XFS

Change in domestic circumstances. Wont have the space to stock enough cars at home next year. And it will be my full time job. Luckily, I still won't be under any pressure, so the basic business model will remain the same.

I simply don't need the paperwork and additional hassle and my target customers usually don't need finance. I have a finance guy I can refer to if absolutely necessary, but its rare. I don't take swappers either unless its something I can sell with confidence and a clear profit. I want the customer in and out, deal done as simply as possible. When I move to a unit, and have a larger stock, I probably will offer finance on a restricted scale. ie. lender of my choice, prime only.

Clearly finance is a big part of your business. Right now, I don't want it as part of mine. I may have to reconsider in the future. But I am old, I am not ambitious, I don't need to sell loads of cars. I like everything to be on my terms, I like to pick and choose my customers and I want as little admin as possible. I understand my business model won't work for most people. To each their own.

Definitely. Setting aside the first rule of selling ie. turning any potential negative into a positive, trading from a nice home is definitely a major positive in my book. Same with finance. I spin not offering finance into a positive point, not negative, not least because for me it is a positive. It is my choice not to offer finance.

I have a nice place which presents the correct image for what I am selling and I treat my customers well and they receive a relaxed personal service in a way they would not from a franchised dealer. In short, I can offer a better service than most franchised dealers. However, all this stops in 3 weeks. I am moving. I will be doing my "day job" in Europe for the next few months, then I get a unit from the 1st March next year and will be virtually full time. However I will be operating my car business on exactly the same principal as I did from home.

And to you to. We need it!

Ah, now... that...is the slight flaw in my cunning plan... Its not easy, but some days you get lucky. One bank holiday this year I bought a load in one day...then couldn't get near anything for weeks. You miss more than you hit, thats for sure. I was convinced I was going to buy an E46 M3 at Preston yesterday. Cap clean said £9300, I thought well I can go to 14k...surely I'm I'm with a shout. I was nowhere near. £15800 plus premium bought it.

Not really. I would stock an SL, but probably not a 911 A typical car for me might be a low mileage, FSH, 1 owner older S4 Avant or a low miles petrol Merc CLS, or E class Estate or maybe a Porsche Boxster or a MK 1 Audi TT, Alfa Spider but today I bought an Alfa 159 which I know I will make a big margin on and it only cost 5k. It is low miles, 1 owner and great history, so its a car people will travel as far as they need to for. I sold a car to Southern Ireland today. What works for me is; 1. I can afford to pick and choose cars and pick them to suit whom I perceive my customer to be. 2. I won't buy unless the car is absolutely right for me. I would rather have no stock than the wrong stock. 3. I make trading from home a positive not a negative. 4. I make not offering finance a positive not a negative. If I were dealing in 5K cars I would be going for rare rather than mainstream bread and butter. Big petrol Estates, Low miles Alfas, Saabs. Old jag XF's with good history, good Spec. Cars for mature people who don't give you hassle and don't need finance.

Selling from home without finance ....you need to stock vehicles which attract customers who don't need finance. A bread and butter 2 year old Audi is not that vehicle. There are hundreds out there and nearly every one will end up on some sort of finance deal. I trade from home, don't offer finance and don't find it hard to sell 18k cars...thats my normal price point, but I would be wasting my time trying to sell stuff the car supermarkets/franchise guys are selling on finance.

I wish it would also scare of the people who pay stupid money for anything I want!

Mind you, the con man...or woman was asking a realistic price. The real owner was in fantasy land.

They bought a 20k plus car the other week. I think they paid about 21500 plus premium. It was a 19500 car for me, I don't know how they will profit on that. The last genuine bid I can see on it is 18500, anything else is them running it up. This was a decent car though, grade 2 I think and good history.

I never really buy and sell cars on eBay so this may well be common. So, I decided to have a look on eBay as I'm struggling to find what I am looking for. Saw one of my own cars with my pictures and text listed at about 5k less than I was asking! Reports it to Ebay obviously. A couple of weeks later I am looking again. There is front of me, absolutely what I want. Cheap, but not suspiciously cheap. FSH, Low miles, 2 owners. £21500. Retail value around £25000 so its in the negotiable range. So, I contact the seller. In the Isle of Man. Ok, not perfect. So, I emailed and said, ok I can come to collect the vehicle if you let me have it for £20500. By this time I have got the reg, chassis no etc of the car and it checks out on HPi Seller emails me back, I have a better idea, due to this, that and the next thing... we will do it all via PayPal, pay after delivery and Uship, you can have it for £20500 and I will also pay the shipping and if its not as described you have 5 days to send the car back and the money is returned. Nobody caves in like that and offers that sort of deal. A couple of other things had already made me think already it wasn't right, I am now pretty sure its a scam. But I thought I will play along. It went right down the line. Authentic PayPal invoice with the absolutely correct text, logos and a live help button which took you through to a live person who was pretty good. The thing that really threw me was that they had my correct PayPal address. God knows how they got that. The main give away, apart from the fact I already knew it was fake, was they were actually to quick and efficient and when you phoned the help number they pronounced the word live as live as in living. Anyway, I also found the car on Autotrader. I would not have noticed it previously as it was way overpriced. A private punter has it up for sale at £29500 (good luck with that!!) so I phoned him and sure enough he is genuine and the car is in Cornwall.

I gave up trying to get on the AV. I must have done something to offend someone. Never even had a reply. But this reminded me, just sent an email again. Wonder if I get any response this time

Well, if you have a spread of stock which includes 100k cars you certainly don't need my advice or that of most people on here. You should be giving us advice

The mantra from the Schoolboys and Schoolgirls at autotrader is that your pricing target should be “good price” as their research apparently tells them that is the optimum price band to get the maximum viewers. Priced Low apparently make the punters suspicious and may miss searches centering round the optimum price point for that car....or some such jargon which took so long to explain I wasn’t actually listening. What I deduced is that their analytics may be good for volume shifters, but means shit to me and I know far better about pricing MY cars than they do and I proved it to them. Price your own cars to suit your own market.

Before “mobile” phones there were “portable” phones. They were almost the size of a breezeblock and just about as heavy and had an Ariel the size of a fishing rod. In my job at the time we had to contactable at all times, so had to lug this about, however were only allowed to use it in the direst of emergencies as the costs were so high.

I had the half brick, about half the size of the Motorola grey brick. Cost about £300 to buy, line rental was about £30 per month and I’m sure calls were about 50p odd per minute. I remember I still used my phone card unless I couldn’t leave the block or it was urgent. There used to be banks of payphones outside the hall at ADT as it was then. Think this was about 89/90

Thank you. Certainly one of my most satisfying sales. I feel I have earned this one.

Phone cards. Thinking you were clever because you had a mobile..but at £300 odd to buy and £30 month plus calls at 50p per min...maybe not so clever. The butterflies when you knew you had got something cheap. Quick knockdowns. Selling stuff to main dealers to a sales manager who had forgotten more than you knew. Arguing over a fiver for a replacement log book Cash Glasses guide being the "bible" and Cap being the "black book' Phrases like "behind book" and "into book" being commonly used. The local "watchmaker" Bidding up your own car with the auctioneer. Selling it with a nod. No warranties, no comebacks. All round. Being genuinely excited about opening the new auto trader.

Not the kind you lot are thinking off.....even better! The Porsche submarine I wrote about.. Well, it took a lot of work, but it was actually a real gem once it was buffed up and ready to roll. A minter really. Didn't cost much to sort in the end, just a lot of time and skinned knuckles. First lead makes an appointment, rolls up and bang, full price right away. Sold within a week at a good profit. Happy!!

I had an iPhone 7 and my son had a Galaxy 8 We took exactly the same photos to compare them. There was no comparison. The Galaxy was in a different league. I believe the Huawei Pro models are a step up again. I have an iPhone XR now. Its on a par with Samsung and Huawei models from 2/3 years ago. But it is entirely adequate for car images and videos. I can't change because everything I have is Apple. Android phones are simply better, but I could never switch back to PC from Mac, thats the killer I guess.

Unless you are a skilled photographer and have an in depth knowledge of digital processing, a high end Dslr camera will not get you the best results. I own several high end Dslr cameras as my "other job" is photography related. However, I use a smart phone to take my car photos as its a lot quicker and easier and gives excellent results relative to effort. iPhones ...apart from the very latest X models do not have brilliant cameras, Samsung and Huawei are better. Dslr cameras are designed mainly to capture digital imagery in raw format for manual processing in a digital dark room and this is where they excel. To first capture the best raw data you need to have the knowledge and skill to set them up correctly relative to the conditions and circumstances. A high end smartphone will give better results for most people as they are doing all the setting and processing for you. The same applies to video. A full frame Dslr is capable of capturing Cinematic quality video in the right hands, but most people will do better with a smartphone or Go-Pro.

Another good thing when they travel a long distance is that they are already invested in the car. I can't really remember any customer travelling a long distance and failing to buy. I love it when people travel a long way. The only times I can remember not selling a car to the first viewer is when they have been local and not had to make significant effort. I never allow anyone to just "pop round" to view a car. I always ensure they have to make some effort and they are viewing on my terms, not theirs.

It doesn't always work. I also have a good spec low mileage BMW 4 series at a great price which people should travel for, but I can't give it away.