How do you avoid potential buyers from wanting to sit around and bullcrap about the car all day? I have potential buyers that schedule in a whole day to come look at my car but I don't have the time to sit here and bull crap about it all day.. My opinion is, I'll set the car outside and you can spend all day looking at it, crawling all over it if you want, but I am NOT going to sit there all day with you and answer questions about it for 6 hours... What do they think I'm gonna do, schedule one buyer per day to look at it? When I bought the car myself, I spent 1/2 hour looking it over, took it for a test drive and made a deal.. Heck, you can look at the motor and rear end and tell I have 1/2 the asking price in that alone.

 

Don't know what to tell ya dude. I basically did what you did, but made the guy give up his entire lunch hour and maybe a little more. After all, I flew all the way from Miami to Portland, got a motel, rented a car and drove 300 miles to get there. Six years ago we were in a different market. At the time, he supposedly had a serious buyer from Los Angeles willing to pay his firm asking price. First come, first serve. Bottom line, wrote out a check before I left and trusted him with the rest. I would not suggest you try anything like that today. Just be glad you have people coming to look at it and use some salesmanship.

 

1 - Make up an excuse ahead of time that is plausible and non offensive.

2 - When they make their appointment on the phone, tell them you have such and such a commitment (use your excuse).....say 2-3 hours hence from their desired appointment time. This does 2 things, it gives you the chance to politely reaffirm they had better well show up on time, and it gives you a way to control the sales process in a timely manner that suits you.

3 - Learn how to qualify your prospective buyer by asking direct questions and reading their answers. "Real" buyers won't get insulted......they'll recognize you are a real seller, and things will move along nicely (and a lot faster) from there.

4 - If you think you are getting led down that direction, use the excuse, ask them for the sale again (hopefully you've already softly done so 3-4 times beforehand after you've gauged their reaction to your car), and if you get nowhere, simply put the car away while they are standing there. Even a semi-knowledgeable novice buyer, with a modicum of due diligence under their belt, will know in 60 minutes of eye balling if the car is what you said it was, and if it is right for them. The rest just comes down to the price.

I've done this for a living for 21 years.

 

Selling a Corvette can be a very unpleasant experience. I have bought and sold a few over the years and much prefer buying. Anything longer than 2 hours to go over a car is unreasonable. You get all sorts of "experts" crawling over it and many really aren't serious buyers. I brought a real nice 64 coupe to Carlisle to sell in the Corral and it absolutely ruined my weekend. I was so tired of the same questions, I almost decided not to sell it. I finally did, but for far less than I was asking.

It's just an unpleasant situation. Once you find an interested buyer who appreciates the car, all the unpleasantness will end. You just need to take a deep breath and have some patience. Good luck

 

I like them ideas..
I can tell the potential buyer that I have scheduled a few people to look at it that day and he has from blank time to blank time to look it over.. And with no accepted offer and/or down payment, the car is still open to sell

Thats exactly how I felt the other day.. I was ready to hire a 3rd party company to sell it for me..

 

Part of selling cars is putting up with the idiots' BS. I'd love for people to buy (or not) as efficiently as I do, but people are basically a PIA and Corvette people are simply worse. When I go look at a car I have a cashier's check with the seller's name on it, or cash. I do my thing and I either buy it or I don't.

I just sold a car that took a couple hours looking at it, a call the next day to decide on it, another visit to discuss payment options, days of watching the banks figure out wire transfers, another visit to complete payment, and 3 different dates for picking it up. Sometimes thats how it goes. If you want to sell, thats it.

I'll tell you one thing: Id rather deal with people wanting to hang around more than the a$$hles that stand me up! Those are the ones that make me crazy.

As far a "6 hours" thats just insane. Once a couple hours go by and they are just using you as a clubhouse, you tell them you have an appointment and thats the end of it. No problems.

 

I think you are losing sight of the fact that your car might be the first Corvette for the potential buyer. You should expect him/her to be somewhat excited over the prospect of owning one. A question/answer session is reasonable and should be expected.

 

Go pro and hire a booth babe!!!

- edit for fun q&a with the booth babe -

Q: Are the numbers matching?
A: Well, I have some nail polish and a bikini that matches the interior!

Q: Any sort of body work I should be aware of?
A: Sir, I'm offended! These are all natural!

Q: What's the rear ratio?
A: I like to think I'm open minded!

--- Forum Members GO!