Protect Yourself In Used Cars By Owner Online Auction

Scam Free

“How to get the great deals without worrying about being scammed?” I noticed this specific safety concern generated by my last post (Bottom price used cars by owner). So I’d like to make a response and share some helpful tips today.

So far, personally I have done several used cars by owner transactions on ebay during the past 5 years. Two for my self, four with my friends. And all of them turned out to be great deals and happy experiences.

Actually I found its not that hard to protect yourself online… as long as you stay close to a few simple rules:

Pick A Trustworthy Site

People would definitely go to a Sotheby auction for Vincent Van Gogh’s portrait, the same thing here: make sure to do your used cars by owner shopping on a reputable site.

Good sites gained reputations throughout the years. What they’ve been doing is keeping their long term business in mind and putting customers benefit on top. They would provide a strictly-controlled transaction process that makes you fully focus on your game without worrying about the others.

Actually I found there are more choices if you’re buying a new car, but when it comes to used cars by owner auctions, I’ll straightly suggest ebay motors. Simply because ebay provides the biggest virtual auction platform we can find today and it has been proven by billions of people. And ebay motors is one of ebay’s sections that was build especially for online car auctions. Personally I’ve all of my online car deals done there without a kink.

Get the history report

This is not a free service if you shooting for the used cars by owner from online auctions. But as crucial as it be, a small money can make you avoid thousands in losses.

The only authentic site is autocheck. Ebay has it as a default accompany under the history report tab. A report summery is fee but to get the full report you need to pay &7.99 for a single report or $14.99 for 10 reports.

In my opinion, 10 reports are just way too short for people to shift from such a huge list in the market. I tend to have dozens of candidates under my belt before starting making a bid. So what I did every time is Grab the Vehicle Identification Number(VIN), jump over ebay heading to their website www.autocheck.com directly and get a 60-day unlimited reports bundle for $24.99 (It worked perfect for me as non of my bids lasted over 2 months). Then I have access to the detailed report of any used car I’m interested in.

The point is to make sure the car has not been stolen, falsified VIN, flooded, totaled, accidents, lemon or recalled. Simplely, if any of these things evolves, go to the next candidate.

Contact The Owner Directly

If the site is trying to mask the seller’s information, then I’d propablly just leave. Because one of the important things for us to protect ourselves against a fake ad is to contact the private seller directly.

Ebay shows the basic contact information of the owner and I used to take advantage of this. I would shoot an email or dial the number asking questions regarding anything you would like to ask. My best judgment is honest seller responds quickly and is familiar with the car. If I sense anything shady then I’ll just dodge.

Another accessible reference is the seller’s reputation tracked by ebay. In the case of a private used car seller, positive feedback from other community members is counted as a vote.

Use A Third Party Payment Service

The way to protected your bank account information is to use a third party payment service like paypal. Its easy to set up an free account to ensure that the seller doesn’t have a chance to access your credit card account.

It’s not only applied to shoppers of used cars by owner, but as a common scene, never mail cash or checks to any address suggested buy the seller.

Final Protection

I never really came to this point, but just in case the seller doesn’t deliver his promise, you need to have a backup plan. On ebay it called Vehicle Purchase Protection, Which gives you a up to $50,000 coverage on any eligible listed cars. You can check the details about this service and what it offers here on ebay.

And you will get an added protection from ebay’s security and resolution center if your trade goes wrong. You can file a report or complaint with the prove and get Legal Department professionals help you recover the lost.

In my last post I showed you how to get the bottom price of any used cars by owner by trimming off the 20% extra costs of a dealership car. And I hope today’s post will help you get a clear vision during your trade and hold the steer wheel steady.

Online Resource: www.ebaymotors.com, www.autocheck.com

Best,

John Gordon
truecarslover@gmail.com

Bottom Price Used Cars By Owner, You Get It?

How much cheaper you can get by buying used cars by owner on yourself than being guided by a dealer?

A couple of hundreds dollars or maybe a thousand at the most. I used to give myself an answer like this during the past years. Until recently, I finally did some research and put down all the numbers on a piece of paper together…

I was shocked!

A 20% percent has been added onto the bottom price of a second hand car with a dealership. It means for a 15k dollars used car, you are paying an extra 3000 dollars beyond its naked value.

I cross checked the listed price on ebay under the catogories of used cars “by owner” and “by dealer”, despite all the other factors, generally a few thousands dolloars could be found. And here is how that 20% make up:

Dealer Used Car Price Structure

Dealer commission: 6% up

Somebody says that a car dealar takes 3% of whatever price you pay, but it’s not the case anymore. Interestingly enough, the bad ecomony is actually making a better second hand car business — as more people prefer to sell and buy a used car — dealars commission has doubled.

I often refer to manhattan’s apartment broker fee when i talk about something crazy and rediculous. Just think about that: for every used car with an average 15,000 dollars, you are paying almost $1000 to the dealar. I was told that many of the sales people he worked with would take an extra thousand dollars profit without a thought, then you should really feel lucky for not getting “overcharged”.

Ads costs: 5% – 8%

Compare to used cars by owner, dealers’ cars won’t sit still waiting for you to get in the door. There are plenty of chanels for you to find them, outdoor billboards, local radio and tv stations, newpapers, internet.. you name it.

You read the ads, dial the number, without taking a second to think about this question: who do you think is actually paying for all the ads bills?

Obviously, every cent dealars spend, you pay them back eventually.

Actually when i’m typing this right now, one think jumps into my head that if you see a used cars commercial ad during superbowl live, remember the brand and dodge. I just can’t help wondering how profitable this business is when it’s affording a million-dollar worth 30-second ad.

Other overheads: 3% – 6%

Rental, security, office management, energy bills etc, everything costs in your office applies to car dealers company as well.

Each bill is not worth talking about individually, but it becomes a fairly considerable difference when they all come together. Compare to this, the private seller of a used cars won’t charge you for a new garage door.

Okay, now sum these items up you’ll get a 14%-20% extra edge around your car’s naked price. That how you are going to pay 2000 to 3000 dollars more for a 15k dollars car.

You know what I mean. You may get certain benefit by buy a dealership car, but nothing comes free.

Tips: A quick way to calculate the bottom price of a used car

1. go to ebay motors
2. look into cars and trucks
3. click “used” under condition
4. target my car
5. check “used cars by dealar” to refine my search list
6. only look at the buy it now price(take it as the dealer’s price)
7. no matter how much mutiple it by 0.8
8. bingo!

That’s it! The naked price!

Only if you are interested in bottom-price used cars by owner

9. go back to the full list
10. check “used cars by owner” this time
11. bid around the bottom price you just figured out
12. enjoy the deal!

Online Resource: ebay motors