What are the best ways to sell a used car these days? Id rather not take a hit from a trade in and if I buy the replacement from an individual that option doesn’t even exist. Outside of facebook, which I dont have access too, what are some other ways?
Last time I sold a car outright I think I used the Pioneer Press classifieds.
Get access to Facebook marketplace.
Otherwise find a good high traffic location to park it next to the road with a sign.
Facebook marketplace is about the best. During Covid with the prices ridiculously high on trucks I sold my 2018 Silverado back to the dealer for a couple grand less than I bought it for with 40k miles on it.
Not sure what type of vehicle you are wanting to sell, but this option may or may not be for you. If its older they would probably just wholesale it so go marketplace route.
I was afraid you guys would say FB Marketplace. That’s all you hear anymore.
List it here. Word of mouth will work, might take some time tho.
What is the Make/Model/Year?
Craigslist is still an option too
Facebook Marketplace Pros: Lots of traffic, takes minutes to snap a few pictures and post
Facebook Marketplace Cons: More time on the back end sorting through messages, tirekickers, people throwing out lowball offers, people wanting to look at the vehicle then not having cash on hand
Trading in vehicles is brutal. You literally leave a few grand on the table at minimum. My biggest issue is that if I say I’m selling a vehicle on my own, I end up keeping the damn thing driving it occassionally and then before I know it I’m renewing tabs and insurance and the collection grows 
Someone you know, IDO market place, Craig’s list is still a thing, make sure insurance is up to date and go out of Bayport by the water plant are some options.
Facebook Marketplace Pros: Lots of traffic, takes minutes to snap a few pictures and post
Facebook Marketplace Cons: More time on the back end sorting through messages, tirekickers, people throwing out lowball offers, people wanting to look at the vehicle then not having cash on hand
Trading in vehicles is brutal. You literally leave a few grand on the table at minimum. My biggest issue is that if I say I’m selling a vehicle on my own, I end up keeping the damn thing driving it occassionally and then before I know it I’m renewing tabs and insurance and the collection grows
Trading isn’t as painful as it seems, when you look at the sales tax savings on the purchase, the “cost” vs private party sale is usually half what you think it will be. Considering time, effort, risk of private party, it can make sense.
Carsoup and Autotrader are still out there. You can go to Carvana and see what they will give you on the spot.
My son is going to be looking for a used car soon, what do you have!?
Carvana is a good option to sell. You can actually get a estimate on line and from what I have seen their offers are pretty good. And surely less hassle then trying to sell to a private party.
Video killed the radio star. It was the classifieds, Craigslist killed those, now Marketplace took over everything.
I don’t find selling on Marketplace nearly as annoying as I used to. I used to answer every message and get really annoyed at the time wasters, but then I figured out it is easy to sort out the serious buyers from the time wasters.
1. Anyone who asks a list of detailed questions is a time waster. 1 maybe 2 legitimate questions of information that is not contained in the ad I will reply to. Otherwise I just delete their message.
I was selling a snowmobile and this guy sent me a list of 10 questions starting with do I have all the receipts for all the repairs that have been made on the sled. Like it was a 1992 snowmobile. Who would have all the receipts? Deleted. Then he sends me another message wondering why I haven’t replied. So then I replied with your message has been deleted and blocked him.
2. The number one concern for a legit buyer will be when can I see it. A real buyer wants an in person time and they want it soon. Real buyers know that there’s competition on Facebook and they want to be the winner. I want to sell to winners. Not tire kicking losers.
3. A real buyer has his Schmidt together and is ready to buy. Anyone sending me requests asking if I can hold it until the weekend when they can get to the bank to get money and get permission from their mom is not worth dealing with and I just delete their message.
Basically once I started applying those rules and just filtering out the messages and immediately deleting the losers it was a lot easier and a lot less hassle.
Good luck.
I used to have a older cousin that was pretty frugal. I have a pretty high traffic driveway and he asked if he could park his car by my driveway with a for sale sign. I said sure and he could do it free for the first week but each week after that it would cost him 2 cases of beer each week that it sat. He asked why I would charge him beer after the first week. I had to tell him that he was so cheap that he would never accept a reasonable offer and it would end up not selling.
I buy and sell a lot on marketplace and highly recommend it. Sure you get some tire kickers, but you get that on craigslist and other places too. I’ve had nothing but good experiences selling everything from fishing/camping gear to ATVs, boats, ice houses, and vehicles.
I’ve found when selling a high price item like a nicer used vehicle, you get a lot more serious buyers than people wasting your time. If you’re selling something for a couple hundred bucks or under, you will get a lot more hagglers trying to find your absolute bottom dollar.
Craigslist just isn’t what it used to be. Way less activity than on marketplace and way more scammers. One of the better features of marketplace is someone has to actually have a profile and you can vet them out by looking at their marketplace reviews, if you have any mutual friends, etc. You simply can’t do any vetting on craigslist and there are a lot more scams on craigslist.
Lots and lots of really good deals to be had on marketplace, especially if you focus your searches on the more affluent areas. I’ve found high end items like boats, furniture, and ice fishing gear for dirt cheap – someone just wanting it gone.
Its a 2015 Nissan Murano. I am certainly not trying to sell it here so if anyone wants more details they can PM me.
I appreciate all the info. It may sound ridiculous but my wife and I were hoping not to sign up for facebook EVER after making it this long.
If you havent already signed up for FB then I would just look elsewhere to try and sell it.
I had one bad experience with Marketplace, not that I have used it a lot, but that one time soured me.
I was selling a kamado smoker with ALL of the accessories I had for it for $300 with a couple bags of lump charcoal and wood chips. I wanted $300 for it. The joetisserie attachment I had cost over that alone, not counting the baskets, rib racks, etc. There is nothing wrong with anything I just dont use it. A guy said he would buy it at full price. Then next day the day he was coming to get it he said his wife said no, but would I take $100. I said dont F*ing insult me with an offer like that and blocked him.
CM – That’s just the joy of selling things on the secondary market. That is not something that’s unique to marketplace – happens on craigslist too.
CM – That’s just the joy of selling things on the secondary market. That is not something that’s unique to marketplace – happens on craigslist too.
You’re not wrong, but IDK anyone who uses Craigslist anymore. That is almost like using MySpace now.
Last car I sold I checked a few for sale and then got a quote from CarMax and it was about in the middle of what people were trying to sell them for. No idea how they make money but I was in and out with my check in under an hour and didn’t have to deal with people.
You’re not wrong, but IDK anyone who uses Craigslist anymore. That is almost like using MySpace now.
What platform is the anti-marketplace crowd using then? Still lots of activity on my local craigslist.
What platform is the anti-marketplace crowd using then? Still lots of activity on my local craigslist.
You’d have to ask them. There may be lots of activity there, but like I said I dont know anyone who actively uses it and I havent glanced at it in years.
Carvana. $1800 more than the stealership offered to trade in my 2015 Silverado.
Kid needs a new ride how many miles?
The last vehicle I sold on Marketplace was a 1998 Jeep Wrangler Sahara that didn’t have a spot of rust anywhere, had nice brand new oversized BFG K02s, 80k miles and a spotless interior. It had never seen salt in its life. Man, was I dumb to have sold it.
I was too naive to some of the points Grouse mentioned and pi$$ed away a lot of time dealing with tirekickers, younger guys who clearly needed the cash from mommy/daddy, etc. I got every dime I listed it for (which was way too cheap in hindsight)…but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been.
One guy showed up and looked it over and laid out $100s totaling $500 less than I had it listed for. I said “no, thank you.” and he said his offer was “only good for today.” I just smiled and said oh well. That next morning not 10 hours later I had a text message from him saying he had reconsidered and would show up in the afternoon with the full cash amount. I just responded with a picture of the empty garage stall and said “too late.” He blasted me on a Marketplace review too then for selling it to someone else
I just responded with a picture of the empty garage stall and said “too late.” He blasted me on a Marketplace review too then for selling it to someone else
Good for you and what a dink of him to do that to you. Not your fault. First come first served.
One guy showed up and looked it over and laid out $100s totaling $500 less than I had it listed for. I said “no, thank you.” and he said his offer was “only good for today.” I just smiled and said oh well. That next morning not 10 hours later I had a text message from him saying he had reconsidered and would show up in the afternoon with the full cash amount. I just responded with a picture of the empty garage stall and said “too late.”
That’s so awesome, Bucky.
Okay, it’s totally wrong, but this is one of the best things about Marketplace.
You can victory lap it on the asshats! 2 days after an item sold when some spanker messages and asks if I’ll cave in and take his generous lowball offer that I ignored back when he first sent it. Send him a picture of the cash held up in front of the empty garage stall. Sorry there, buddy…
I had good luck with Carvana. No inspections no hassles just an easy transaction all around. Probably got less than private party sale but the convenience factor was worth it for me.
Pretty much agree with most of what I’ve read so far. I “joined” FB about 1-1/2 years ago simply to utilize Marketplace. I have zero interest in anything else. I sold a truck in September and listed it on Marketplace, CL and Cars.com. I also tried Carvana. I started out too high (on advice of others) and got a lot of lowball BS right off the bat. I gradually lowered the price over about a month and still got a lot of “how cheap will you sell for cash today?” kind of crap. You do learn to just ignore a lot of it. I finally sold it, less than I’d thought but it went ok. I never got one inquiry from CL or Cars.com. I know Carvana offered like $3K less than I finally sold it for.
You can try Carmax too. I did some research when selling my Explorer and Carmax gave me a price in line with what I was looking for.
I sold a car on here…it was easy and I felt more comfortable dealing with an IDO member. I got about $2k more than carvana and carmax would give me.
It’s worth posting here…free and easy.
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