When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I've bought and sold a few cars/motorcycles off of ebay and here's what I usually look for first. As a buyer I will go to the "Buy it now" listings first, to get an idea what they are looking for. Dealers though, will usually throw a crazy number out there to lure a sucker in, so I will narrow it further to private sellers. As a seller, I would ask a few thousand more than I want to sell it for (Buy it now) and set my reserve a few thousand under or have the "Make an offer" option. I'm sure others do it a different way, but that's how I go about in on ebay. If you get an offer that's close, you can always send them a message after the auction closes and try to wheel and deal on a price. That's probably how the majority of these deals are done. Good luck!
I've sold a '53 Studebaker (my avatar), a '00 Jaguar XK8 and am trying to sell an '84 Vette. For cars worth less than $10k, like the 84, I do an auction starting at about 15% of my reserve. The bids were $500 from the reserve, and I'm going to wait until closer to Spring to relist the 84. Auctions seem to generate more interest, and less expensive cars don't take that long to get close to the reserve.
For cars above $10k, like the Jaguar and Studebaker, I did a buy it know with the best offer. This way, you only get legitimate offers, and can negotiate the price. Also, you don't have to wait for the reserve to be met, which can take awhile if they are $100 per bid. Another thing is that there are usually more fraudulent bidders than fraudulent offers.
There are many other methods, and I don't sell nearly as much as some, but this is what has worked for me. No matter which you choose, don't forget to send a message to all the bidders or declined offers if your car doesn't sell. Both of the cars I sold did not sell during the listing; they were both by second chance offers after the listing ended. GLWS