Selling the truck...

Man, selling a vehicle is an annoying process. I put an add on Craigslist to see how free classified ads work before shelling out the money for an ad on cars.com or the local autotrader magazine. I've had a couple of e-mails and showed the truck to one guy this afternoon.

After a few minutes of answering the usual used car type questions, he said he would like to see it. He didn't want to waste any ones time, so he wanted to know the absolute rock bottom price I would take to sell the truck. I told him, and we agreed to meet.

Well, I drive the 20 miles to town to meet him where I have the truck parked at my father-in-law's office. He drives it and likes it, then proceeds to offer me 30% below asking price. Ok, so you get the idea, it's a 2001 Tahoe with all of the options on it. I'm asking $10k, which is just below what all of the web pricing guides call for on a private party sale. I understand that the market is a little slow for this type of vehicle, so I told him what I would be willing to accept, nothing less.

Why in the hell would he even have me meet him in town and waste my time (which he said he didn't want to do), if he was then going to offer me $7,000? When I held firm and told him I would take nothing less than what I had offered, he poor-mouthed about the bad gas mileage and the price of gas... WHAT? I told him that if he couldn't afford to feed the beast, he needed to look at another type of vehicle. Then he told me all he had was $7,700, so that's the most he could pay. Man, what a jackass. Just because he only has $7,700 doesn't mean that's all my truck is worth.

I think I'll make that point clear before I meet anyone else.

Another interesting one. Someone was looking at it earlier today and asked my father-in law if the price was negotiable. He told them he thought it was to a certain extent, then they asked him if I would finance it. HELLO... How many private party sales actually involve owner financing? The last time we sold a car it was much the same. Asking $8k, people calling with $4,500 and can pay X per week and want me to finance. One person was really pushy, so I made an offer. Pay me the $4,500, and I'll take the signs off the car and keep it in my garage. Pay me the money each week, and when you make the last payment, I'll give you the keys and the title. Funny how they didn't like that idea.