ON SELLING MY CAR III: FEAR AND GREED

On my last post dealing with the sale of my car I commented how I established a batna (best alternative to a negotiated agreement): I would try to sell the car for $7,000 or keep driving it a while longer. I had verified the black-book value and was confident this was a reasonable price.

The car was posted at the end of November and I only received two offers in December, both for $6,500. I turned them down, telling the prospective buyers that I was not prepared to go down that low. But, given the proximity to Christmas, these were the only two offers I received that month.

Soon I began to doubt my batna. Maybe I was asking too much? Fear. I should just call these people back and take the $6,500. Greed. I can save a ton on insurance if I sell the car now. More greed.

Eventually the car did sell for a higher price, but it took several offers. I constantly doubted myself and had to keep telling myself that it was a numbers’ game: sooner or later somebody would come along and take my offer.

ON SELLING MY CAR II

She sold! After a lot of work and much fretting over whether I was advertising the right price, I managed to sell the car. Here are the details: she was a 2000 Civic hatchback with nice rims, rear spoiler, and 80,000 klicks. I began the selling process last August by driving around with a for sale sign taped to the rear window (this produced very limited results). Again, the whole ordeal taught me a great deal about negotiation. Lesson 1 revolved around the selling price of the car and establishing a proper BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).

With regards to the selling price, I first established an astronomical price by comparing my car to others listed in www.autotrader.ca. I soon realized that most people list their cars for way too much; $9K for my 7 year old darling was a little too much to ask for. In order to set a more realistic value, I decided to visit a Honda dealership to get a worst case scenario: $4.5K. I also checked the black-book (tade-in) value, which was between $6,700 and $7,200.

These two values helped to establish my BATNA: I would try to sell the car for $7,000. Anything less and I would keep the car until she was worth $4,000. (I didn't really consider selling to a dealer because this alternative felt like giving my car to someone for four thousand bucks and a kick to the teeth).

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