Stock Pricing

[Mark101 536]

How often do you guys increase stock pricing?

I regularly read about reducing the price of sticky stock to somewhere close to cost in the hope of a quick exit but I think there may be an alternative.....

I have tried it before and it worked or was I just lucky?

Thinking about it logically, every day fresh lookers view our stock and some don't want the cheapest, some aren't prepared to travel very far and some just want a set of wheels quickly and whether it is £200 more is irrelevant?

For example, I have a BMW 118I Sport Cab on a 10 plate 61k with 1 former and FSH, advisory free MOT and 3 Months top warranty included, trouble is that it is in a particularly subjective colour (Cashmere Silver).  I had more shouts on it at £7,295 than I did at £6,795 - so clearly the price is not the issue (within reason).  I can't change the colour and the car drives flawlessly (you know when a car is right); So today, I have increased the price to £6,995 and I will sit and wait for that one person.  I have reviewed all my stock and increased the pricing, except on two PX's which are price driven (under £1k).

I am just waiting for someone to say, "oy m8, I woz watchin that car at £x and the price az gun up."  Can't wait to say, "why didn't you buy it then."

Thoughts?

Edited May 30, 2018 by Mark101

[EPV 631]

You have to experiment and see what happens! Have read a few stories of people increasing the price and it going out the next day 

[SC Derby 259]

We've done it before and it's worked, not everytime mind.

 

[MattR 177]

Sometimes works, sometimes doesnt. I've had the call several times after I have put a price back up requesting a sale at the lower price. I have done because if I was prepared to sell it for that a day before, I'm prepared to sell it for that today!

[Area 51 33]

Possibly work! There are always some out there who wish to pay what they feel "something" is worth, they are the opposite of the cheeky beggars who want to chip everything down in price.. sometimes too cheap = its got a problem in buyers eyes and they pass it over.

Autotrader and ebay perpetuate the "race to the bottom" pricing strategy.. however if your Beemer is straight as you say and you like it (know them/being in trade etc) then give it a go at a better price.. should attract a nicer/smarter punter.. the race to the bottom/cheap as possible scenario can/may only attract buyers who want £10k vehicle for £1k etc.. and will scream at you when the screen washers dont work because they are full of falling tree sap!..

 

Keep us updated, as I do feel youre on the right track.. no one here (I guess) wants to sell cheap all the time as AT and ebay would have us do... "suggested selling price"... ?? What is it Jim Royal used to say???

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Area 51

[Mark101 536]

8 minutes ago, Matt Reid said:

Sometimes works, sometimes doesnt. I've had the call several times after I have put a price back up requesting a sale at the lower price. I have done because if I was prepared to sell it for that a day before, I'm prepared to sell it for that today!

I agree Matt, I would honour the previously advertised price if mentioned - however, at least they would try chipping me from an already increased price rather than the already discounted one.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Mark101

[NOACROSS 414]

Do ebay encourage being the cheapest?  No stupid price indicators on there that I'm aware of?  Certainly do on AT but then they've lost the plot.  Car Guru's do it too.  Waste of time in my opinion.

With regards to putting the prices up- we've done it in the past and has 'worked' but you wonder if the car was about to sell anyway.

One tip Autotrader always used to recommend years ago when I was with the idiots, is to go for the rounded up hundreds.  E.G. Like your BM Mark- put it up at exactly £7000 rather than £6995 as they said you'd catch lookers at the up to six grand ish budget and lookers at the 7k plus budget.

[BHM 994]

9 times out of 10 it doesn’t work BUT recently I’d had a Saab in stock for months. I removed the advert, rephotoed it, put it up £500 to 2500 and Bingo! Sold 2 days later. Before anyone thinks I’m talking the big talk I must stress that in my experience this is very very rare - I usually end up working for a pittance on sticky stock. 

Try upping the price, if you’ve got no interest in a fortnight it’ll need slashing to get rid of the bloody thing.

[justina3 518]

Don't think there is an answer to this one, its just suck it and see. 

I have never tried it myself. 

 

[Area 51 33]

5 minutes ago, NOACROSS said:

Do ebay encourage being the cheapest?  No stupid price indicators on there that I'm aware of?  Certainly do on AT but then they've lost the plot.  Car Guru's do it too.  Waste of time in my opinion.

With regards to putting the prices up- we've done it in the past and has 'worked' but you wonder if the car was about to sell anyway.

One tip Autotrader always used to recommend years ago when I was with the idiots, is to go for the rounded up hundreds.  E.G. Like your BM Mark- put it up at exactly £7000 rather than £6995 as they said you'd catch lookers at the up to six grand ish budget and lookers at the 7k plus budget.

I understand the ebay system is driven by algorithms; not my strongest forte.. it is ebay that use these to present buyers looking for items (any) with a best match.. as over 60% of ebay searches are on mobile devices, the options to select a decent search criteria are well hidden or removed.. if you are using ebay on a desktop as probably most traders are here; sat a desk etc in office, they you see all the options (search by closest/colour/miles).. however I believe this is reduced on phones/tablets therefore its down to ebay (the algorithm) if your auction gets viewed.. I have read elsewhere that ebay "drives" the cheapest gets priority across their site... 

Never for one moment think these muppets have it tuned separately for ebay motors; to them a commission is a commission, therefore it is all about what generates this fastest

[Nick M.K. 574]

Works for me and what I also do is reschuffle my pictures and it can appear as a new stock unit (we don't display number plates - this is a MUST!)

I can't say if it works on a £2K car but it does on one that was £10500 and is now up at £11200. 

Also, when you have 3 similar vehicles and sell one you can comfortably increase the price of the two that are still in stock and put on AT's attention grabber on the sold car something like, "Thank you now sold" (this isn't a good idea every time though). 

You can always put a "Thank you now sold" on a car that you still have just in case it makes someone looking at your advert every day to finally pick up the phone and call you. No point trying that on a £1K car :-)

Some of you WILL question the morality or the transparency in all of the above but this is a very dynamic marketplace with multiple factors at play and if your pricing is "non-dynamic" it will ultimately cost you. Bought any Ryanair tickets lately??? 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Nick M.K.

[NOACROSS 414]

I look on ebay constantly and mostly on the iPad.  I search 'ending soonest' and 'newly listed', then 'accepts offers'.  Really don't think price comes into it, as I use all the drop-down menus for mileage, petrol, owners etc.  Same as I do with Manheim etc. Could be wrong.

 

[Lakeside 94]

I had one in the past, can’t rememeber which car, couldn’t shift it so dropped the price. Still had no interest so gave up and put it on a bid on eBay. Ended up selling for more than the original asking price.

[justina3 518]

Nearest first is my box of selection, we only sell low value stuff so couldnt care less what one is selling for 75 miles away 

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

1 hour ago, justina3 said:

Nearest first is my box of selection, we only sell low value stuff so couldnt care less what one is selling for 75 miles away 

 

 

You'd be amazed how far some people will travel to save £50. I sold a cheapie Honda Jazz on Sunday to a couple from about 40 miles away, they came in a Uber, showed me their Uber receipt (£80) and asked if I can reduce my price by it. I couldn't but gave them £30 off for asking nicely.

[justina3 518]

 

4 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

 

You'd be amazed how far some people will travel to save £50. I sold a cheapie Honda Jazz on Sunday to a couple from about 40 miles away, they came in a Uber, showed me their Uber receipt (£80) and asked if I can reduce my price by it. I couldn't but gave them £30 off for asking nicely.

i agree but as we are a sub 4k market dealer and we do all our own in house repairs, whilst people are quite happy to travel 40 miles 80 miles round trip however they soon turn into a nightmare when there is a problem however big or small demanding collection and delivery and everything else under the sun, i rather sell locally issues are easily sorted then.

 

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

1 minute ago, justina3 said:

 

i rather sell locally issues are easily sorted then.

The more miles between you and your buyer the less chance there is of you getting an actual comeback. You need a couple of legal disclaimers on your invoice that demand the vehicle to be returned to you for any work and that's it. Something along these lines: 

"I have been informed and I understand that I am fully responsible to return the vehicle to the seller's premises for any statutory repair work or in the event that I wish to exercise my statutory right to reject the vehicle."

[justina3 518]

25 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

The more miles between you and your buyer the less chance there is of you getting an actual comeback. You need a couple of legal disclaimers on your invoice that demand the vehicle to be returned to you for any work and that's it. Something along these lines: 

"I have been informed and I understand that I am fully responsible to return the vehicle to the seller's premises for any statutory repair work or in the event that I wish to exercise my statutory right to reject the vehicle."

Yep we have all that in our terms and conditions but no matter what you put in writing an idiot will always be an idiot i rather get the car in do the job done no fuss back to them less chance of it blowing up into a full blown argument,

However I am of the mindset that a problem solved quickly and without any fuss gives our garage the chance to shine, you can picture the story about the pub table, customer bought a car from xyz now its got this wrong and that wrong all the garage want me to do is drive it back i am not driving it back its not safe, well you unlucky i bought my car from justin (the crossdresser) it had a fault they collected it sorted the fault delivered it back and even cleaned it, best form of free advertising you can get imo. 

As in life what ever works well for you. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

44 minutes ago, justina3 said:

...best form of free advertising you can get imo. 

As in life what ever works well for you. 

The paid advertising always worked better for me.

Don't get me wrong Justin, I've got a tremendous reputation and I am a victim of it. £885 for a DSG Clutch last week, £600 for a used Hyundai diff this week, £200 (yes, new gas R1234YF) for a BMW i3 aircon re-gas at 3 years old and a hundred other things you can think of that always get sorted for my customers. I've got great reviews, people read them and travel (many miles) and buy but if they were all local I'd been bankrupt by now. 

[grant8064 219]

...don't forget used cars aren't always going down in value. OK, i'll admit that is mostly what happens but spring this year quite a lot of stuff went marginally up in value or at least wasn't dropping much. We put up prices on some five door hatches because there simply weren't any on the market locally, they sold. Petrol SUV's during the great VW diesel moan, they got price increases, they sold. Sometimes there are valid reasons for increasing prices on stuff. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

1 minute ago, grant8064 said:

...don't forget used cars aren't always going down in value. OK, i'll admit that is mostly what happens but spring this year quite a lot of stuff went marginally up in value or at least wasn't dropping much. We put up prices on some five door hatches because there simply weren't any on the market locally, they sold. Petrol SUV's during the great VW diesel moan, they got price increases, they sold. Sometimes there are valid reasons for increasing prices on stuff. 

+1

 

[Scooby who 41]

On ‎30‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 8:06 PM, grant8064 said:

...don't forget used cars aren't always going down in value. OK, i'll admit that is mostly what happens but spring this year quite a lot of stuff went marginally up in value or at least wasn't dropping much. We put up prices on some five door hatches because there simply weren't any on the market locally, they sold. Petrol SUV's during the great VW diesel moan, they got price increases, they sold. Sometimes there are valid reasons for increasing prices on stuff. 

Bought 3 x 2015 Rav 4 diesel between Dec and Feb for in or around £11750, now the same car 6 months later is making at least a £1000 more! Cant seem to source any anywhere now either privately or from the trade. (BTW if anyone has one in Blue or black with under 65k I'm interested)

 

I sometimes find dropping a car 200 can get the phone ringing again but on a few occasions I have upped the price and got better results!

In the odd case you have the same individual with cash in the bank to spend, watching you car over the space of a month or two, no major hurry on them for whatever reason. They see it's there a while and when you are routently dropping the price they know its not selling, and will wait to see how low you will go. When price starts going back up they get interested

 

 

 

[Ask Pete 3]

On 30/05/2018 at 11:04 AM, NOACROSS said:

One tip Autotrader always used to recommend years ago when I was with the idiots, is to go for the rounded up hundreds.  E.G. Like your BM Mark- put it up at exactly £7000 rather than £6995 as they said you'd catch lookers at the up to six grand ish budget and lookers at the 7k plus budget.

I massively agree with this idea - adding just £5 means it comes up in searches with a max of £7k and in ones with a £7k min.  There is also the rare punter who likes the idea of people doing 'simple' prices.

[Nick M.K. 574]

I tried the rounded pricing for a couple of years. It works well up to £5K. For dearer cars we appeared in more searches BUT we didn't get as many leads. The consensus was that the rounded price appeared "made up" where as a price like £10885 appeared to be carefully calculated to the last pound which some buyers believe means we analysed the market to price to stock very accurately. 

One thing which I don't understand is this: Why would everyone still end their price in '95 like 90% of the stock out there, why not '94, '90 or even '85.  You can beat thousands of offers of £3495 or £4995 for example and because most punters manage to chip a few pounds off the exact price is irrelevant. 

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

I tried the rounded pricing for a couple of years. It works well up to £5K. For dearer cars we appeared in more searches BUT we didn't get as many leads. The consensus was that the rounded price appeared "made up" where as a price like £10885 appeared to be carefully calculated to the last pound which some buyers believe means we analysed the market to price to stock very accurately. 

One thing which I don't understand is this: Why would everyone still end their price in '95 like 90% of the stock out there, why not '94, '90 or even '85.  You can beat thousands of offers of £3495 or £4995 for example and because most punters manage to chip a few pounds off the exact price is irrelevant. 

Ill test it as always end in a 95 here. Probably next week. Remind me if I haven't.