[bikestuff]

Gang,

I often see those "Buy your gold here" commercials. William Devane has made a career touting gold coins, bullion and silver. What he never says is how do you sell all that gold....Well, I find myself in kinda the same situation. I think I know how to buy a coach, but how do you sell one?

I am contemplating selling 653. It's a race coach with lots of miles, but has been heavily -- some might say obsessively-- maintained while I have been its caretaker over the last 4 years. I have done tons of upgrades to the coach, and will miss it, but I really want to spend time doing other things right now. My plan is to sell 653 and then in a year or two, buy a newer Newell.

I have thought about doing a consignment with someone like MOT, but have heard mixed reviews. (please don't flame me!). A lot of coaches show up on eBay, but few are really sold there. RVT.com has tons of listings but I am hesitant about letting random people drive the coach.

So, how should a guru think about this?

Cheers,
bill

[Ozarkguy]

Bill .. Start right here. Accentuate the pluses don't hid the minus.. Make a comprehensive spec sheet and at least 25 good photos to start. There will be a bunch of I want to drivers, but just explain the liability and that when they make a deposit and sign a purchase agreement.. Then we'll go for a drive.. You drive first... Motorhome Specialist in TX operates that way..and they sell a bunch of coaches...

After a couple of weeks advertise in tht RV Trader...

I sold a bunch of aircraft way... Never ran off a real buyer..

[lbrachfe]

Bill,
We have had real good luck with Blue Sky Liquidators in Arizona. They bought my Monaco Dynasty when it was in Florida after they saw 50 photos I sent them. Unfortunately my records are in my storage unit 4000 miles from me or I would provide a name and phone. These guys were pros and wired me funds before we moved our stuff from the coach and picked it up as well. I got about 20% off retail in cash at the time and it took us 10 days to sell it. Good luck

[Trainer]

MOT is owned by David Robertson, a man with very good character.

They charge for their service and deliver a no hassle experience.

So sell it yourself and deal with the needs of same or end up with a little less, perhaps, and let MOT do all the work.

[HoosierDaddy]

Hi Bill,
Here's my experience selling my '78 Newell in 2009-10 during the big economic downturn. I tried ebay, RVTrader, craigs list, my local auto-trader paper, a local RV consignment dealer and I parked it in my front yard. I got a few calls from people, one guy said he had plane tickets bought from California and would be here on Friday with a check but never showed after I spent a LOT of time on the phone.
I got several calls from "brokers" who claimed to have a buyer all lined up...They wanted me to send them $250.00 to list with them and they would guarantee to sell it.....My B.S.-o-meter went off so I said "no thanks"
I actually sold it out of my front yard to a very nice gentleman who is the historian for the RV/MH Hall of fame museum.
Bottom line is this: If you sell it yourself be prepared to talk to many people who have no intention of buying. You may not get "top dollar". A reputable dealer/broker will save hassle, probably get a higher price but you will probably net less after paying the fees they have earned.

[77newell]

We advertised on RVTraderonline. I got a number of bogus phone inquiries and a few legitimate ones. The key is pricing versus condition. Figuring it out is the hard part as a seller. Ebay lists prices of sold items so that sometimes helps. Tracking how long a unit remains for sale on the various listing sites also gives you a sense of actual selling price. Doing the research for some time ahead of time made the pricing decision not too difficult, had an idea of what it was worth and then added a bit of negotiating room.

For test drives, we allowed the prospective driver to test drive it at a large mall parking lot that was largely empty. For any other drive they had to put a deposit with specific conditions of refusal. (I've had other vehicles that people wanted to test drive, put a deposit and following the test drive wanted the deposit back. All they really wanted was a no risk test drive)

[PlazaGuy]

We not only sold our 1990 (coach #232), just last month, on e-bay, we also bought our 2002 (coach #638, also a race coach) from an e-bay ad in June 2014. I think the reason that it's not apparent that some are sold from e-bay ads is because if you've contacted the seller to make arrangements to see the coach, and the ad time runs out then it is not relisted and doesn't show up as sold. We advertised on RV Trader and never got an inquiry. We also advertised, for $239 or something like that with some outfit in California and never got a response. The e-bay ad got several responses.

Since we had purchased the 1990 in 1996 from an ad in Family Motor Coach Magazine, we put an ad there. The problem with that is there is a 2-month lead time on getting the ad inserted. However it's very affordable. We received 5 inquiries from the FMCA Magazine ad after we had already sold the coach on e-bay. So I think that is a good source.

Naturally, all of us think our coaches are worth more than the market will bear, so you have to be willing to negotiate a little. Our 1990 was a beautiful coach, well maintained, and we had lots of very fond memories so we thought we should get at least $60,000 out of it. Ended up selling for $47,000. So, everybody is reasonably happy. We were lucky because the guy that bought it had owned a 1987 Newell and knew what he was getting. Some people have no idea that they're getting a superior motor home.

E-bay works, because my wife advertised a bus for our church on ebay and it sold almost immediately even though there were several of the same year and model advertised everywhere on the internet. You just have to be realistic about the pricing.
The church board were pretty insistent on a certain price because it had low mileage but she talked them into advertising for about $2000 less that most of listings. The dealers you go with generally not only have to give a warranty, but also pay a commission to a salesman, so naturally they need more money initially.

[encantotom]

My 1990 (that bill owns now) i found on ebay. it was in new mexico and i was interested in it, but told the owner i would only come look at it if it was removed from ebay. they did, i went and looked at it and bought it.

my selling story is not typical. of course, everything about my 90 was documented online so it was an open book. and i never intended on selling it. when i bought my 02 (which was a surprise to me and darlene) i knew i needed to sell the 90 but as darlene says, she knows i didnt really want to. so, i put a small for sale on the old forum's classifieds. i got a number of inquiries about it from there and from word of mouth through my buddies. i never put it anywhere else. it was before i had gurus up and going.

then with some liberties (i hope it is ok bill) the sale of my old girl to bill happened. bill contacted me. i sent him info. i would guess over the time he was looking at it from afar he had seen many hundreds of pictures. when he bought it i gave him a cd with probably 1000's of pictures of the restoration and all the manuals and files on everything.

he kept asking about it. when i found out he lived in japan i was a little concerned. i checked him out and found that he was a real, reputable and well know guy, (he said he checked me out too). he kept saying he wanted to buy it sight unseen, i kept saying you need to see it and he said he couldnt, so i would send him more pictures of everything i could find wrong with it, and more pictures of everything else. this went on for quite some time.

finally he just called me and told me to stop trying to talk him out of it and he wanted to buy it.

so, the deal was struck. he bought it sight unseen and darlene and i spent a week detailing it inside and out before he arrived. i hope and believe it was prettier in person than in the pictures.

i picked him and a buddy up at the airport, they came and saw it and i went over things and they drove off to colorado.

all of that was 1 year from the time i knew i was going to sell it. but again, i never tried hard.

pricing is a different thing. i believe bill got a very fair deal on it from me and i was happy with what i got. but it was considerably less than i had started it at. but i was like everyone else and thought it was worth more. but, i bought my 02 at the right price so it all turned out good.

thats my story and i am sure i embellished it some, so bill can pipe in as he wishes.

happy saturday

tom

[bikestuff]

Wow! Thanks Gurus! Good information!

I am leaning towards doing the consignment thing. Yes, it will cost more, but like Rudy says...its either time or money! (paraphrased)

Will keep this thread updated with progress.

Thanks!
bill

[Yachts]

You know my feeling if you go to a certain place..