I completely agree about the faceless messages.
As a buyer one always wants a bargain. As a seller one always wants the most they can get. Meeting in the middle I guess is the best way to put it.
A couple of examples:
As BUYER.
I drove to Sydney to look at what was supposed to be a mint condition RA rodeo LT dual cab.
It had a nudge bar, canopy and low kms according to the add. So I was looking at a 1200km round trip. It was advertised at $14k at the time which was market price for a great one at the time (2004 model)
I got there and thought I had gone to the wrong address. Paint was faded and lots of swirl marks. Interior was filthy, broken trim pieces. Drive train had leaks, brakes were shot, tyres were all worn on the inside edge and generally rough condition. Kms were the only thing that were advertised correctly.
It wasn't a bad car, just needed some love to get to where it should have been.
I went over the whole lot with the owner and he wasn't aware of just how bad it was. I worked out what it was going to cost to repair everything and then deducted that from what he was asking.
After about 20min of chatting we agreed on a price of $7k
As a SELLER.
When I sold the rodeo, After I had repaired everything and detailed it so it was immaculate, fitted a bull bar, uhf, good ATs and a few other goodies I advertised it for $15k,
It wasn't that long after I bought it ( I hated the fuel economy of the V6 petrol) I had a couple of older people come and look at it. They wanted Lift in it and a mechanical check.
Happy for both. I renewed the rego and took it where they wanted for the check (fixed the D bushes on the sway bar that came up at the inspection) and sold it for an agreed price of $13k with them paying for the lift as well.
They were happy, I didn't loose anything (didn't make anything either) and they got a great car.
So moral of the storey is presentation is certainly key, as well as making sure you price it where it sits in the market.
Cheers
Evo
