Used car selling form?

I'm selling a used car at a great price. Multiple parties have
responded to my ad wishing to purchase said car. I've got one party
who says they will "probably stop by sometime Saturday morning" with
me setting an "earliest" time to protect my shut-eye. I've got
another who has told me he'll most likely shoot for my "earliest"
time, as he's "in a spot" and wants the car. This guy didn't annoy me
at all on the phone, and I'd like to sell it to him full price and be
done with it. However, I don't want to put all my eggs in this one
guys basket, so to speak.

The phone is still ringing. When calling these people back, what
should I tell them? Is the norm first come, first serve? Driveway
bidding war? I don't want to schedule 8 appointments throughout the
day, and then have seven people pissed I sold it before they got to
it. I also don't want to tell everyone to wait and see, because if
the two parties mentioned earlier do not buy it I'd like one of the
people whose message is currently in my voicemail to do so, and
tomorrow is a good day to get it done for me.

So, what's the move here (beside thinking that I should have asked a
little more for the car in the first place)?

"My Name" <techdwgs@gmail . com > wrote in message
news:1175883069.461641.190760@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups . com ...
> I'm selling a used car at a great price. Multiple parties have
> responded to my ad wishing to purchase said car. I've got one party
> who says they will "probably stop by sometime Saturday morning" with
> me setting an "earliest" time to protect my shut-eye. I've got
> another who has told me he'll most likely shoot for my "earliest"
> time, as he's "in a spot" and wants the car. This guy didn't annoy me
> at all on the phone, and I'd like to sell it to him full price and be
> done with it. However, I don't want to put all my eggs in this one
> guys basket, so to speak.
>
> The phone is still ringing. When calling these people back, what
> should I tell them? Is the norm first come, first serve? Driveway
> bidding war? I don't want to schedule 8 appointments throughout the
> day, and then have seven people pissed I sold it before they got to
> it. I also don't want to tell everyone to wait and see, because if
> the two parties mentioned earlier do not buy it I'd like one of the
> people whose message is currently in my voicemail to do so, and
> tomorrow is a good day to get it done for me.
>
> So, what's the move here (beside thinking that I should have asked a
> little more for the car in the first place)?
>

Call everybody back who is NOT planning to come look at the car, yet. Ask
them for a CELL phone number where they can be reached on Saturday morning.
If the car is not sold by exactly one hour after your stated "earliest"
time, and doesn't look like it will be sold, start calling the cell phones.
Even assuming your "earliest" time is noon, you'll still have plenty of time
to sell the car later, if the people calling about it are really interested.
Most likely, if you have to call someone else to tell them the vehicle is
still available, you will catch them out running errands in the area (that's
why you want the cell phone number), so they'll just stop by in a half hour
or whatever to have a peek . . . -Dave

On Apr 6, 2:26 pm, "Mike T." <n...@nohow.not> wrote:
> Call everybody back who is NOT planning to come look at the car, yet. Ask
> them for a CELL phone number where they can be reached on Saturday morning.
> If the car is not sold by exactly one hour after your stated "earliest"
> time, and doesn't look like it will be sold, start calling the cell phones.
> Even assuming your "earliest" time is noon, you'll still have plenty of time
> to sell the car later, if the people calling about it are really interested.
> Most likely, if you have to call someone else to tell them the vehicle is
> still available, you will catch them out running errands in the area (that's
> why you want the cell phone number), so they'll just stop by in a half hour
> or whatever to have a peek . . . -Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks Dave. Your idea sounds good. I got the feeling the "sometime
in the morning" people, the very first I mentioned, were not going to
show up with cash ready to buy (if at all). Something about the
conversation left me feeling like they either wouldn't show, or would
try lowballing me and giving me grief once they arrive. It was their
attitude and rudeness combined with the huge time window and the maybe
that left me feeling I could let prospective buyer #2 swing up early
and snag it without feeling guilty.

My "earliest" isn't anywhere near noon, it's just there to keep the
4AM door bangers at bay. When you say "start calling", what do you
suggest I tell the first person I call? If they are 2+ hours away
(one person mentioned they were 1.5 hours away), do I tell them to
head up and wait for them or do I keep calling other people? I live
in the sticks to some extent, and the two people I referred to above
are both traveling over an hour. I've got quite a few voicemails to
return, and the boss just shortened the workday an hour in celebration
of Easter. I've got about an hour to sort this out.

Next time I'll ask a little more, or set up an auction!

> Thanks Dave. Your idea sounds good. I got the feeling the "sometime
> in the morning" people, the very first I mentioned, were not going to
> show up with cash ready to buy (if at all). Something about the
> conversation left me feeling like they either wouldn't show, or would
> try lowballing me and giving me grief once they arrive. It was their
> attitude and rudeness combined with the huge time window and the maybe
> that left me feeling I could let prospective buyer #2 swing up early
> and snag it without feeling guilty.
>
> My "earliest" isn't anywhere near noon, it's just there to keep the
> 4AM door bangers at bay. When you say "start calling", what do you
> suggest I tell the first person I call? If they are 2+ hours away
> (one person mentioned they were 1.5 hours away), do I tell them to
> head up and wait for them or do I keep calling other people? I live
> in the sticks to some extent, and the two people I referred to above
> are both traveling over an hour. I've got quite a few voicemails to
> return, and the boss just shortened the workday an hour in celebration
> of Easter. I've got about an hour to sort this out.
>
> Next time I'll ask a little more, or set up an auction!
>

Be truthful with the first person (and every later person) you call. Say
you thought you had a buyer lined up, but he was a no-show, so now whoever
shows up first can buy the car. Don't rub their noses in it, but make it
clear that several people are interested and you ARE making other phone
calls. If that turns someone off, then they probably weren't that serious
to begin with. So it's better if they decide not to show up, so they won't
waste your time. -Dave

On Apr 6, 2:11 pm, "My Name" <techd...@gmail . com > wrote:
> I'm selling a used car at a great price. Multiple parties have
> responded to my ad wishing to purchase said car. I've got one party
> who says they will "probably stop by sometime Saturday morning" with
> me setting an "earliest" time to protect my shut-eye. I've got
> another who has told me he'll most likely shoot for my "earliest"
> time, as he's "in a spot" and wants the car. This guy didn't annoy me
> at all on the phone, and I'd like to sell it to him full price and be
> done with it. However, I don't want to put all my eggs in this one
> guys basket, so to speak.
>
> The phone is still ringing. When calling these people back, what
> should I tell them? Is the norm first come, first serve? Driveway
> bidding war? I don't want to schedule 8 appointments throughout the
> day, and then have seven people pissed I sold it before they got to
> it. I also don't want to tell everyone to wait and see, because if
> the two parties mentioned earlier do not buy it I'd like one of the
> people whose message is currently in my voicemail to do so, and
> tomorrow is a good day to get it done for me.
>
> So, what's the move here (beside thinking that I should have asked a
> little more for the car in the first place)?

This is one of many instances where you have many buyers for one
product. Unless it really matters to you, I would just do it first
come first served. If two people show up at the same time, whoever
has the money and pays first gets it.

I was looking for an apartment in a major city a few weekends ago, and
several landlords pretty much told me that they could care less who
rents the apartment, as long as someone rents it so its not sitting
empty. They made it pretty clear that it was first come, first
served, and whomever handed them the check for the security deposit
first would get the apartment. Under no circumstances could the
apartment come off the market and stop being shown to prospective
tenants until they had a check in their hand (though my future
landlord accepted a fax of my check and FedEx receipt as proof that my
check was on its way...he was nice enough to accomodate the fact that
I lived 300 miles away). It might sound mean or uncompassionate, but
its really the only fair way to handle such a "high demand"
transaction which protects the interests of the owner. I'd suggest a
similar strategy for handling the auto transaction.