Best Online Way To Sell Parts?

Steel1 said:

a great resource and hope they continue to be a popular meeting place for like minded car nuts!

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The last line of your posts answers the largest part of your question.

This is a place for hobbyists and enthusiasts. It doesn't garner the traffic of bookface, ebay, or Amazon. in most instances, those that arrive here thinking that this is in some way an extension of bookface, are usually shown the door. This is a place where folks end up AFTER they've followed crappy internet advice and found themselves up creek with no paddle.

The trouble with selling used parts for 30 year old cars is that folks that have a need for that part have to be looking for and find your ad. It's kind of like trolling for fish. Way easier to do when there's a LOT of fish (even if they're clueless fish).

Our classifieds exist as a service to our membership as a way to exchange their stuff for other stuff. It's not really meant to be like craigslist.

The best way to get rid of used parts IMO is craigslist or local area clubs and meets. Having to ship something really takes the wind out of many used parts.

deathb4dismount said:

I listed my cobra intake on ebay and it sold in a week.

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This is the key. Those things are historically easy to sell. Even the junk ones that have been modified (for some horrid reason).

Selling used OEM parts that are not a complete exhaust or original airbox, can be tough.

Some things can be sold by smoke signal. lol

Here's my experience with selling parts

Craigslist: Obscure questions, no real commitment, vague time availability, randomly saying you are available at 2AM, overall shadiness.

Facebook: Dealing with younger crowd, and problems associated with. Public mocking of your pricing, undercutting, having a buyer come back to you 2 months later and ask why their XYZ is making a noise when the part you sold has nothing to do with that particular issue (sell someone an axle shaft...and their brakes are squealing for example)

Ebay: You pay, I ship, we never see each other and it's great. I'll gladly let ebay take a cut for that convienence.



Right now I probably have 10-15 parts sitting on ebay. They are sitting on my shelf in the basement, so when one finally sells, I go grab it, box it up and ship it. Probably 1-2 sales a month? If it doesn't sell in 6-9 months, I just cut the price dramatically and give it a few more months and then toss it in the trash.

Non-vehicle related sales...I hit garage sales and scoop up stuff someone is selling for $5 that I can see on ebay people are paying $45-50 for. You'd be surprised how easy it is to do a few CL/ebay flips this way.

I hold people's feet to the fire on classifieds here. If people are getting garbage contacts, I haven't heard about it.

Classifieds that don't meet the minimum are just deleted, I don't play with them anymore. The requirements are in plain sight and folks that can't manage to include those pieces, aren't very interested in the sale to begin with.

It cuts down on a lot of bogus ads and folks who just post and disappear.