I am attempting to sell a car, using Craigslist to advertise it. It’s a 1988 Nissan 300zx that my wife and I purchased for our daughter as her first car as she will be driving later this year. However, she didn’t do very well in school for the last half of last year, so no car for her. We told her that we expect all A’s and high B’s out of her if she wants to have a car. Two D’s crept into her report card, so now she has to pay the price.
Anyways, I really haven’t had too much experience listing items for sale on CL. I live in the Orlando area and everyday there are hundreds of new listings appearing. So, your listing quickly gets pushed pages and pages back, making it hard to find. I have noticed that some ads are constantly on the first page and I am wondering how they keep it there.
My wife said that she thinks that making a daily change to the titile of the ad will keep it refreshed and pushed to the front of the line. I tried that a little while ago, but didn’t see any result in moving it from the 5th page. I am not sure how long it takes for changes to appear. So, my question is: How do I keep the ad on the first page? Do I need to cancell it every night and re-list or will editing the title have the same effect?
Also, I would like to list it in two cities at the same time, since we are close to both Orlando and Lakeland. Can I run the ads at the same time or do I need to use a different email address to do so?
Changes to the title or the body of the ad do absolutely nothing to where the ad appears on CL. There is an option every couple of days to refresh your ad, sending it to the top.
But other than that, just post it with descriptive language. People are capable of finding cars that meet their criteria every day.
Craigslist has a decent search capability. Anyone who is looking for a car on CL knows that the top page is only items listed that day, and is going to be doing a search. So I don’t think first-page placement is the most important aspect.
I would focus on my ad title and content instead. Make sure you describe the car thoroughly, include photos, and include any keywords that are likely to be used in a search. Give mileage, optional features, and overall condition.
I also would disclose any known flaws that would be unexpected in a car that age, but that’s a matter of opinion. I do this so as not to get into an argument when a buyer arrives and gets a surprise. Of course, the other school of thought is to get the buyer to come to you in any way possible. I have sold 4-5 cars using newspaper ads or Craigslist and have always closed the sale with the first or second prospect.
Bluebook is usually pretty optimistic. I’d consider the “craigslist” price to usually be somewhere between the private party and trade-in price. I think the way to sell a car on craigslist is to keep an eye on what similar vehicles have been listed for and price it somewhat below that. With a good price, it’ll probably be gone in a few hours whereas trying to squeeze every cent out of it will turn it into a full time hobby.
Of course, in the OP’s case, listing the car at BB private party price might be a good strategy because you can plausibly say you’re following through with the threat but realistically there’ll probably be a few months until the thing actually sells so there may be a window for academic improvement.
Yeah, I live in Chicago, which is a big market, as well, and even though the ads are swamped, I got something like five emails within an hour when I sold my 1991 Nissan Stanza a few years ago, and the sale was made same-day, just a few hours later. Granted, I was only asking $500 for it (but I only paid $700 from a lot for it a year before, and it needed some work.)