Hot Rods Cars for sale, or are they?

It comes down to the seller as well as the buyer educating themselves what the current market price is on like cars.
Marketing the car is crucial..many quality well lit pictures, proper honest description, being available for questions and showings, realistic current market price, and finally being respectful of each other.

 

Yep! Same thought runs through my head each time I see that.

 

I was just stating that the chassis was built by a certified welder that his company does work for Boeing and NASA. Am I a welder ? Heck yeah! Do I love welding? I could do for 10/12 hours straight. I enjoy the heck out of it . Am I certified ? Yes I am. I am not saying what the ‘27 T chassis is worth. The package is all new except the body. But the body is a really good one. You don’t buy a decent body for pocket change. You don’t put steering , suspension, coil overs, emergency disc brake set up for a $100.00 either. Look at what people want for junk. AND you say that’s what I want for mine. Mine has a body. Mine is a roller. Mine can come complete with engine/trans , four nice fenders lights etc. etc. etc.

 

Oh with one caveat. Do I have to sell it ? Not according to my wife.

 

Sometimes it is the same for parts. Especially these guys that are flippers on here. They don’t want the part because they need it. They care about themselves not about paying a fair price. I would rather give a fellow hamber a good deal that was at least thinking he was going to use it.

 

That's why I stated 'paid'.
I'm speaking of 'bought', not built, cars.

 

What does it matter if it was welded by a certified welder who welded at Boeing and NASA. I have friends that have welded ( with all the certs) at Boeing and Hanford Nuclear power plant and they don't know shit about building cars. They just know how to weld.

 

My dad always said you can go down but you can't go back up. I usually start with stuff priced on the higher side. No matter what you ask someone will probably beat you up. You never know, maybe someone will fall in love and you'll get the asking price.

 

My feeling is that people have abused the free advertisement privileges here. Is this forum for the buyers or for the sellers?

No . . . it’s for the members at large, so the buyers and sellers need to be respectful.

I think you should offer two kinds of ads.

Free ads that run for 60 days. $20k max asking price. They should cost nothing but you cannot replace the same ad after 60 days. You must wait 30 . . . Go 30 on, 30 off etc.

This will (at a minimum) cut in half the number of ads you have to plow through every week.

Offer premium ads that run continuously, in a special section at the top of the heap, but charge a percentage of the asking price.

$10,000 car, x $0.01/$100 = $1 per week, pay in advance, nonrefundable. 3 weeks min.

But, if you pay for six weeks & the car sells in 3 you don’t get a refund.

Now if the car is $20,000 it’s two dollars a week, $30,000 = $3 etc. Max of maybe $6/week.

For the kind of exposure at this club gets, that’s really a pittance for a guy that’s got $60,000 rod to sell.

If it drives off those ads that run for seven years well so what ? Nobody was buying that stuff anyway.

 

Yes I can get a reconstructed title and my buddy is getting the paperwork from his brother. I may go that route. Thanks

 

Like I stated , back story on the chassis is for informational purposes. I never placed a monetary value said chassis just that it was built well.

 

Maybe to a buyer it might mean something. Yes, everyone has different abilities and while I get that your friends don’t know “shit” about building cars that doesn’t mean everyone. You need new friends my friend doesn’t weld at Boeing he welded until he retired on parts for Boeing and NASA. Something apparently NASA and Boeing cannot or will not do.

 

I will start by saying I have no idea if your pricing in good or bad but I am going to kind of pick on you a bit because it happens a lot and you asked. Like many, your ad is terrible. It looks and reads like you sat down, posted a picture and just started typing whatever came to mind. Pictures where you are too lazy to even remove a tarp off of the car our get it out of the picture, no cohesive list of what has been done, using things like etc. when describing things, "conditions for sale" randomly scattered amongst the description, a title that has no correlation to what is in the ad (what are the 3 price packages?) and things like no scammers all make you seem like you are not very serious about selling the car.

Unless it was something I really really wanted, it was super unique or it was a ridiculously cheap price I wouldn't even think about responding to an ad like yours. The lack of effort in putting it together and list of conditions make you seem like someone who doesn't really want to sell their car and and may be difficult to deal with.

 

I would advise him to take a fresh look at his ad as if he was a buyer, looking at it for the first time. Does the ad have "curb appeal"? Do the pictures really sell the car? Seriously, look at the pictures critically? As K13 mentioned, you can't remove the tarp all the way, wash the dust off the body, clean up the accumulated stuff inside? The unwritten message is it's not important enough to you to sell it. And it leaves the question, if that is not important, what else that has been done to the car was also not that important to do right? I'd take the ad down, wait a week and then re-list it with good pictures and a good description. Do it like it really matters, as if every job you do is a job worth doing right.

 

I got wide shoulders I had changed it to a roller. Your critique is duly noted. I will try to take new pics and organize the ad a bit. Thanks

 

I can see running an ambitious price on an ad for a while to see what happens. That said, there's a terrible 35/36 3 window on the auction site that I've been watching since maybe 2012. Homie wants $10k for it and he says knows what hes got....

 

That is great stuff people figuring out price schemes for the classifieds and stuff. If only it were your site?

Here is the easy way, you see an ad from a seller that has nothing but bumps as post count, just ad the to your IGNORE list. You won't miss them on the main post.
If you see someone posting a body or less than 50% of a car. Report as as a parts ad.
I think something should be done about 10-20 bump Ads and then you check and see nothing has changed

 

I didn’t read this whole thread.

Did anyone besides me suggest paid ads?

Lots of folks are out there trying to milk the system, but in general I find that in life you get what you pay for.

I can easily ignore people that I don’t think are legitimate or worthy of my inspection, but what good does that do the forum?

If you give away free peanuts, people are just gonna throw the shells on the floor. Every day people are crunching through worthless ads, trying to find the real ones.

 

I would imagine paid ads would add a ton of work for Ryan and the Mods. Ryan isn't running a classifieds site he has added it as a courtesy and an extra perk so I would think having to "crunch through worthless ads" should be the least you can do to enjoy said perk.

 

I think you’re trying to put the shoe on the wrong foot. If Ryan is providing the service gratis, then the least advertisers can do is have some respect when they use the service.

Reading public advertisements poses no responsibility on me.

One thing life has told me is that no one has a damn bit of respect for anything they get for free. If you want people to have respect you’ve got to charge them.

I cannot speak to how much work it might be for the operators of the site or how much it might add to or detract from its current presence, if classified ads were sold at a cost.

And I don’t really care one way or the other. This is just a suggestion I made that I thought made good sense. It might be an awful idea but on the other hand it might deserve some discussion.

 

20 ads or 200 ads, why should I care? Should it offend me that someone is asking more for their car than anyone is willing to pay? Why is it exactly that I should care?

 

Constructive advice. Thanks

 

I actually found this place by searching for a car, and google linking the ad. And I bought that car.
I have advertised some stuff here. Thus far, sold nothing. I have "met" some really cool people from those ads, and I think one was actually sold if the Covid-19 panpanic hadn't erupted at the same time.
A lot of it has to do with location. I think I may have hurt myself by pricing things at a level that I thought would sell quickly, too. Price it at a true sale price, and some people are sure that it is hiding a bunch of stuff. I try to describe stuff so that a buyer gets what he is expecting, or something better. Most people are full of shit, so I suffer accordingly.

 

And it sounds like there are several members here who would volunteer to do just that. Just because they care.

 

I assume you are including yourself in this seeing as you are complaining about how a free website isn't meeting your expectations.

 

I’ve had a 56 F100 listed for awhile( February ) it was “built back in the day” 1964 390, C4, 9” rear,
For 8kCAD. The offers I’ve gotten are 4-5. I’m into the truck for asking price and it won’t hurt if it doesn’t move, I’ve had it 10 years and other things keep coming up so I listed it. No ones buying anything up here either. If any H.A.M.B. guys are interested just PM I suppose it can be shipped to go anywhere.

 

In full disclosure, i had been "eyeing" this 1940 Merc in here for awhile,debating with myself if i should pay up. Well i desided it was time to get what had eluded me one way or other. So my 1940 Mercury is on its way...im STOKED! and glad i made the deal..i good deal is when both parties are satisfied..and that is the case here..

Im enjoying the different perpectives in this thread on the suject...so,i have bought and sold stuff here and other sites. Some times i luck out and find my buyer who has been looking forever for said part or car. And there have been times that there is not even crickets....it called "not the right time",or "the planets are not aligned "..whatever the situation if you need it,you will pay. If you dont,you will chill,and shop around.just my .02..oh by the way..im looking for toeboards for my 1940 Mercury! Lmk..

 

A couple thoughts here and a question.

First, I agree 100% with what some have said about finding the right person... more so with parts than cars, but applicable to both. While sometimes it is an issue of specialized parts(1948 Pontiac trim, for instance), that is certainly not always the case(2 NOS Hurst shifters for T10 that took 2 years to sell). I have bought and sold a lot of parts and some cars(some to make a buck, some to make space). In my experience, among the people who may have an interest in a particular item, 80% of those will approach you as though they are owed a bargain. I don't pull my prices out of thin air. I try to price things consistent with what appears to be the average sale price for an item of like kind and quality among the sites I have sold on. I say average because you all know as well as I that if an item usually sells for $100 but somebody recently gave one away for $20, a lot of people are going to approach you as though $20 should be the price. Additionally, I price things for someone who "needs" a particular part at that time not for someone who "might use the part eventually".

People are very hard to figure. 3 years ago I had an O/T Pontiac with no title, but a solid body and a healthy 400. I tried and tried to sell that car. Finally was down to $800. No takers. Put it in the shed and very shortly thereafter some punks broke in and beat the hell out of the car to the point it looked almost like it had been sideswiped. Pulled the car out of the shed and advertised what was now basically just a driveline for $600 and it sold in 3 days. Go figure.

A lot of people have mentioned about negotiating or lack thereof. I used to price things at 10% to 30% above what I was willing to take thinking that was a reasonable margin for offers. However, after dealing with way too many people offering me half my price, I usually just list things for my bottom dollar and say "Firm". I still get someone who clearly can't read from time to time, but not often. Life is too short to deal with people's crap.

Finally, the question. I think I have asked this in the past. How many people will be responsive to an offer way below their asking price? Or, how many will flip out?
My way of thinking has always been that offering half or less of somebody's price was incredibly disrespectful, even if I truly believe something is only worth that offer. I may have missed out on some deals on account of that thinking. But, when I believe their price is that high, I just end up saying "I'd like to have _______, but we are just too far apart on the price", thank them, and leave. If they follow with "What were you thinking?" or something like that, then I will tell them because it indicates to me that they may have just been guessing when they priced the item. Otherwise, I just move on. Maybe my way of thinking is getting old... or maybe it never was.

 

Just look at eBay. There must be 20 or more 1955-1957 T birds for sale at any given time. All want 25,000 to 35,000. If you look at the cars actually sold, but at 15,000 to 20,000. They all want to get the higher price, and very seldom get it.

 

midnightrider, I think your approach seems very reasonable. The unfortunate thing with selling today is that many of the people trying to buy are afflicted with the Richard Rawlings disease of offering an insulting 50 % less than your ask from the get go. That's not to mention the ones who haven't even looked at it and want to know "What's your bottom dollar" or "What's rock bottom". I admire the guys that are good sellers because I ain't got that gene.