stick with paid online ads where you can reach buyers with the maximum amount of details pertaining to the car so they can really see what you are offering to sale.
Whether you decide to run a print ad or advertise online, be sure to take your time when working on the ad. Never rush to place an ad even if you really need to sell the car quickly. Buyers will see your haste in the wording of the ads and will try to use that against you to buy the car for less than it is worth. Rushing also means that you may make mistakes when placing the ad and mistakes can be costly when trying to sell a car, especially a vintage or classic car that is worth a lot of money due to the age of the vehicle as well as the time and effort you may have put into it to get it restored.
Timing the Sale
You also need to make sure you are selling at the right time of the year. During the early to late spring and even well into the summer is a great time to sell a convertible but if you try to sell it during the winter when it is cold, chances are that the ad will sit without response or you will find potential buyers that try to work the price down due to the weather. If your classic car is one that you personally enjoy driving when it is warm yet you keep it stored during the winter, you may want to wait until the warm weather arrives because quite often you will find people that want to find cars in the winter because they know that there are owners selling so they will not need to pay for storage. Many people begin looking for classic cars in the fall because they know they will find better rates. This is definitely something that you will want to keep in mind so you will not have to haggle on pricing when you want to sell your car.
Delivering the Car
Once you have found a buyer and they have agreed on the price you want for the car, the next step is going to be making delivery of the car to them. If the buyer is a local purchaser, they may want to haul the car on their own using a truck and car trailer. If they are not local and they need to have the car delivered to them, it is always best for the seller to have a licensed and insured professional classic car shipping company available so your buyer will have someone that can provide classic car transport for them (A-1 Auto Transport is a good option: https://www.a1autotransport.com) when they need to get the car to their home. Making sure that the car is delivered safely is going to be very important to you as well as the buyer. This is especially true if you are someone that restores and resells classic cars frequently as it will help boost your seller reputation amongst buyers when they know they can not only trust you when it comes to getting a fair price on a car but that you will also be able to have it delivered to them safe and sound regardless of how far away they may live from you.
The views presented in this article may or may not be the views of RPM Magazine, it’s Management and Staff.
