EBay or Autotrader for E89 in the current market?

T

True-Blue

Lifer
Bristol/Bath
Site Supporter
Trying to help Big Bad Borris with advertising his E89 off site to reach a wider market.

I’ve always had decent success with EBay classified adds, but the problem is the sheer volume of absolute time wasters. I’m pretty sure Kevan isn’t going to have the energy to deal with large numbers of numpty’s. Having said that, I could word the advert in such a way that it deters some of the timewasters, but I wouldn’t want to put people off either.

My gut feeling is that Auto trader, despite being more expensive, might be a better option here…. Any thoughts?

I just want to help him if I can.
 
I would look at Auto trader and have used that in the past. The other one is Pistonheads which I have used for a few cars with great success.

I would not buy from eBay, but tha is just my view.
 
pvr said:
I would look at Auto trader and have used that in the past. The other one is Pistonheads which I have used for a few cars with great success.

I would not buy from eBay, but tha is just my view.
Click to expand...

I’ve sold numerous great cars via EBay, but I can understand why you’d say that.

Is pistonheads free?
 
My recent experience is that on eBay people expect the price to be cheaper than on autotrader. It's also harder to search on eBay for the spec you want compared to autotrader.
Autotrader makes it easy with boxes for everything from year to model to road tax. It has a lot more search options to tick than eBay offers. Ebay can be annoying as you have to tick every year individually rather than a range.

Pistonheads is good but will reach a smaller audience than autotrader and eBay. Depends what they are charging for the advert versus autotrader.

I bought a car a couple of weeks ago advertised on eBay and Motors.co.uk and it was significantly cheaper than similar cars on autotrader. It was (surprisingly) in great condition. So eBay can be good for buying but not so much for selling. Unless you want to sell quickly but for a low price.
 
Newbie so first post :) Picking up my car, E89 28i manual, tomorrow which I bought off Autotrader.

As to eBay or Autotrader - doesn't have to be one or the other and can be both? Your just looking to sell something at the right price to someone who wants it so you want maximum exposure. Loads more people look at eBay ads than they do Autotrader and it's pocket change comparatively speaking to place a classified ad there. OK so you may have to deal with a few oddballs on the journey but it's generally easy enough to courteously dismiss them. I sold a Ford Fiesta on there on behalf of my daughter earlier in the year which was relatively painless however that was at the budget end of the spectrum.

Spring is around the corner so I guess more people will start looking for convertibles but some of the ads on Autotrader can sit there for months, so you can't be in a hurry. The car I have just bought which is in a similar price range to the one here had been for sale since early November and I also looked at 2 others which had been for sale for a similar length of time. That said, you might get really lucky with an immediate sale.

My only tip would be to stick a bit more on than you are looking for because everyone always wants something off. You then just end up at your actual asking price and everyone's happy.
 
AT in this case in my opinion.
He (you) will still get the traders ringing to gauge how desperate you are to sell, but generally the quality of buyers is much higher IME.

AT does cost more than eBay though.
 
Having recently sold my Z3 and Z4C in under a week via eBay that would be my suggestion but I genuinely think you will struggle to move the car on at the price you are looking to achieve if you haven't already found an enthusiastic forum member.

Still an eBay buy-it-now advert with a 'make offer' option means you will reduce traffic from any time wasters. The problem I find with Autotrader is potential buyers like to call to discuss - at least with eBay you can weed out the chaff over the message functionality.

Obviously based on the situation you're easiest option would be one of the independent auction firms but appreciate you'd need to sort the logistics and there is also the commission to consider.
 
Well, I’ve offered to word an advert (I’ve sold a few myself :oops: ) but I’ve still got an unread PM I sent earlier today.

I’m not sure his asking price is a million miles away from realistic, as it is a 30i, 3 owner, low-ish mileage car with reasonable spec and good service history. Having said that, the market is flat for 2 seaters of any type. Maybe it needs to be nearer £9k… not sure.

In my experience, the forum is actually one of the worst places to sell a Z4 in reality.
 
The retail value is £10k, trade is £6,600 and confused have it's value at £8,800 - but like you say the market is on its backside at the minute.
 
I've had more interest from the forum than Autotrader, so far.

Unless all the "suspected spam" calls I've been ignoring are actually autotrader enquiries :?
 
Buy off AT sell on Ebay with £19.99 classified ad , not had a fail yet with this medium , record was a 3.0si roady i listed at 9am on a Sunday morning , it was gone before 3pm the same day .
 
mr wilks said:
Buy off AT sell on Ebay with £19.99 classified ad , not had a fail yet with this medium , record was a 3.0si roady i listed at 9am on a Sunday morning , it was gone before 3pm the same day .
Click to expand...

Not surprised at £19.99 :P
 
Confused.com car valuations look like they are around 20% too high right now. https://www.confused.com/car-valuation
The similar cars on Autotrader are all from dealers at 10k-11k so you'd expect them to be around 1.5k to 2k more than a private sale. A private sale is always a risk as you have zero comeback if anything goes wrong with the car. So i"d be looking for a lower price for a private sale to give me a slush fund for repairs.
 
I used Autotrader to sell a couple of 3 Series in the past.

I sold a cheap runaround on Gumtree and did get one response for a Z4 I put on Gumtree, although the eventual buyer found it on here.

Pistonheads might be a good shout especially if you can get a free advert on there - I think you have to have been a member for 10 years.

Good luck helping him out. :thumbsup:
 
I’m not convinced eBay has the seller’s integrity that you’d get on AutoTrader, but there’s no science to it. That said, for a seller AutoTrader can be slow news (from experience) but does offer a more trusted buyers platform. I’d consider auction too. Several highly trusted venues now getting lots of exposure
 
I've only just read the back story.

Sending out my best wishes to Big Bad Boris.
 
All of them, if you're serious about selling. I typically advertise on owners' forums first as I'd like my cars to go to a good home. If no takers I then publish on AT, eBay, PH, Facebook and Carandclassic. Gumtree is the only place I actively avoid.
 
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