Help People Sell Their Second Hand Vehicles

Most people with vehicles to sell prefer to cut out the middleman and sell direct to the vehicle’s next owner.  That’s because they want to keep as much of the proceeds of the sale as possible, without paying middlemen such as car brokers and car showroom owners.  Much the same happens for people wanting to buy new cars, and knowing they’ll get more for selling the old vehicle than trading against the new one.

How can you provide a service to satisfy this common need, as well as doing as little work as possible and banking as much money as you can?

There follow a few ideas based on people currently operating appropriate services across the United States, but hardly anyone running similar ventures in Britain.

*  It’s a common sight in America to see individuals operating used car flea markets, where potential sellers pay a set fee to park their vehicles in a car park or other large space and for potential buyers to visit and talk to sellers direct.  The organiser takes no part in vehicles being inspected or sold, and he is not involved with money and documentation changing hands.  People we have seen running this business rent space for one or two days at the weekend, when more people have time free from work to attend to buying and selling their vehicles.  But even though weekdays attract fewer sellers and buyers, they can still be profitable, so it’s best to try selling on weekdays and at weekends to see what works best for you.

There’s one very important matter to sort out before getting involved in a business like this, namely to make sure you have permission from local authorities and police and traffic departments, also your insurance company, to run the business in the manner you intend.  If you’re not sure, or you don’t fancy the hassle of chasing approval, arrange a deal with local car salerooms where they provide the space and attend to insurance and paperwork and you provide sellers and buyers.  That way, the showroom gets a share of your takings but you get to keep the rest.

If this business sounds good to you, go to Google.com and search American sites for ‘used car flea market’ and similar, as well as ‘start your own used car flea market’ and other combinations.  Learn as much as you can from people already running a business such as you’d like to start.  That way you learn from their mistakes while also benefiting from their ideas and their marketing expertise.

Advertise in local newspapers and door-to-door, as well as by placing ads on telephone poles close to busy roads and junctions.  Ask permission from your local authority before erecting your signs.

*  Start a web site where sellers pay you to advertise their vehicles, and you pay to advertise your site in local and national newspapers and automobile publications.  This can be a major money maker where, for example, one hundred people pay you twenty pounds a week to promote their car on your site, grossing you £2,000 a week, and you spend less than half that amount advertising your site in several high readership publications.

As for most business ventures, learn what you can from other people running similar concerns, and model your site and promotions on firms spending extensively on offline and online advertising, as well as topping search engine results for something like ‘used cars’, ‘sell your car’, ‘buy a second hand car’, and so on.  Remember you will need to advertise for people wanting to sell their vehicles and others wanting to buy them.   That said, however, one good advertisement, in local newspapers or using Google AdWords, should accomplish both.

*  Offer a service whereby you create a listing for people to promote their vehicles on eBay without you asking a share in the takings.  The reason this works so well, apart from not having to share the proceeds with you, is that many people know eBay is a great place to sell vehicles, but few know how to use the site.  So for a small fee, you call on the seller, take photographs and information about the vehicle which you insert into a ready made template suiting any vehicle listed on eBay.  Then you show sellers how to list their vehicle for sale and how to handle the transaction.  If it all sounds too difficult, offer to represent the seller as an eBay trading assistant, and grab a good share of the proceeds on every sale.