True confession: I've never sold a car privately. I keep my daily drivers at least 10 years, if I'm lucky, and trade them in. I keep my so-called "collector cars" forever. The end of forever has come, and now time to sell. I prepped two cars for listing on BAT last summer, a 1988 Mazda RX-7 (62k km.) and a 1993 Mazda RX-7 (32k miles). BAT wouldn't take the '88 with a reserve price, but accepted the '93. What I didn't realize is that there can be a significant time lag between the time a car is submitted to BAT and it goes live on the site. In this case, 51 days later for the '93. By that time it was October, and I think I missed the best time for selling. (I spent too much time during the summer detailing the cars, doing compression tests, changing fluids and taking pictures. I should have submitted the car first, then done all the work after it was accepted.) The car attracted a lot of commentary. Also unserious bargain-hunters. I suspect that the car being in Canada scares people off. I imported the car from the U.S., driving to Boston to buy it in 2007. A big part of the adventure in buying a relatively rare car is the travel to see it and buy it, in my opinion. Listed the '93 on eBay, just to see if it would attract any interest. No bids, two questions. Then again, it was November by then. (I imported the car from the U.S. in November, and would be happy to drive during the fall to buy a car. It's an adventure.) So, I'm thinking of listing the car, in March, on Hemmings or ClassicCars.com. Does anyone have any tips or preferences for listing cars on these sites, or any other sites to recommend? Craigslist is not used very much in Ontario. Kijiji is used much more often. I've sold tires/wheels etc. on Kijiji before. Dealing with people on Kijiji is a PITA. It seems to attract mostly idiots. I would avoid Kijiji unless I had no other options. I'm not sure about AutoTrader (the Canadian version, autotrader.ca). Suggestions, tips, welcome!
Thanks, a bit after posting this I remembered the RX-7 Club (RX7Club.com). But by then I was deep into mixing drywall compound. I enjoy nothing so much as doing drywall repair on a snowy Canadian winter's day. At least it's indoors.
Don't overthink this. Just post the cars for sale everywhere you can. Yes, Kijiji has idiots. So does every site. It's par for the course and what you have to put up with when selling a car. But I have bought several collector cars through craigslist, and I have sold several that way, too. Craigslist can't be beat for nationwide exposure, at least in the U.S. If you're in the U.S., hold your nose and post your car there. Posting it on a Mazda club site is fine, but don't limit yourself to that. Especially post in places where it costs nothing or nearly nothing. What you want is EXPOSURE. In the old days, that meant a classified ad in the local paper. Nowadays it means lots of things. You talk about the time lag on BAT. Wow. I posted my '67 Delta 88 convertible on craigslist a few years ago. The ad was on the site in moments, and the car sold later that day. Can't beat that.
I agree with what you say about exposure. Might post on Craigslist for New York state, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine too. People in these states might be more accustomed to cross-border issues than others. Also on the topic of exposure: the guy I bought the car from in Boston in 2007 saw the car on BAT, e-mailed me to ask if it was the car I bought from him. It was. He wrote to me "I should buy it back from you". Might contact him to see if he's really that interested. He didn’t bid when it was on BAT. Interesting point about BAT: they will not accept your car for a listing if it's advertised elsewhere. They're pretty damn picky.
But BaT is an auction site, right? I can see them not wanting a listing if the car is for sale elsewhere. Ebay allows this, and the listing that do (often dealers) say something like "auction could be ended at any time because car is for sale locally." I can see why Bat would not want this. They don't want a car if it the auction is not allowed to complete because the vehicle is suddenly no longer available. That doesn't look good for them and discourages bidding. Sites like craigslist are just classified ad sites. That's something different.
