eBay: The Missing Manual

Selling on eBay Motors

When you list a car in the local classifieds, your marketing reach is only as wide as the paper's subscriptions. When you list a car on eBay, you have the potential to reach 10 million buyers who are browsing the site looking for a deal. eBay may thus be able to help you get a faster sale, a better price—or both.

Note

eBay Motors isn't just for cars. There are categories for motorcycles, boats, RVs, scooters, airplanes—just about any transportation with a motor. You can also list vehicle parts and accessories on eBay Motors.

Revving Up

Before you can sell on eBay Motors, you have to be a registered seller on eBay (Section 5.4). Beyond that, there's no separate registration needed to sell a car.

Tip

Don't make selling a car the first thing you ever do on eBay. Buyers are wary of zero- or low-feedback sellers offering high-priced items. Spend some time on the site and build up your feedback (Section 2.1) before you try to sell a car or other big-ticket item.

You do, however, have to do some research before you list. To make this easy, eBay has created a Sell Your Vehicle Checklist. Print it out and fill it in offline to save time and frustration during the listing process. You'll find the checklist, shown in Figure 8-6, at http://pages.motors.ebay.com/sell/Sell_Your_Vehicle_Checklist.pdf.

Here's what the checklist covers:

• Vehicle information. This section includes your car's unique vehicle identification number (VIN); year, make, and model; engine size; transmission ...