I purchased my 2008 GMC Acadia six and a half years ago for $14,800, which I thought was quite a good deal at the time. The average price for the same year and model on Craigslist owner to owner was $20k, but I was able to talk them down from $18k with some shrewd negotiating.
Two months ago, I purchased a nice new 2017 Audi to replace it, so I needed to get rid of the Acadia.
For several weeks, I kept posting and reposting ads on Craigslist and Ebay and Autotrader but was getting no bites other than scammers. Friday though a guy called and said he would come down from Bakersfield to purchase it with cash. I had originally posted it at $8k, but had since lowered the price to $5,900 to try to get someone to buy it. This guy offered $5,500 over the phone and I agreed.
When he arrived, 4 guys got out of the car and walked towards me. I asked who was buying it and they didn’t really answer. They looked pretty sketchy and Laurel thought they were going to rob me and steal it. I was careful though and eventually figured out it was just a father and his three adult sons who couldn’t speak English well.
Once they walked around it a couple of times they handed me a thick wad of cash. I was pretty surprised by this because I didn’t even have the title or a bill of sale – this was a bad move on their part. I basically could have kept the cash and the car! I am an honest person though and told them to come into my office. I wrote them a bill of sale and gave them paperwork for the title, then counted out the cash. Took a long time because it was in 20’s.
Here was how I sold my last car, the Contour to Kenny – https://joelx.com/end-of-an-era-ford-contour-sold/5630/