What's it worth now?

Having paid £15k in January 2009 and with dealers still offering the same model for around £13/£14k, I often wonder what sort of trade-in I would get now for my Symphony (not that I'm in the market at the moment). Allowing for the greedy dealer mark-up of around £5k, I always hope I might get around £8/9k but my thoughts have just been shattered by this offering on Ebay. It's a 1998R, mine is a 1997R. It's got 61k on the clock, mine has 60k. It has fiamma awning and bike rack and large rear box, mine has none of these. Just look at the price it sold for, no reserve....

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I don't believe that the seller has made the most of the listing. I've been selling on Ebay for over 10 years and feel that it's really important to list the item accurately and to provide big, detailed photos to give people the confidence to bid without viewing (if that's what they want to do), particularly when your prospective buyer could live many hundreds of miles away. I have also noticed that it's the seller's first ever sale. This would affect potential buyer confidence, particularly the buyers who won't travel to view.

I would have put the model 'Symphony' in the title and a bit more detail to hook people in. I've no doubt that there are buyers willing to pay a lot more than that for a Symphony of that age. I would also have attended to the cosmetic and bodywork issues prior to sale because lots of motorhome buyers don't seem to want to bother with that kind of thing. They just want a van ready to go with no work at all.

I wouldn't say that £6,750 is representative of what it's actually worth.... Only 4 bids. That must have hurt!

Tattybogle wrote:.. Only 4 bids. That must have hurt!

My son just sold an MGF on Ebay - 95 watchers, a very good listing although I could have done better (I too have been an ebayer for 10 years - feedback over 600) again only 4 bids and only reached £740 for a W2000.

I've been pondering the book-value of my van recently as well.

I'm using the van as home from home when I work away...And as I live in the North of Scotland, any trip into "civilisation" is at least 140 miles drive. Consequently I'm doing a lot of miles.

I bought the van on a finance deal, so I know exactly how much I still owe on the van, but beginning to wonder if I'll find myself in negative-equity.. I'd like to buy another van at some point, so just wonder what the optimum time would be to sell the current van.

Is there any "Glass's" or "Parkers" type publication available which gives a "book" value for Motorhomes / campers ?

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ForresGeek

Tattybogle wrote:I don't believe that the seller has made the most of the listing. I've been selling on Ebay for over 10 years and feel that it's really important to list the item accurately and to provide big, detailed photos to give people the confidence to bid without viewing (if that's what they want to do), particularly when your prospective buyer could live many hundreds of miles away. I have also noticed that it's the seller's first ever sale. This would affect potential buyer confidence, particularly the buyers who won't travel to view.

I have to agree, I would not have bid on it, the photos were rubbish - too small and too dark to see any detail - so what's he hiding? It isn't a SWB which is obvious, says it K reg when it's R reg, what else has he mistyped?

There's probably nothing wrong with the van, but as Tatty says, someone who is miles away and can't see it in the flesh would be put off by these details.

Frank