Distance vs. Price

Unfortunately, finding cheap used cars for sale isn't "quite" as cheap as it used to be. That is why you need to consider how far you are willing to travel to pick up a vehicle or are you willing to pay shipping fees and buy the vehicle “Sight Unseen?” As gas prices have skyrocketed over the past couple years, shipping prices have as well. A few years ago you could have a vehicle shipped cross country for $600-$800. Now its often between $1400-$1800. So always consider how much you are willing to pay based on how much it will cost to get it home. Example, why would I buy a VW GTI in Atlanta, Georgia? At the time of purchase an 01’ VW GTI VR6 with 125,000 miles was worth about $9500 private party value and over $12000 retail. Purchase price: $5300! Even after tax, license, plane ticket and gas home (I flew to Atlanta and drove it home as part of my vacation) I was able to drive it for 25K miles and STILL sell it for $2000 more dollars than I had into it! THAT is why you must always consider distance vs. price. There was not a single GTI VR6 on the west coast (01’ or newer) for less than $8000. The good news for people on the east coast, Texas and California is the majority of vehicles are sold in these regions.

How to evaluate a price?

As said before, don’t forget to include things like shipping costs when determining your final bid price. But how much should you bid? I have 3 rules/tools that I always check before bidding:

1. Kelley Blue Book

Depending on who you ask, KBB isn’t the most accurate of price determinations BUT I think it is a good place to start, since most likely, if you ever go to sell the vehicle the average person will look up the KBB value. (Remember you are not the only person looking for cheap used cars for sale!)  You can look up values on used or new cars at www.kbb.com . For those not familiar with KBB, a few pointers. When looking up used vehicles there are 3 categories. Retail (what you can expect to pay at a dealer,) Private Party (what the value is from an individual seller,) and Trade-In (what the dealer may give you to trade in your vehicle.) Play around with these numbers and you will see the margin of markup given to dealers (ITS RIDICULOUS!) Remember this, even buying from a dealer off eBay, when you go to sell it, you are a private party. I ALWAYS base my price on ppv, not retail! There are also 3 “conditions” of vehicles: Excellent, Good, Fair. (There is also poor but it won’t give you a value if your car is in that bad of shape) More than likely, no matter how “Good” or “Excellent” the condition is described on eBay, MOST vehicles are only in Fair-Good condition. “Excellent” vehicles are only brand new, no defects and have ALL maintenance paperwork. Even “good” vehicles are in better shape than you might expect. So for safety, look at the “Fair” condition “Private Party” value.

2. ½ Price

I can’t say it’s a RULE but I have found that I usually pay about ½ what private party value is on KBB.

Daewoo Lanos - PPV - $2800, paid $1600

VW GTI VR6 - PPV - $9500, paid $5300

Chevy Blazer - PPV - $5000, paid $2200

Sometimes it’s a little more, sometimes a little less. What you will see if I didn’t list the 4Runner. That’s because I got too emotionally involved with the 4Runner, and in turn, paid too much. Big Mistake! I had just sold my Nissan Xterra (locally on my own) and was without a car. I had $6000 cash after I paid off my loan and wanted to only spend cash on the next car. (I hate payments) I found the 4Runner (only 60 miles away) but didn’t want to pay more than $4000 for it. My girlfriend LOVED the 4Runner and I ended up bidding $5400 on it. I won the auction but barely saved a dime compared to had I stayed (and kept my girlfriend) emotionally out of it. LESSON: Set your price BEFORE you get emotionally involved. Don’t deviate! There is ALWAYS another vehicle.

(Side note: If possible, don’t put in your maximum bid until the last 1-2 minutes. People are less likely to outbid you if you don’t do it 3 days in advance. I try to put my bids in about 15 seconds before it ends and they have even developed software that will do it for you. I don’t recommend any here since some people consider that unethical, and I don’t personally use them, but they are available online. You just have to search for them)

3. Local Vehicle Sales

It is a really good idea to compare your vehicle to cheap used cars for sale locally. If you are going to pay $5000 for a vehicle that is 200 miles away, it only makes sense to check locally to see if there are any other used cars selling for the same price. Sites such as kbb.com, auto trader.com and vehix.com always have listings of used vehicles. I have rarely found anything priced comparatively, but, it does feel good to know you are getting your Honda Civic for $5000 when everyone else is paying a dealer $9000 for the same car!