I put the old Elddis on Gumtree last night (this isn't a plug) and added some pictures. I explained the age and condition,what had been improved or replaced etc and how much I wanted. Maybe it was too much but it is less than I paid 2 years ago. But there's a difference between offers and taking the wee wee. We'll see...
Worse than that are the idiots who text or email asking for the location of the caravan and can they see it now. The best one was the one who asked where it was and what time I got home. Really? One even asked me if I had 'the aggregates for the electrics'..Another rang from London and asked me to deliver because he didn't have a car.
I thought this was going to be easy.
------------- Too old to put up a tent but still like waking up to skies and grass...not a cold hotel
And yet on another thread, running alongside this one, it is advised to always see the caravan, at the sellers address, etc, etc, to help "ensure" it isn't a scam sale!
I think if and when I get involved with caravans, I'll just take the easier, but presumably costlier, route of going through a "reputable dealer", whether buying or selling!
when I sold my old 'van the amount of people wanting to gibe me half the value was unreal, offering prices before viewing, 3 people including the person who bought it turned up with cars without tow hitches, I ended up delivering it for £20 aswell, I don't fancy trying to sell a caravan privately again, too many idiots about
The first time we sold a caravan used a well know auction site. The idiots that phoned asking silly questions and even had 1 that was a serial bidder that never bought anything. Had to cancel his bids. Even after selling it had 1 chap that phoned asking why we didn't sell it to him. I explained he had been out but he couldn't understand that. When we bought our new to us van in July last year we opted for the easy option and traded it in. Guess we could have got more privately but didn't want to go through all the hassel again
Punters complain about poor trade in prices from dealers but all one is doing is paying for the service of making one's existing caravan disappear. Like any job we do ourselves rather than paying a professional to do it for us, selling one's own caravan usually requires a fair bit of work.
I don't mind selling the old bugger I object to (as said above) the people who make insulting offers before seeing it. Me and my wife looked after this 'van and kept it as clean and useable as we could. Its 23 years old and cost me more than I'm selling it for. Perhaps I naively thought it would suit someone looking to try caravanning cheaply. Maybe this is the wrong site - you'all got caravans.
------------- Too old to put up a tent but still like waking up to skies and grass...not a cold hotel
Fact is Cugsy, what you describe is just part & parcel of selling caravans, or cars for that matter. You just have to accept there will be the derisory offers, scam attempts & so on but among all that, provided advertised price is reasonable the genuine buyers will be there.
Probably better bet is ebay auction. Caravans seem to be fetching reasonable prices at this time of yr.
You do get some oddballs on Gumtree but the majority of buyers are fine.
I would stick with it and just encourage people to view first. They will if they are genuine.
I seem to have had the totally opposite experience to most.
I recently had to get rid of the van due to ill health.
Advertised it in all the usual places and although had a few calls offering peanuts including a guy that wanted me to pay his petrol for a round trip from Scotland, over a 1000 miles. These I politely declined and eventually sold to a lovely lady
who transferred a 1k deposit to hold it for her without seeing it. She came up from Devon to collect from the Kent coast, 300 miles, Paid the full asking price, stayed overnight on a local cl and drove home the following day with the van. Has since emailed me with picccies of her first outing with it and saying how pleased she was with it............Mick
We sold outmr first van on eBay as classified ad. £12k and first viewer bought it. More than £3k more than trade in price for a £20 ad and 2 meetings of an hour.
Quote: Originally posted by mickeyb on 24/2/2016
I seem to have had the totally opposite experience to most.
I recently had to get rid of the van due to ill health.
Advertised it in all the usual places and although had a few calls offering peanuts including a guy that wanted me to pay his petrol for a round trip from Scotland, over a 1000 miles. These I politely declined and eventually sold to a lovely lady
who transferred a 1k deposit to hold it for her without seeing it. She came up from Devon to collect from the Kent coast, 300 miles, Paid the full asking price, stayed overnight on a local cl and drove home the following day with the van. Has since emailed me with picccies of her first outing with it and saying how pleased she was with it............Mick
I think you were really lucky. Don't think there are many people who would transfer £1,000 to a stranger with not having viewed the caravan.
Apart from you being an honest person, what proof did she have that the £1,000 was a deposit for a caravan?
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
Quote: Originally posted by checkley1973 on 24/2/2016
We sold outmr first van on eBay as classified ad. £12k and first viewer bought it. More than £3k more than trade in price for a £20 ad and 2 meetings of an hour.
One caravan I sold ended up in a bidding war, as 3 couples turned up within minutes of each other to view. I had gave each one a rough time to view and they all decided to come early, apart from the first couple.
Got more than I asked for, it was mint condition though and still a lot less than dealers wanted.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
The strangest thing that happened to me once, a long time ago, was on a well known auction site. Every time I bid on the caravan I was immediately outbid by just a few pounds. The auction lasted quite a while and true to form right at the last minute I was pipped at the post again by just a few pounds.
A few days later I got an email from the winner asking if I wanted to buy it for the winning amount because for personal reasons he couldn't keep it.
Throughout the auction I had become quite friendly with the elderly sellers so I contacted them to ask if there were any problems. Apparently when the winner went to pick up the caravan he had brow beaten the old couple into selling it to him quite a lot cheaper...a lot cheaper than I and another bidder had bid, and now he was trying to make a fast buck by flogging it to me at the winning price!
If you want an item on an ebay auction, then provided price is still lower than you are prepared to pay, bid the most you are prepared to pay, 15seconds before auction end. Takes practice & nerve & obviously you need to be there at auction end but if you want it badly enough then you will find a way.
I honestly cannot see a better way of securing an item you want for least price & I fail to see why anybody should enter into bidding wars days before the end of an auction.
At an auction house sales are concluded in less than a minute so why should an ebay auction be treated any differently?
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Topic: Selling the old caravan - some funny peop
