Yesterday was a weird day — one that involved me feeling quite a bit of guilt. You see, a gentleman who had seen my 1954 Willys CJ-3B for sale on Facebook Marketplace had told me he was quite interested; I told him the Jeep wasn’t finished, but once it was, I’d let him know. He gave me his number, and for months we stayed in touch so I could relay my progress. Yesterday, after agreeing to a price, this gentleman drove five hours (one way) to buy the Jeep, only to decide against it. It was a strange situation, and a great learning opportunity for both him and me.
To be clear: It’s totally OK if someone decides they don’t want to buy my car. I don’t hold that against this gentleman, but this was a situation quite different than my previous vehicle sales, so I wanted to share it. Plus we need more posts since yesterday was such a bad traffic day, so here it is.
This gentleman had seen my 1954 Willys CJ-3B for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $15,000, and was apparently keen to make it his. “I’m really interested and looking for cj3b from long time. I will [keep] this for all my life,” he told me, saying his father in India used to own the very same Jeep, down to the color and model-year. It was at around this time that I was starting to prepare for my wedding, and decided to keep the CJ-3B as my wedding vehicle. “If I sell it, I will call you. But I suggest you keep an eye out for others in case. I will keep an eye out as well,” I offered.
In the end, I ultimately decided to make the Jeep Wrangler YJ my wedding vehicle, and to part ways with the CJ-3B. This was for a few reasons: First, the CJ-3B was taking a while to get ready, and I had bigger fish to fry than to wrench on a Willys when I had so much other wedding planning to do. Second, when I found bondo on my CJ, I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid eventually replacing the entire body tub to make it a fully metal Jeep free from putty. I just don’t have time to go down that kind of rabbit hole.
So I reached back out to the gentleman who had been so keen to buy my CJ-3B and told him I was willing to part ways with the Jeep, but that it’d take me a little while to get it up to snuff. And so, after my wedding, I got to work, replacing the Jeep’s fuel tank, fuel pump, brake lines, brake master cylinder, wheel cylinders, and rebuilding the carburetor and replacing the shocks and a bunch of other bits.
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I was sure to let the prospective buyer know that I had discovered Bondo, and I generally wanted him to have a good idea of what condition the Jeep was in. So I made him this video:
Between that video and the photos of the Jeep in my listing (below), I figured the prospective buyer had a good understanding of what shape the Jeep was in, and of course I’d be happy to send more pics:
It took me a few months, but ultimately I got the Willys Jeep — which I bought last summer from a gentleman in San Gabriel, California who had told me the Jeep had been sitting a while — driving and stopping like a dream. Check it out:
Cruising in that Jeep was a true joy; that T90 three-speed just snicked up, to the right, and then up into second, then straight down into third with two satisfying SNICKS. The F-head motor sang a similar tune to its L-head “Go-Devil” older brother that I’d gotten used to in my 1948 Willys CJ-2A nicknamed “Project Slow Devil,” and the ride was charmingly bouncy. The entire world seemed to be looking as I drove down Roscoe Blvd in Van Nuys, California; there’s just something friendly about that Jeep’s styling that disarms the general public invites it to wave and yell “cool Jeep!”
I was reminded how much I miss Project Slow Devil:
Anyway, after showing this prospective buyer that the Jeep was running and driving like a dream and I was done wrenching on it, he asked me how much I’d sell it for. I reminded him that he’d replied to my $15,000 asking price on Facebook Marketplace; he replied with a $10,000 offer, saying he’s citing the bondo as the primary driver of the offer. I suggested $12, and in the end we wound up at $11,400 for a nicely running, driving, stopping Willys with a frame, engine, and transmission that had clearly been gone through in an older restoration, and some bondo on the rear quarters and other parts of the tub. It was a thoroughly OK CJ-3B. Not minty, not bad, but decent.
Truth is, I wasn’t even sure what the CJ-3B is worth; someone I’d nearly bought a CJ-5 from a few weeks back had seen the listing for my CJ-3B, and he told me it was a $15,000 Jeep. Between that and a bunch of online listings, I figured I’d start there, because why not?
Discovering the Bondo made it clear that 15 was too much, so when we agreed to $11,400, that seemed about right. Who knows how many of the above Willy CJ-3Bs (none of which are on the west coast, it’s worth mentioning) have some Bondo on their bodies, too.
Anyway, I really don’t know what the Jeep is worth, and I’m not really too worried about making X dollars, I just want to feel like I’m getting a fair deal in the sale. $11,400 is $4,100 less than the CJ-3B below that sold on Bring a Trailer. It’s nicer than mine, but it’s not an original creampuff (unless this vehicle is an M606 — and I don’t think this is — then this civilian Jeep’s body has been “militarized” with a shovel and headlight protection and extra footman loops); it’s unclear if the body has any filler:
I’m not one to point to Bring a Trailer and say “look, this one sold for that, so that’s what my car is worth!” but we agreed to $11,400, and looking at comps, it didn’t seem far off. But then the buyer showed up.
He’d rented a trailer and driven five hours south from the Bay Area to meet me in Van Nuys. We walked over to the Jeep and did a cold start so I could demonstrate the alacrity with which the Jeep fired up. The prospective buyer sat in the Jeep, drove it just a few feet in the parking lot, and then chatted with his friend for a while before telling me the Jeep is not as nice as it looked in pictures.
For five minutes, this prospective buyer lingered and didn’t know what to say. It seemed to me like he no longer wanted the Jeep; he told me he’d offer $9000.
I wasn’t upset by this, and honestly he might be right! Car-selling is a complex business, and it’s best not to take things personally. But I’d sent him videos and pictures of the Jeep, and he’d had ample opportunity to get more information on the vehicle prior to making the five-hour trek. We’d agreed to an $11,400 price, and to drive down and then try to negotiate another $2,400 off the price… it was just a little weird.
The vibes felt a little off. That’s not to say I need to get more than $9000 for this Jeep (at that price, I’d just about break even on what I paid for the Jeep and repair parts). Maybe that’s what it’s worth! Maybe that’s a good offer! I really don’t know. I agreed to take $11,000, and told the prospective buyer that I was trying to find comps to better understand if $9000 was a reasonable ask. I’d taken a bit off guard by the second round of negotiations, so I was looking into other decent, stock CJ-3Bs that had sold in the area.
I asked the duo if they could find a Jeep in this condition in this area for less than $11,000. “No, these are just so rare,” the friend told me. The prospective buyer told me he’d been looking for years for a decent, stock CJ-3B in California. This confused me a bit. “Given that it’s so rare, maybe it is worth $11,000. I mean, time matters, too. If you have to wait two years to get one in slightly better shape, is that worth it?” I said. In the end, I was willing to drop to $10,400, but the prospective buyer ultimately decided not to buy the Jeep. He drove five hours back home empty handed.
I don’t want to imply here that anyone screwed up. It’s clear to me that I could have done better providing more detailed photos of the Jeep, and it’s likely clear to this gentleman that in the future he should ask more questions before renting a trailer and driving five hours one-way. We both screwed up. It was a total bust.
But there’s a bright side, here. The bust means this gentleman didn’t end up owning a Jeep he didn’t want (sometimes a vehicle just doesn’t look as good in real life; that’s OK — I think this gentleman might want to just spend $15K-$20K on a cherry one), and it means I’ll be holding onto this CJ-3B for a while. Driving it around town after the duo from the Bay left reminded me why I’d bought the Willys in the first place. It is absolutely fantastic — a true joy that brightens even the cloudiest of days.
Anyway, that’s the whole article. Someone drove 10 hours round trip to see my Jeep, only to decide the price he’d agreed upon was, in his eyes, too much for the car he was now seeing in-person. He was apologetic for changing his mind, I was apologetic that I assumed he had a good understanding of the Jeep’s condition, and in the end we parted ways amicably. Me with one too many Jeeps and him with ten too-few hours. Alas…
I’ve had all kinds of goofy car buying/selling experiences.
One guy told me the car I was looking at was a California car its entire existence. I asked him why there were parking stickers from a Massachusetts community college on the windshield. He smiled and told me his friend gave him the pass just in case he came to visit. Shady MF.
On the selling side of the equation a guy agreed to buy the car but then told me I had to drive it 50 miles to his house and he’d drive me back. I said no. He offered me $50 more. I said no. He got mad and went on and on about how he had already told his wife he was coming home with the car. I shrugged watched him leave in a huff.
The one car I sold to a long distance buyer worked out well but was weird in its own way.
A couple had just relocated to the U.S. after doing an expat assignment in the Middle East an settled near Mt. Shasta in NorCal. We corresponded by email and phone before they came down to the Bay Area test drive the car. They liked the car and wanted to buy it but they would have to come back in a week. Asked if he could put a down payment on it to take it off the market. I said, “No.” What if the car were stolen or in an accident (I was driving it until the day it was sold)? That wasn’t a deal breaker so they arranged to come back in a week. The day before they were to pick up the car, they asked if I’d take a check. “No.” So they hit a bunch of ATM’s on the way to my place and handed me a paper bag of nearly $16k in cash. It was weird to count in out in front of them. It seemed like it took a hour. After that, I gave them the keys, the title, a CD-ROM with the repair manual and service records on it and an early GPS unit reset to the factory default. Then gave them a rec for a dim sum restaurant in the Sunset and they texted me saying how much they liked the restaurant.
Between the videos and pictures it seems like this Jeep was accurately represented. It was kind of BS to offer less on the spot, but maybe he didn’t know how to react when the Jeep wasn’t what he expected. This sounds like a suboptimal reaction to an honest case of unrealistic expectations.
It would be much worse if the Jeep wasn’t accurately represented. I had that happen last year when I went to look at an “easy project” Beetle for $3,000. When I went to see the car, it turned out the car hadn’t run in 6 years (because it ran out of gas at the precise moment the seller pulled into his parking spot), the engine was seized (seller claimed engine was recently rebuilt and needed minor work), the car was infested by several species of insects (obviously seller left this out), and the title was in the seller’s father’s name (but it is okay, I’ll just sign his name for him!). I drove 10 minutes to see the car, so I was only mildly annoyed that the guy misrepresented his car to this degree.
However, the seller informed me he had a guy driving up from Miami (a 4 hour drive) to buy the car if I didn’t buy it first. I’m not sure if this was a sales tactic or if there actually was a guy driving up from Miami, but the car was still for sale 2 months later (now for $700; I still didn’t want it at that price). If there was a guy from Miami, I imagine he was pissed. Buying cars is so much easier when buyer and seller are honest.
Holy crap Tracy…
!5K for that piece of rolling fecal matter?
LOL!
Time has value and for him to waste 10 hours to try to squeeze you for a bit more seems silly. During the height of the pandemic summer of 2020 me and a friend decided to each get a cheap convertible to cruise around together that summer. I got mine in about 2 weeks and paid asking. The older gentleman who sold it to me was pretty upfront and the car was as advertised. I probably could have haggled a few hundred but decided not to. My friend took the other approach to try to get the best deal and “win his transaction. It took him 8 weeks and by the time he got his ride it was the end of September with the best summer driving behind us.
Sounds like you did the right thing. I understand wanting a good deal, but its often not worth the hassle. Pay the guy what he wants and everyone leaves happy.
PS please do away with the swipe down style ads. The ones where they stay stationary and you need to swipe to scroll the article and cover them up. They are annoying on mobile and messed up the end of my post.
Anyway my friend caught Covid the following February and died. It might have been delta variant or whatever the deadly one was at the time. We never got to hang out that summer. I still have the car and haven’t really driven it much since. Long story short value your time never know when it’s going to end.
Back when you could buy an R32 Skyline GTS-t for four grand, I drove four hours to a dealer in Leeds to buy what looked like a nice one in the pictures.
From 50 feet I could tell it was not a nice one, bumper didn’t fit, rippled fenders, paint was terrible. I suspect they’d used pictures of another car. There was no point getting in to that with the dealer, and there was no way I was buying someone else’s old drift project for any price, so I turned around and drove the four hours home again.
I ended up using my Skyline budget to buy someone else’s old drift project MX5 instead, and that was a seven hour drive away, but cheap enough that the condition didn’t matter.
A couple of years ago I was looking at 2006/7 Europas, and drove three hours to look at one at a dealer. When I got there I walked around it once and knelt down at the front driver’s side to check the condition of the suspension. The bonded aluminium extrusion that the lowers wishbone mounts to was crushed from some clumsy twat jacking it up in the wrong place. The damaged part is bonded to the chassis, so no repair is possible. So I got up and left.
I bet the lower offer was intentional and premeditated. I bet he only brought $9k with him. Years ago when I was selling my ’74 Buick Apollo (which I have since bought back from the person I eventually sold it to), I had a guy show up all hot to trot. He was specifically looking for a Buick Apollo (which, weird, but OK). He had read everything I posted about it on oppositelock, back when it was still that lighting site’s off topic forum. He had me bring it to a shop for a PPI, which it did pretty well at. It wasn’t a perfect car, but it was a damn solid one that never left me stranded and was a solid 10-footer.
Then he hit me with an offer of 40% of my asking price, and could not understand why I was pissed off at him. He came up a little, but at that point I wasn’t interested in even talking to him.
He even messaged me after I pulled the ad when it sold for not my asking price, but what I expected to actually get for it, and demanded to know what I sold it for. When I told him, he called me a liar.
Bottom line, your guy took a gamble and lost when you didn’t immediately fold and take the lower offer. That’s not on you. You’ll sell it for a fair price, to somebody who isn’t going to jerk you around.
I had a similar thing happen to me like 20 years ago. Guy drove in from 2 states away with a trailer and like 70% of the cash. I needed to sell the car and took it, but it felt taken advantage of, since the buyer clearly never had any intention of paying the agreed price for the car. I wouldn’t feel one bit of remorse for not discounting it further.
That sucks. Unfortunately that’s exactly what he was counting on. David’s buyer too.
Better this outcome than David hauling the Jeep up to the prospective buyer with a no sale result. If it’s mechanically sound and the frame is solid, what’s a tub going for these days, $1200, $1500? You could swap and still come in under the original $15k ask depending on how much of the labor you’re willing to do yourself.
I’m of three minds here:
All in all, I think it was for the best.
As my momma said, “if you ever see an ugly man with a beautiful woman, it’s because he asked.”
Or maybe he’s very wealthy, she’s an escort, he’s “just a friend”, she lost a bet, he’s got something on her, she’s his actual niece,…
I had the exact thing happen to me selling a motorcycle. Ample photos, agreed price, 300 miles each way. Gets to the house, ride the bike, lowballs. Said we agreed to the price and if there was anything I misrepresented, we’ll negotiate. He couldn’t come up with anything, so he got in his truck and drove back to Houston…
I think this is also a bit of a cultural thing. The buyer couldn’t resist trying to bargain down on the offer and then he probably didn’t want to be seen being weak and meeting your counter there with his buddy. Also, not many folks that I know from India do much wrenching, I wonder if he realized that this project vehicle (which we know all of your cars are) was beyond what he could do on his own. I think you are correct saying he will end up paying a lot more for a cherry version.
“Guy” culture thing maybe, if it was indeed about face. If it wasn’t about face, but rather a bargaining technique, it was poor: you can have have a :no go” line, but you don’t start there. If you do have such a non-negotiable limit, you tell that to the seller up front that you don’t negotiate, and you don’t drag a friend and trailer so far away. Haggling in the marketplace can’t ever be personal. if you can’t close a deal, you do what DT and the anonymous gentleman in the article did: walk away amicably.
As to your second point, a lot of people come to the US from South Asia for white collar work, but a lot don’t. Shop on the corner of my street is run by Pakistani’s, working on everything from 70’s Detroit iron to late-model bimmers and lexi. There were a garage and a machine shop run by Bangladeshi and Punjabi families in a previous neighborhood. And from what i’ve seen at highway rest-stops, a significant percentage of our trucking is piloted by South Asians these days.
I don’t think either of you screwed up, and I don’t think it was a bust. I actually think it went fine.
Value is transactional/interactional, and context-specific, to a certain extent. BAT is great for “ballpark,” but it’s not set in stone.
You did the right thing by responding to his wavering. I’d even have gone down to $10k flat. What he discovered though, is that this was not the one. The gentleman does not seem short of funds. I like to say “price fixes everything,” but it didn’t in this case. Honestly…. I am glad there are people out there that do exactly what you did, and what he did.
Some people just do business that way when trying to buy a car.
Agreed, I think they were taught to always drive the better deal, no matter how little sense it makes.
It’s like George Costanza “I gotta make good time!”
Yup, its about winning a little more, getting the best deal. My dad is a serial classic car shopper. He says he’ll buy one when he gets a good deal, but his good deal is where the market was 30 years ago on the cars he’s looking at. He’s almost gotten had by scam listings a couple times because those are the only ones priced where he’s willing to buy.
MOOP’S!
Shit, you’ve shared so much about this Jeep here and on instagram that I would be confident in making an offer on it sight unseen. But this guy probably planned on the low ball offer from the start – got you cornered and decided to shoot his shot and save a few more bucks. I’m sure that works with plenty of sellers who just want to be rid of whatever they’re selling and “feel bad” because the guy rented a trailer and drove 5 hours.
How far he drove and that he rented a trailer are irrelevant. He could have flown out from Michigan to see it, or he could have walked a couple of blocks – the distance means nothing because you’re the guy selling the item and how far someone travels to you is their problem.
Very true! This jeep is more documented than 99.99% of used cars, If not a higher percentage. He can see how David did the repairs and also can go see David’s back catalog of years of jeep articles and videos to get a sense of his skills.
I suspect he knew all along that they would offer you less once they got there on the hope that you would feel sorry they traveled so far to get it. As with all vintage vehicles, you buy it now based on the cost to get it to top dollar condition. If the upper price is $13K and it takes $4K to get it there, then a $9k offer makes sense. Personally I would not have sold it for that. I think your offer of $10.4K was more than correct. As you said not all sales go the way you want.
I virtually guarantee he only brought $9k with him.
Not so sure. I have known a lot of Indians who walk around with a shit ton of cash in pocket. Like always…
Of course YMMV?
I’m not saying he couldn’t have gotten more, but I’ve dealt with people like this (they come from all backgrounds). They only bring their lower amount, and gamble that you’re desperate and will just take it.
Good point. And agreed.
I hate selling cars though.
And have cost myself many thousands over the last 50 years due to haggling, and a soft heart.
Plus the karma thing seems to always kick in when I go looking for a new toy in the negotiations for it…but if it’s a disappointment upon seeing it that’s another story, especially if the seller feels sketchy or has an insane asking price.
But I never cry poor, or do a ridiculous low ball offer…
YMMV as usual.
I’ve been an easy push sometimes, but sometimes they whack you so hard that I wouldn’t even sell it to them for a penny less than full price.
I set my prices with some wiggle room in there, but some people are just total jerks.
agreed
The other weird one is buyers trying to get you to negotiate for them. Lady came from fairly close and looked at a car I have listed for $6,800. She liked it. After a solid test drive and seeing pretty much every feature and minor issue, she asked if I’m willing to come down on price. I said “Well I listed it for $6800, and I have at least one other very interested buyer so I’m hoping to get $6800. But make an offer because I also don’t need to have this car forever.” She said ok, I’ll need to talk to my husband and headed home.
I’ve since talked to her on the phone, and again, she was trying to get me to start the negotiation. Lady, I already started the negotiation at $6800. Make an offer! At the end of the day I really would like to get at least $6k, preferably $6200. But, like I already told her, I want the car gone! I’d probably come down to $5800. But she’s the one who responded to my ad for $6800 so expecting me to just spit out a lower price is so odd!
What’s the lowest you’ll go?
Which needs to be countered with “what’s the most you’ll pay”?
Last time that was twice what I can afford, half what they were asking.
I’ve been on the other side. I had a seller of a house pull that shit with me – wanting me to bid against myself. “You and another bid are similar but we like your conditions better. We were hoping for “X” so could you raise you bid to that number?” Me, “UM, No.” Their agent was embarrassed to have to ask on their behalf. In my mind I thought we were done. Twelve hours later, their agent came back to my agent and said, “The house is yours if you still want it.”
It may have been presented to you in a weird way but that is just a seller counter offer. Its all part of the bargaining process. It does not matter if there was an actual “other” bidder.
They should really add bargaining and negotiating to the curriculum of high school economics courses (assuming they even offer such a thing anymore).
Been on both sides of this many times myself, too. Drove three hours to look at a ’93 SC Thunderbird that looked great in photos, but it turned out he had slapped a Maaco paint job on a clapped-out car and hadn’t even bothered to clean the interior. I made a lowball offer out of courtesy – and he explained that his bottom asking price was break-even for what he put in to try and make a quick buck on it. I should have completely walked away instead of even making an offer, so I was thankful he said no.
I bought my BRAT without even looking at it, with the rationale that it was so cheap that even after paying for shipping, if I didn’t like it I could just move on. Guess what? I’m moving on. I’m ok with eating a bit of a loss, and the BRAT will donate some helpful parts to my new GL project before it goes on to another owner who will totally part it out.
I understand you feeling a little guilt over this, David, but I’m guessing this potential buyer had the same problem I sometimes get looking at project cars – my brain sides with the shiny pictures even after finding out all the issues. My mind always paints this rosy picture because “that’s the car I’ve been looking for” and “I need to jump on this one because these are so rare!” That almost always goes away when you finally see the car in person. Hopefully the buyer will learn a little lesson about how much he needs to spend if he wants a perfect version of that Jeep. He’s either going to need to compromise and do some work or find deeper pockets to get a show quality Jeep.
Time and money are related and it is worth backing out if it will save time and or money in the future.
That’s how buying long distance goes sometimes, as someone who has bought long distance you do have to be willing to walk away if things feel off, it’s how it goes. Sounds like he had a vision in his head of this that ended up being different than reality.
Yeah, I once drove 5 1/2 hours to Rhode Island, then backed out after finding that the VIN label had been completely obscured by repainting the tongue, and there was therefore no way it could be registered in my state.
I live in MA and advise people to never buy private sale cars in RI. I could tell you horror stories about the two I bought.
Specific to the state? Is there a specific reason? Just rust, or rust a big factor, etc.?
I messed up typing, it wasn’t a car, it was a little motorcycle camper, in good shape generally, but I needed an intact VIN for a title, the seller apparently had had no trouble registering it himself because of different rules for ultra-lightweight trailers or something
Things can get weird when not dealing with cars, so many states have different rules. I once was about ready to go look at a boat in another state, learned that state didn’t require and didn’t issue titles for boats. No big deal there’s surely a process to deal with that. I then learned that the guy selling it had owned it a couple of years and never bothered to have it registered to his name. I noped out of that pretty quickly after that, bought a different boat that had a title which has turned out great, but had the guy contact me months later with a lower price asking if I was still looking. Saved a massive headache there.
Yeah, that’s why I’m not even going to look at that Reliant Rialto that popped up on Facebook. UK import 10 years ago, never registered or titled in the US, sold with bill of sale and British paperwork, and it might not pass emissions, depending on if the DMV decides to classify it as a car or as an autocycle, seems like a huge potential mess to sort out, good luck to that guy.
We’re pretty strict with trailers here, too, because there’s a big theft problem with them and getting really anal about paperwork is supposed to fix that. No VIN, or a VIN that’s damaged/obscured/illegible in any way? Yeah, that can’t ever be registered here, you’ll have to dump it at a loss to an out of state buyer or use it as an off road utility trailer. No way around that
There’s a procedure here, but some time and paperwork.
Wildly easier than most states though.
Thanks to stupid stuff the state did, trailer titles aren’t really required here.
Well, go on
Couple years ago I went to look at nice 65 Mustang. Everything looked very good online. I went to see then the car. Not nearly as far as this guy. Arrived and looked it over real close. Brought my brother as a barometer against eager eyes. Test drove it. Drove decent. Car was nice. Price was fair. But we had determined that the only factory sheet metal was the roof and most of the unibody. Fenders, doors, hood, quarters, trunk lid, bumpers, floor pans and probably more were aftermarket replacements. I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling it was “not right”. I passed. Seller was a nice guy. I can generally read people pretty well. But it just wasn’t the one for me. Just how it goes. It wasn’t the one for him. At least not at that price. It happens. Nobody’s fault.
I don’t want to come down too hard on the prospective buyer, because they certainly shouldn’t be forced to spend more than they want, but they are kind of a jerk here.
They originally responded to a $15k ad. You put work in since that original $15k. You sent them plenty of information and were willing to send them more so they could negotiate from a position of knowledge. With all that, they settle on $11.4k.
Then they take up your time, meet you, and suddenly want to renegotiate. That’s not super cool with me. You even bring your price down twice! And that’s not good enough for them? Saying screw them is a bit too harsh, but I wouldn’t exactly be wiping their ass on the way out either.
If they showed up and $11.4k and then decided the price was too much, fine. Just leave. Maybe even ask if their is some wiggle room. But to suddenly want to chop the price down by ~25% is bold.
I’ve got no idea what a fair price is, but that’s a bit irrelevant when my main complaint is their whole buying practice.
This is the primary reason I refuse to negotiate with prospective buyers other than in person. First, it tends to scare off the tire kickers. Second, it reinforces that my price is typically pretty damn close to where I plan on sealing the deal.
I do the same when I’m a buyer. If the asking price is somewhere close to what I’m willing to pay, and they are willing to send more information (pictures, VIN, whatever else) then to me that’s the beginning. I’ll come check it out in person and negotiate there.
Yeah, this felt more like a negotiating tactic than a case of “oh, it’s not as nice as I thought.”
I wonder if bro comes back in a few weeks.
The “no sale” is likely the best outcome and avoids the sunk cost fallacy regrets on both sides.
Sounds like he was seeing his dad’s jeep in his mind, then reality hit in person.
He may never find the jeep he wants because it was scapped decades ago, and that’s just how life goes.
That’s fine, but he should know what these things cost before wasting peoples time. If he wants his dad’s Jeep, he should have an idea of the going rate to buy one, or to buy one in worse shape and then either putting in sweat equity to get it in better shape, or paying someone to do it.
I get the feeling that if he could go back in time and look at his dad’s old Jeep with an adult’s eyes he would find out it also had some issues. These are strictly utilitarian vehicles that nobody expected to last more than a decade in their intended roles. It’s a testament to how many were built and how much the owners loved them that any are still around today. Hopefully this guy finds what he is looking for but I think he’ll need a reality check on how much a really nice example is going to cost.
Agreed. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
Buying cars long distance can be a crap shoot if you don’t do a ton of due dilligence. It sounds like he didn’t do his due dilligence. I’d venture to say this is not on you, David.
Also, how did he justify his $9k offer? He just FELT like it? That’s what it was worth TO HIM? If you can’t back up an offer with comps and some rationale, it can be insulting to the seller. It should be an objective figure. If you don’t want to spend what the market suggests a vehicle is worth, don’t waste the seller’s time.
I know, right. This bit summarizes the whole experience:
I wouldn’t tell the guy to go get fucked, but it wouldn’t be far off from that.
I think this tactic is more common than you would expect. I’ve had this experience with motorcycles. Selling for $5000. Someone asks, well how low can you go? I say $4300 breaks me even, then they come see it and say well I’ve got 3000 in my pocket. Okay bud, go to the bank and get another $1,300. Human nature to see how desperate you are I suppose.
In this case, it sounds like the guy ‘met his hero’. For nostalgia, he really wanted a CJ-3B. Once he drove it, it wasn’t this particular Jeep that was the issue, it was that the driving experience wasn’t what he expected in general. Better to drive ten hours and figure that out than to spend 11k plus shipping to your house and be disappointed.
Anyway, conversely to this negotiation, I’ve seen people price vehicles at #2 condition when it’s a low 3. I’ll take a run at pointing out the bald tires, crazed paint and ratty interior and say, if you’re interested in low 3 money, I can offer X. Usually find out we’re too far apart.
I was selling an 88 4Runner once for like $3500. Guy asked to take it to his mechanic, ok whatever. Comes back with a $2400 estimate for repairs and goes I’ll give you $1100. I’m like is this your first time buying a used car? Thats not how it works, oh and thanks for the punch list, maybe I’ll keep it and fix it now.
I hope you actually said that, because he deserved to hear it.
Oh absolutely, I was floored that he even though that was something I’d agree to. He called me back a couple weeks later going “I dont know why we got off on a bad foot, blah blah blah, I’ll make it 2k and a 12 pack of beer”
Sold it a couple days after that for asking price.
Perfect.
The last guy who lowballed me like that, called after I sold it demanding to know what I got for it. He then called me a liar when I told him.
Props to the (non) buyer for passing on something he ultimately didn’t want. Too bad it took so much of everyone’s time to get to that point, though.
That’s like walking down the aisle just to say nevermind.