Sell your car on Ebay

The key to selling something is to reach as many people as possible who might be interested in buying it.

If you’re selling an old car for a new one, then possibly the biggest collection of potential buyers is already out there on Ebay.

More than three million people visit Ebay Motors every month and, according to the company, a car is sold on the site every two minutes.

If you’re looking to offload your current vehicle or buy another car, the sheer number of visitors to Ebay makes it a great first stop. The cash you pay for a listing on the site will get you far more exposure than you can expect for the same kind of fee in a car trading magazine.

Research assistance
To put together a comprehensive listing for your car, you need to gather plenty of information. Basic make and model details are easy, but other information, such as the engine size, whether it has anti-lock brakes, airbags and other valuable extras may need more investigation. Make sure you have all the relevant information before you even think about putting a listing together. Anything you forget to include could result in a lower price.

From a legal point of view, you need two main things: the MOT certificate and the logbook, also known as the V5 document. If you’re selling a car that is less than three years old, there will be no MOT certificate, but for everyone else, having less than six months of MOT remaining will reduce the price. No logbook also means you won’t be able to sell the car for its true value.

The last piece of information you will want is a valuation, especially if you plan to set a reserve on the auction or a ‘Buy It Now’ price. Dozens of websites can give you this sort of information, but our favourite for newer models is What Car? at www.whatcar.com, which offers a free rough valuation and general information about models to help write a description.

Listing post
Once you’ve clicked on the ‘Sell Your Car’ button on the site, you need to decide between a regular Ebay auction and a fixed-price sale, before choosing the ‘Cars, Parts and Vehicles’ category.

It’s possible to place your car in more than one category, such as ‘Classic Cars’ as well as the regular ‘Cars’ section, but the listing fees will be doubled as a result. Listing by manufacturer will suffice for more run-of-the-mill machinery.

When listing the car, you can enter the registration number. The idea is that key information about the vehicle can be filled in automatically based on DVLA records. For older models, imported cars and specialist vehicles, including motor caravans, this isn’t very reliable, but for regular cars, it’s a good time-saver. Do check, however, that all the information is correct before submitting.