A stay of execution! (van not yet sold)

[chockswahay]

So then team, we have had the van up for sale for a couple of weeks now and after a few silly enquiries and 2 'serious' viewings these last few days I am beginning to think 'perhaps the VW gods are telling me to keep it!' . In each case the potential buyers were not prepared to meet my minimum price so withdrew their interest. Now I have always been of the opinion that a car/van/whatever is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, so in this case I deliberately set my asking price considerably under value to try and secure a quick sale ......................... WRONG! ..................... instead of seeing my van as VERY well priced for a really well maintained and highly specified California each potential buyer seemed more concerned that they were not getting an absolute bargain at their very low-ball offer!

The 'upside' of all of this is that I have realised what a fantastic van mine is and that I could really regret selling it! My wife and I really love our van, we have had many adventures in it, owned it for most of its life and will really miss it when we do sell it eventually. BUT, I am not ready to give it away for a silly price! So now we have a second chance to re-run the fun until next year (when it will need to go) and are lining up a couple of road trips, probably including Portugal (again), Corsica, Sardinia and Greece. Then when done, put it back up for sale and probably get a better price next summer when demand is higher. Its a win/win I reckon.

Note: I have actually modified my advert and increased my asking price because three people in a row said it looked too cheap (!) and despite this it really does appear to be the case that what ever I ask I will be 'bid down' so I might as well ask more in the first place. My advert is with another sales platform and to be honest I do regret not trying to sell it on here first (I did try to place an advert but had a couple of technical glitches on the web page so never quite managed it). I would imagine anyone coming to this forum looking for a Cali has already 'self filtered' their level of interest (polite way of saying more serious potential buyers ).

Let the good times roll (for now anyway)

 

[Up10]

So then team, we have had the van up for sale for a couple of weeks now and after a few silly enquiries and 2 'serious' viewings these last few days I am beginning to think 'perhaps the VW gods are telling me to keep it!' . In each case the potential buyers were not prepared to meet my minimum price so withdrew their interest. Now I have always been of the opinion that a car/van/whatever is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, so in this case I deliberately set my asking price considerably under value to try and secure a quick sale ......................... WRONG! ..................... instead of seeing my van as VERY well priced for a really well maintained and highly specified California each potential buyer seemed more concerned that they were not getting an absolute bargain at their very low-ball offer!

The 'upside' of all of this is that I have realised what a fantastic van mine is and that I could really regret selling it! My wife and I really love our van, we have had many adventures in it, owned it for most of its life and will really miss it when we do sell it eventually. BUT, I am not ready to give it away for a silly price! So now we have a second chance to re-run the fun until next year (when it will need to go) and are lining up a couple of road trips, probably including Portugal (again), Corsica, Sardinia and Greece. Then when done, put it back up for sale and probably get a better price next summer when demand is higher. Its a win/win I reckon.

Note: I have actually modified my advert and increased my asking price because three people in a row said it looked too cheap (!) and despite this it really does appear to be the case that what ever I ask I will be 'bid down' so I might as well ask more in the first place. My advert is with another sales platform and to be honest I do regret not trying to sell it on here first (I did try to place an advert but had a couple of technical glitches on the web page so never quite managed it). I would imagine anyone coming to this forum looking for a Cali has already 'self filtered' their level of interest (polite way of saying more serious potential buyers ).

Let the good times roll (for now anyway)

Welcome back? (at least for the moment!)

 

[sidepod]

Strange. Almost as if winter is a crap time to sell a camper van?

You’ll have much more success come Spring.
Don’t ever forget, people are t**ts.

 

[2into1]

Don’t ever forget, people are t**ts.

Careful my friend, I was one of those people

 

[Paul1]

I agree and like your thinking. You done the right thing. Good luck.

 

[2into1]

As one of the people who viewed (virtually) this van, there might be a couple of lessons for others selling....

The (lovely) seller only left himself 1.1% negotiation room from the original asking price. Seeing a selling price, in winter, from a private seller gives rise to hope of a bigger reduction. It sets expectations despite how attractively the asking price is. My opening 'offer' was more than 95% of the asking price.

The market is absolutely dead. I'm watching about 40 vans and only 1 has sold (a 24 plate Westfalia Nugget with 4k miles at £39k), and that was underpriced by stupid motorhome depot by about £9k. It stood out a mile. Had it not been the LWB I would have had it. It may be winter but is suspect the gloom around the economy is limiting buyers to just retired folk like me. All the COVID vans (where everyone switched from unavailable Ducato's to available Transporters) are flooding the market too.

Please steer clear of using a broker such as motorhome depot. They are just getting in the way of enquiries. They know nothing about the vans they are selling, the autotrader system shows the van's location up to 150 miles away from the actual (more for motorhome pig). In contrast, it was a delight to chat with @chockswahay about his van, to see how knowledgeable he was and how well the van had been loved: Something the brokers prevent happening with their drawn out game of Chinese Whispers. So many vans aren't selling privately only to appear a few days later at £3k more (the broker fee for doing absolutely f@ck all useful).

I just sold my own van privately. I was bombarded with trade buyers and these 'brokers' trying to get me to list it with them. But the one needed private couple came along, spent 5 (!) hours trying to fault the van then agreed a deal.

 

[larrylamb]

As one of the people who viewed (virtually) this van, there might be a couple of lessons for others selling....

The (lovely) seller only left himself 1.1% negotiation room from the original asking price. Seeing a selling price, in winter, from a private seller gives rise to hope of a bigger reduction. It sets expectations despite how attractively the asking price is. My opening 'offer' was more than 95% of the asking price.

The market is absolutely dead. I'm watching about 40 vans and only 1 has sold (a 24 plate Westfalia Nugget with 4k miles at £39k), and that was underpriced by stupid motorhome depot by about £9k. It stood out a mile. Had it not been the LWB I would have had it. It may be winter but is suspect the gloom around the economy is limiting buyers to just retired folk like me. All the COVID vans (where everyone switched from unavailable Ducato's to available Transporters) are flooding the market too.

Please steer clear of using a broker such as motorhome depot. They are just getting in the way of enquiries. They know nothing about the vans they are selling, the autotrader system shows the van's location up to 150 miles away from the actual (more for motorhome pig). In contrast, it was a delight to chat with @chockswahay about his van, to see how knowledgeable he was and how well the van had been loved: Something the brokers prevent happening with their drawn out game of Chinese Whispers. So many vans aren't selling privately only to appear a few days later at £3k more (the broker fee for doing absolutely f@ck all useful).

I just sold my own van privately. I was bombarded with trade buyers and these 'brokers' trying to get me to list it with them. But the one needed private couple came along, spent 5 (!) hours trying to fault the van then agreed a deal.

Agree, I can see some dealers going belly up. How long can you go on when you have 50-60k vans on your forecourt for 6-7 months like I've seen. It's 100% a buyers market.

 

[chockswahay]

Come the revolution (well ok, Spring!) I reckon there will be much higher demand for vans when the price of flights, hotels etc go through the roof and people want more for their money ( a bit like during Covid but due to cost of living crisis, not a pandemic,

 

[wildslammer22]

Come the revolution (well ok, Spring!) I reckon there will be much higher demand for vans when the price of flights, hotels etc go through the roof and people want more for their money ( a bit like during Covid but due to cost of living crisis, not a pandemic,

As long as diesel isn't £3 a litre by then! The TSG might be inclined to focus on more foreign policy disasters now he's lost both houses.

 

[sidepod]

It’s a difficult thing. Everyone wants a bargain or more money off!
What people fail to do is see that a particular van has clearly been cared for and is worth paying for regardless if they think it’s slightly more expensive than the previous 10 they tried to steal.
Humility and respect.
One day they’ll be in the same situation, hoping to unload an asset.
In the big picture all that matters is you end up with a van that’s been loved. If it costs a few quid more then it’s £ well spent.

 

[pjm-84]

I just sold my Volvo XC70 and bought an VW Up GTI....

Both easy sales at the asking price but I didnt want my Volvo to go without brakes and disks all round, so he paid for the parts and I did the work....but I do think there are some chancers out there. The GTI was cheap and I would have paid more, so why ask for a few hundred pounds off. My sister is the opposite. She says what's the worst that can happen. Hmmm, you annoy the seller and you dont buy the vehicle.... and it waste time........