84 Dodge Shelby Charger = AS IS $300

[merlinthewizard]

*** You have to take the whole car! and get the cert., insur. & UVIP.! ***

I can't store it and don't have the time to part it up. So it will be junked in 2 weeks! - but I'd prefer a fellow enthusiast took it.

Good for parts, or if you have the skills, tools & time to restore it (I don't).

I've been driving it up until a week ago when I got a new car. Only about 130kms and hardly any rust.

2.2L non-turbo, red/silver with silver interior & clean bucket seats. 2 new tires (one season), most body & interior parts in good condition.

Various minor problems, but major things are: hole in gas tank (1/2 way up), rad fan doesn't work, steering shakes a bit on the highway, engine pings a bit, radio doesn't work, ripped ceiling cloth and the paint is dis-coloured (not quite as nice as photos).

simons_jess@yahoo.com

Rutherford Rd. & Keele St. area - Toronto, Ontario

[merlinthewizard]

photos at: merlinse.com/tools/84charger.htm

[merlinthewizard]

Ok the first person who contacted me said he would buy it on the spot and I said ok. So being a man of my word, I held everyone else off.

However it nows seems that he wanted parts for his rampage... "Doh" it appears that the parts he wanted from my "charger" don't look the same as his "rampage".

Unfortunately, I've now had so many people contact me that I really don't know who I should fairly contact next. So in order to give everyone a fair chance I'm just going to sell it to the highest offer. The best offer so far is $490.

I prefer to sell this to someone who knows the true value of this car (or at least what it looks like). I've taken 48 photos which may help.

Please email me your offer: simons_jess @ yahoo.com and I'll contact you.

Here's a link to the photos: merlinse.com/tools/84charger.htm

Thanks kindly,
Jess

[rt426]

Now we go from:
84 Dodge Shelby Charger = AS IS $300

To this...

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

So in order to give everyone a fair chance I'm just going to sell it to the highest offer. The best offer so far is $490.

I see this same thing on craigslist from time to time.

A guy offers something for sale at a set price, and gets more of a response than he thought he would, so he thinks it's OK to raise the price AND/OR start a bidding war. That is NOT the purpose of a "For Sale" board, it is not an "Auction" board. They have a place for that... it's called EBAY and you pay a fee to do that. And even then, you can't offer a "buy it now" price and mid sale turn it into an "auction".

And why is that? Because it is NOT fair, moral, or ethically correct to do so.

I wonder how he'd like it if he filled up his tank at the gas station with a sign stating $2.999/gal posted on the pump, and then owner of the station told him, "I didn't realize the demand for fuel was so high... so now you need to pay $4.899/gal. (that is unless someone else comes in, in the next minute or so... and I feel like I can get even more!). (the prices in this example are in exact ratio to the sellers price hike).

It might be "just my opinion"... but that is just plain WRONG!

Boards like this are "suppose" to be a nice place, to deal with people who have a common interest, in something they care deeply about... in this case Chrysler Products. A place to make friends... maybe even help somebody... and maybe even receive help from somebody. Almost like a type of "family" in some ways. In my opinion it should not be a place to take members for "as much as you can"... even to the point of well over 50% more than he wanted to begin with.

IMO... it sounds like the seller has many emails from people who wanted to buy this item, at the price he volunteered to sell it for (nobody else set the selling price for him). So in order to be "fair" (HIS word ) he should take the next offer that came in (by the time stamp on the email) and offer it to that person. I still don't see how passing up the next person in line (for a person that was down the line further) to make more money is "FAIR".

Personally, my integrity is worth much more than a mere $190...

I hope somebody out there agrees! Thanks to the board for a chance to offer my opinion about this.

[merlinthewizard]

Hi, I understand your point... but here's the real situation.

I posted it for $300 and had several replies. I agreed to sell it to the very first reply for $300 since he 'assured me' he'd buy it 'on the spot' if I held it for him for a few days - I agreed.

Then I had several people offer me more money - I didn't reply to them.

When the guy who 'promised' to buy it 'changed his mind' - I asked for 'best offer' - to weed out the wishy-washy people and get a serous offer. Most posts in this forum ask for best offer, right!

The next day I sold it to the best offer, so unless this guy also 'changes his mind'... it's already gone.

If someone was going to hand you $490... would you really only take $300????

[rt426]

Jess,

It was nice of you to reply to my "rant"...

Here's what you had to say...

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

Hi, I understand your point... but here's the real situation.

I posted it for $300 and had several replies. I agreed to sell it to the very first reply for $300 since he 'assured me' he'd buy it 'on the spot' if I held it for him for a few days - I agreed.

Then I had several people offer me more money...

So far, all your doing is confirming that my "guess" about what happened was correct.

The "reason" people offered you more money was so you would sell it to them, even though "others" had asked about buying it first.

I don't disagree that "buyer #1" was an a$$ for assuring you he'd buy it, and then not doing as he promised. That IMO is WRONG as well. He should have stuck to his word, even if he didn't think it was going to be suitable for his purpose... because he gave his word.

That is what prompted this rant of mine, isn't it? People who don't do as they say, change their minds, and do something different from what they said they will do. Wasn't so nice, was it? It might be like buyer #2 felt after learning that he was "outbid" in a "stated price" ad.

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

When the guy who 'promised' to buy it 'changed his mind' - I asked for 'best offer' - to weed out the wishy-washy people and get a serous offer. Most posts in this forum ask for best offer, right!

First of all.... what "Most posts" say, has nothing to do with what YOUR post says. If most posts are about "painting cars", it doesn't relate to your post either. YOUR post does NOT ask for best offer... that is the reason I wrote this opinion to begin with. If it did, I'd have no problem.

You say "I asked for "best offer"... I say, You're wrong.

I've reread this thread again just to verify. Nowhere does it say that "buyer#1" backed out, so now you will sell for "best offer". You clearly state, "I posted it for $300 and had several replies".

To paraphrase what you said, you then told everybody (including all of the other's that said they wanted it for your advertised $300) that you are now willing to pass them up, because you now have someone further down the line that offered you $490.

Now as if that amount of money still isn't "enough" in your mind, you still want people to bid the amount even higher than that...

You see, that's not best offer, that is HIGHEST OFFER (back to my "auction" comparison).

If you ask $300 or best offer (which is NOT what you ad reads), THAT means you will consider bids under $300, if you do not get someone who will buy it for $300. If you ad reads "For Sale, Best Offer" (which is NOT what you ad reads), then yes, it means you will wait to see what is the most you can get. The point is that you offered to sell it for $300, and then backed out of it with people waiting.

Here's your own words...

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

I'm just going to sell it to the highest offer. The best offer so far is $490.

So... so far I don't see where I had "guessed" anything wrong yet, seems pretty "dead on" up to this point.

Then you follow up with this,

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

The next day I sold it to the best offer, so unless this guy also 'changes his mind'... it's already gone.

But what about buyer #2, #3, #4 and so on... that responded to the original ad to buy it for $300 (what the ad states)? I guess they are just "out of luck". This all comes around to my original point, you passed them up because someone else offered you more money, essentially screwing the next person in line out of it.

Wasn't that my point?

And as far as your question,

Originally Posted by merlinthewizard

If someone was going to hand you $490... would you really only take $300????

I guess to be honest, if I told the buyer I wanted $300, and he came over to pick the car up... and he said, "Oh, I'm ripping you off... It's worth much more than $300. I won't feel right unless you take at least $490.", then yes... I'd take the money.

But would I pass up all of the others that wanted to buy it, and were ahead of "Mr. Bigger Offer"... No, I wouldn't. I'd kick myself for being a dumb a$$ that didn't do enough research, and underestimated the value of the car... and take the next person that offered what I asked.

I've been on the other side of that situation before, although I'll admit what you did is not nearly as bad...

I wrote to a gal that had a real nice set of classic Pioneer Speakers for sale on craigslist ($25), and asked if they were still available... and if they were, that I would take them. She wrote back to me telling me they were available. We sent a couple of emails back and forth and set up a time to pick them up. We agreed to meet the very next day at 11AM, and I told her that I would pay her in cash... so she wouldn't have to worry about a bad check, or bogus money order.

She wrote back to me later that night to tell me that someone else got in touch with her later, and they were disappointed that the speakers were spoken for... so they offered her more money to sell the speakers to them, instead of me. This "other person" couldn't pick them up for a week, and was going to pay using paypal. So I was "dumped" for the higher offer, even though she had to wait longer to do the transaction, and had to mess with getting her money from paypal.

You DID give the buyer the chance to buy the car, he was the one who backed out. You didn't tell him he had to pay more... I "get" that. And I have to give you a big for doing that, because that was the right thing to do. I'm glad to acknowledge all that you did do right, but I still think that other people DID get screwed though.

And I still stand by the rest of my first statement. You had a price in mind that was acceptable to you, and someone offered you more to pass up others ahead of him/her... and you chose the money over what was the "right thing" to do. ..... AND..... took an outright sale ad, and turned it into a bidding war. What do you call it when you bid an amount of money, and hope you are the highest bid, so get the item for sale? Come on... I know you know the answer... That's right, it's an auction! Wasn't that also one of my points?

So far..... where am I incorrect?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are a fairly young guy (at least younger than me... I could be wrong). As you can see by my profile, or the user information in the upper right hand corner of this post... I'm in my 50's. Maybe it's just me, or my generation that thinks the way your sale was handled, was not "above board". And maybe the majority of people see it your way. But then again, most people used to think the world was flat, didn't they? But that didn't make them right.

Either way, it's not my place to tell you what to do. After all, I'm just a dumb old truck driver that spends his days delivering cars to dealers and auctions... with only a High School education. But I'm still entitled to my opinion, and the right to share it with others.

Thanks for the reply, right or wrong I've got to say... You've got stones! (that's a good thing) You stand up for yourself, and aren't scared to face the music.

...have a good day,
Bob