I can’t really explain why, but I’ve always found the idea of trading vehicles a bit odd. I understand that selling a car and then buying another is really not much different than trading, but there’s just something about swapping vehicles that feels… odd. This person has a good car; why are they getting rid of that good car? Maybe they like your car better — sure, that’s fine — but it still makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just being closed-minded. Anyway, I’ve sold lots of vehicles over the years, and oftentimes, folks strapped for cash will send me the question “Any trades?” Or some will outright offer something. Especially over the recent months during which I have been selling my vehicles in preparation for a move to LA (which is now about halfway complete), trade talks have been on the upswing. Some of those offers have been bizarre; so let’s take a look at them, and then I’d love to hear from you some of the stranger things you’ve been offered for your vehicle.
Let’s get to the stuff in the headline: Yes, a literal AR-15 rifle. America — what a place!
A Pontiac Fiero And An AR-15 For My Chevy Tracker
This one is in response to the Chevy Tracker I’ve got listed, which has somehow not sold yet despite being an amazing piece of off-road machinery. Behold the message:
This person wants to trade me both a Pontiac Fiero — a mighty fine 1980s mid-engine sports car from General Motors — and an “ar15 300 blackout.” I’d love a Fiero:
As for an AR-15 300 Blackout, I honestly don’t even know what the terms after “AR-15” mean, so I looked them up, and found this:
The 300 Blackout (300 BLK) was designed by Remington/AAC to create a reliable, compact .30 caliber round for the AR platform that uses a standard bolt and magazine. 300 Blackout is optimized for suppressed fire with heavy bullet subsonic loads but can also be used with supersonic ammunition when extra range is needed. The twist rate will work well for subsonic and supersonic loadings alike and there is typically no need for an adjustable gas block when switching back and forth between the two loadings. All these specifications come together to create a round that is great for home defense, law enforcement / military use, as well as hunting.
So the “300” refers to the .30 caliber rounds, and the Blackout is a range of weapons offered by Wilson Combat:
Anyway, these things are worth about two grand new; I’m not sure what they’re worth used, mostly because I don’t really care. I’m pro-Fiero, but not particularly interested in owning an AR-15.
A Literal Houseboat For My Chevy Tracker
Recently a gentleman named Dane offered to trade me his houseboat for my Chevy Tracker. Out of curiosity, I asked to see it. Check it out:
It appears to be a bit of a fixer-upper, but I do like the wood tiles on the walls:
I am honored to have been offered a living quarters in exchange for a vehicle I bought for $700, but I don’t need a houseboat.
God I love how random that trade offer is, though. A houseboat!
A Nice Chevy Suburban For My Chevy Tracker
I actually got one offer that I considered. Check it out:
I inquired further about the condition of this rust-free1995Â Suburban. Here’s what Phillip told me:
V8 4×4 auto, she has a replaced engine and rebuild transmission sits stock from 1995 no rust get a lot of compliments on the body shape being how old bought in Vegas from the mechanic who swapped the engine out270k some miles engine was swapped about 60k ago should last for a bit on the road pretty reliable, she needs a little work but she runs daily driver
A daily-driven, rust-free tow vehicle! I won’t pretend like I wasn’t at least a little intrigued. I mean, the thing looks great:
But alas, rust free Suburbans abound in my new home out west, plus I need to get rid of vehicles, not trade them for bigger ones.
A Rusty Jeep For A Rusty Jeep
I recently sold my 1958 Willys FC-170 in preparation for my move out west, and I received some pretty good trade offers, including this rusty Jeep J4000, which I definitely wouldn’t have turned down if it had more actual metal
This guy offered me some “shop equipment”:
And this person, Scott, I’m just mentioning because he did the classic Facebook Marketplace move that tends to drive people crazy. I’m of course referring to the “punctuation-less one word message”:
Trades
A Chevy Caprice Wagon For My Lexus LX-470
You remember my 2001 Lexus LX-470? The nicest and most expensive car I’ve ever owned? (see above). Well, that thing brought in some nice offers before I eventually sold it for $7,200 — including this one:
Honestly, this Caprice is clean:
Someone even offered a five-speed “cateye” Chevy Silverado!
The “Cateye” Silverado is this one, by the way:
A five-speed truck is a tempting thing.
A Boat For My ‘Stolen’ Willys FC-150
Remember that red 1958 FC-150 I bought for two grand without a title or VIN plate? The one I joked about having been “stolen”? Well, before I sold the thing for five G’s, I got a few good trade offers, including this one for a “50s Willys Project Truck”:
And this one for a 1953 Chevy pickup “3800 model”:
But the crown jewel of trade offers for my “stolen” Willys was this boat:
Behold:
I just love the confidence there; I didn’t even respond to confirm that I’m considering trades at all, and I certainly didn’t say anything about having access to water, but this guy sent over a whole album of boat pictures. Bold. Random. I love it!
A Bunch Of Random Cars For Trade
I’ve also gotten various vehicle-trade offers, of course. For my Chevy Tracker, someone offered a 1998 Lexus LS400:
That’s this car, by the way:
Someone also offered a “partial trade” involving a 2005 Jeep Liberty:
I actually quite like the Liberty, and if Drue had offered a manual model, I may not have been able to resist.
For my Holy Grail Jeep Grand Cherokee — the rare five-speed manual one shown below — someone offered me a Grand Cherokee.
Specifically, it was a person named Jovanni offering me a WJ:
I do like a WJ, but they’re all automatic, and Chrysler autos haven’t been known for their longevity in these vehicles.
What Trade Offers Have You Gotten?
So the various car models are fairly typical trade offers, but an AR-15? A HOUSEBOAT? Another boat? It’s all so random that I just love it. I’d love to hear about the strangest stuff you’ve been offered in exchange for the car you’re trying to sell.
I sold a Honda Nighthawk on FB a few years ago and I got multiple trade offers for AR-15s. It’s ALWAYS AR-15s. I don’t make the rules.
I was selling a clapped out E30 318i about ten years ago, and was offered a running, driving Beetle for it. That ended up being the deal of the century (especially since I’m an insane aircooled enthusiast and have owned about 50 of them).
I probably would have taken the Fiero and the gun, sold the gun and got additional Fiero.
Had a 53 Chevy for sale, making room in the driveway. Ad clearly stated cash only.
The trade offers were fast and furious. The best one, I have a rust out shell of a Beatle with no motor, trans, axles, tired, rear seat only. Mint, you want to trade?
Had someone show up to buy it. They actually paid more than it advertised for as it was in good shape. He expected a roller, not one that moved under it’s own power.
Who’d want a 3.7 anything?
I had a 3.7 ’06 Dakota that got its best MPG hauling my college stuff 2 and a half hours TO college…..
And that was the 3.7’s only redeeming quality.
Liberty’s are also hilariously light in the rear end. I slid taking one out of a shop I work at, driving at idle…. never trusted one since, even though I’d love to own a diesel for no other reason than “it’s a US market Jeep diesel”.
There’s a pretty giant torque difference between a 3.7 gasser and a 2.8 diesel in the Liberty – I don’t think they are especially light compared to anything else. Not saying the 3.7 is a good engine, mind you.
My 2.8 diesel Colorado gets light in the rear end all the time, but has the modern traction control to keep it going straight(ish). Torque has that effect on RWD vehicles.
Come on- Look at that houseboat! Rust and dilapidation galore! It is literally the SS David Tracy!
I’m really only surprised you didn’t get more gun trades, perhaps some gun+precious metal trades. There are a lot of “preppers” who try to avoid using cash for any large purchase and do a lot of trading in silver, gold, firearms, and ammunition. Given that you are getting rid of older 4WD vehicles, I’d expect that sort of buyer to be interested.
If you were to get into guns and go try to sell one on a message board or at a gun show, you’d see a lot of trade offers there.
I once had a guy offer to trade me nothing.
I drove 2 hours to meet the guy. During the course of the test drive he tells me that he has bad credit so he can’t get a bank loan. He would totally make payments to me on time, though. He was also an out of state contractor only in the area for a job.
I don’t even remember if I stopped to let him out of the car or just shoved his useless self out while moving. This was like 15 years ago and I still hope that guy can’t get a bank loan.
The only trade I’ve ever made was a ’93 244 for my ’94 855. I’d been the second person to repair the 850’s front end (I bought it in the dark, in Maine, in January, with a crunched maroon hood and one headlight, and threw Craigslist/forum-scrounged black hood, header panel, and headlight on there and left the trim pieces missing), it had rust creeping over one wheel arch from a shoddy repair I’d underestimated (…in the dark…), and the foamy oil wasn’t just a clogged PCV tube, it was coolant. I admit, I did the ol’ unfortunately-moisture-trapping spray-foam-and-duct-tape routine to fill a hole, fully disclosing what was underneath. Oh, and the engine bay was full of mud (a badge of honor from managing to get down a back road during mud season), the hatch was a bastard to open, the driver’s seat was from an S/V70 and a slightly different shade of beige and more importantly was stuck slightly too far back so I had to move my entire lower body to work the clutch, and… did I mention it had almost no brakes after a front caliper gave up as I was trying to sell it? Even the parking brake didn’t work very well. Battery was on its way out, too. Refueling for the last time was a calculated risk.
God, Vincent was a piece of shit, in hindsight. The throttle pedal bracket broke before I even had a chance to get the headlight replaced, as you’ll hear in that video when I signal. Best shifter I’ve ever felt, though, and probably the second-best clutch (which iirc allegedly had ~20k on it, so, makes sense, but it was well-adjusted too).
Oh, hey, I completely forgot about the time I absent-mindedly forgot to push in the clutch all the way, jerked the drivetrain on its mounts, snapping the starter’s corroded-ass ground strap, and replaced it with some bent wire until I went looking for photos. Don’t buy a fucking car in the dark in Maine in January.
Aaanyway, the guy with the 240 knew about most of this and was still happy to buy my wagon, and it worked out perfectly – the clutch shattered into a godzillian fragments the day after the trade (which I was fine with), it took my friend’s uncle’s friend months to get it replaced ’cause he was waiting on parts for someone else’s OBS Ford that was stuck on his lift, the bumper hella butt-ass fell off, and then a van spun me into a guardrail on the highway… and that was it for Serenity.
Right, what was I saying? I participated in an even trade once and sort of made up for an initial poor decision driven by, of course, emotion as well as the sunk cost fallacy of having driven up to Maine. Everyone involved in both transactions deserved everything we got. (I think I paid $750 for that 855.)
(Well, not everything. I forgot my tapes! I hope dudeguy enjoyed 1984 until the player ate it. Top Jimmy cooks, Top Jimmy swings!)
You’re hitting us up for money while providing free marketing for AR-15s? Not cool.
I found myself with an extra clothes dryer. Placed an ad in the paper: $40 or trade for something more interesting. Ended up with a Datsun 710 you started with a spoon and burned as much oil as gas.
I was offered a Sonor base drum and two tom-toms, plus a Fender Dual Showman amp for my wrecked but still drivable 59 Galaxie. I took the trade,and eventually made a small ptofit. The guy who git the car stripped the body off,shortened the frame and called it a dune buggy.
Clumsy thumbs,forgot to proof. Profit,and got, not git.
I’d trade my wife’s 2011 Ford Fiesta for a life free from ever working on a Ford Fiesta again.
Not gonna lie, the only surprising thing about the AR-15 being offered on trade, was it being offered for the Tracker, instead of any of the many Jeeps.
I once worked for a domestic franchise dealership whose owner advertised he would trade for anything except “Live Chickens”. They did give trade-in credit for: lawn mowers,RC cars, televisions, cattle, knives, coin collections and lots of firearms. I remember a Thompson machine gun traded in one time. Needless to say this dealership no longer has this policy.
I was selling a ‘93 SHO in 2007, and someone offered me a ‘designer’ watch, which they claimed they bought during a Vegas winning streak. I sincerely doubt it was genuine, and my watches at the time were serving me well. Besides, why are a car and a watch considered equivalent?
A Rolex sure, a Rollex nope.
Now, I know this is going to come as a huge surprise, but it was rumored this lady did a lot of meth.
Insert shockediamshocked.gif here.
Back in 2020 I imported a 1991 Honda Beat, which I ended up trading for a bone-stock 2003 Honda S2000 with 215k miles.
I’ve only put about 4k miles on the S2000 since. Had to replace the starter at one point, and it burns a little oil (VTEC bro), but it’s been great otherwise!
Well a few tidbits;
1. Trades avoid the tax man and if both parties are happy no harm no fouk.
2. You are in the midst of moving and downsizing. Any trade that doesnt include moving services is a no go.
3. A boat trade in your case is a bad idea. But dont discount the idea of a boat in LA. IF you can find a decent liveaboard in a decent marina it is better and cheaper than a crappy apartment.
“No harm no fouk.”
So, we’re getting an edit function exactly when, again?
I thought it was deliberate. A badder version of foul?
A goofy dog sidekick woyld help drive the ‘plot’ of that 80’s movie.
Counterpoint: What if you kept the car, and got another car?
[insert galaxybrain.gif here]
So many to choose from. I’ll start with a couple of trades that were successful and move on to the… others.
Successful trade number one: my ’95 Corolla I purchased for a ’94 F-150. The Corolla was quite a bit nicer appearance-wise, but I needed a pickup within a short amount of time and it ended up being an excellent work truck for quite a few years that I really never had an issues with. This is how trades are supposed to work.
Successful trade number two: a new roof on my 40 x 14 chicken coupe for a ’69 Mercedes 230. That car was probably the worst I’ve ever had in regards to trying to sell. I lost track of how many people called, would talk about how bad they wanted it, and then pull a no-show. Trade offers were also abundant. One such offer, a new Snap-On tool box I said yes to, then turned into a another no-show. Other offers included a truck-mounted snow-blower, a “collectable” shot-gun, a garden tractor, a super sketchy conversion van that looked like someone had died inside of, a fiberglass boat hull, some really shitty-looking shop tools, and a’69 Mercedes 250 in much worse condition. Finally, one guy offered roofing work for it, and I took him up on his offer. Except he turned into a no-show which was surprising since he actually had bought the shingles and necessary materials and delivered them all. I paid for everything and enjoyed what was apparently a sizeable contractor discount. Then another guy who bought a ’91 Brougham from said he would be happy to do the re-roofing in exchange for the Mercedes only to later back out. About a year later, another guy showed up to buy my ’93 Oldsmobile Delta Ninety-Eight Regency Elite and inquired about the Mercedes. Turns out he was also a roofer, but couldn’t get to until the next spring. Low and behold, him and his old man showed up several months later and did a wonderful job – it’s still sealed up and looks good 10 years later.
Trade offers for that previously mentioned ’94 F-150 (which I eventually did get my $500 back out of): an ancient laptop, multiple random paint colors in gallon cans that were all unopened, a collection of unpainted bumper covers, and some random lawn equipment.
Trade offers for my ’66 Biscayne (which I still have): a pile of rusty ’56 Hudson parts, more random lawn equipment, a very rusty ’78 Spitfire, an old console stereo and a bunch of 8-track tapes, and by far the most interesting one… “massage” services (raised eyebrow emoji goes here).
Trade offers for my ’59 Cadillac (of which there were many more than listed here): a rusty shell of a ’38 Studebaker sitting in a field, a ’78 Thunderbird which looked like a total shitbox yet only needed “a few things”, and several offers of very nice looking classic cars which I happily would’ve traded for. The only problem with that last offer was they all stemmed from some poor kid who kept thinking he had found these amazing buys on Ebay and was going to purchase one to trade me for the ’59 Cadillac. The amaze-buys were all scams, and rather obvious ones at that. After a lot of back and forth and figuring out just what exactly was going on, he offered me his mom’s “kinda newer Camry”, which he was pretty sure she would let him have cause she was thinking of getting something new. Overall was quite the incredible display of desperation to buy.
And just think, that was all from Craigslist, much of it from the flip-phone era! I’ve kind of moved on from the wheeling and dealing days, so I think I’m going to just skip the Facebook Marketplace experience altogether. As a wiser man than me once said, “I’m getting to old for this shit”.
Since you’re posting here right now, I’m assuming you passed on the “massage” services – that was probably a sting.
Correct! I did show the emails to my wife though – she found the whole situation to be hilarious. That said, I actually think the “services” offer was related to an apartment I was trying to rent out around the same time. There was a lady that knew the couple who were moving out and for some reason felt very entitled to rent this particular place. After doing the briefest of due diligence and finding just so many red flags, I politely let her know that I would not be renting the apartment to her. Shortly thereafter she started leaving voicemails alternating between crying about getting kicked out of her current place and variations on a sultry “I’ll do Annneeething if you’ll let me live in that apartment”. Based on the timing of it all, there was a solid chance this was the same person offering her “services” for the car. Now, I know this is going to come as a huge surprise, but it was rumored this lady did a lot of meth.
Trading is such a bizarre phenomenon. Like, what are the odds that the thing that you’re trying to get rid of just so happens to be the thing that the other person really needs? Just exchange money and use it to buy what you want.
It reminds me of being a little kid with no money. “Would you trade one of your Ninja Turtle action figures for my Ghostbuster action figure and a container of slime?”
I’ve had a couple of good trades with musical instruments.
Who said anything about “needs”?
“Wants” is what a trade is all about.
I am not a trade guy but my father is the master of old farmer bartering. About 20 years ago, a guy gave my dad a truckload of corn to be paid for whenever (they had known each other for decades). A while later, the guy mentioned that he needed a radiator for an International Harvester truck engine. Dad had a schoolbus with an IH engine. The rad went for a partial trade. a few weeks go by and buddy comes back looking for fenders and a hood from the bus because his father in law had backed a tractor into the truck.
I don’t usually entertain it, but I once traded a motorcycle I was asking $4k for, for an F150 and a Sebring. Both needed very minor work, got the Sebring on the road for like $50, sold it for $2200 in like an hour, and then The F150 I think I sold for about the same after a bit more work. Came out a couple hundred ahead of where I wanted to be, so it was a win win. Dude wrecked the bike after I think it was 5 days, he was fine, bike not so much.
Buddy, with a Fiero and an AR15 you are 2/3 of the way to an 80’s movie. Just need a mullet-ish wig. Plot is optional.
Nothing could hold him from getting revenge… not even the plot!
Steve Action stars in “A Kill to Die For”!
I haven’t sold enough cars to get any crazy trades but I did get an advance fee scam when I sold a bicycle on Craigslist.
FWIW that .300 BLK AR-15 you were offered was almost definitely not a Wilson Combat and was more likely a $500 Anderson “poverty pony” or built up from parts. Good thing you didn’t bite, standard configuration AR-15s are banned in California
Also, .300 Blackout is the full name of the cartridge that particular AR15 takes. The Blackout series is the brand from Wilson Combat… they may or may not be chambered for .300 Blackout. There are a fair number of .30 caliber rifle cartridges that have .300 in the name (like .300 Winchester Magnum).
Joe is right on all points above.
I once owned a 2005 Accord coupe, but quickly got bored with the automatic. So I put up a feeler specifically for trade, back when Craigslist was king for car deals. I got TONS of random offers for all sorts of junky cars, industrial equipment etc, but eventually got one I couldn’t resist: an LS-swapped 1983 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Drove it for the last two years of college, teaching myself to fix things as they failed. Still own the truck, never missed the Accord.