In the eBay Motors “How to Sell a Vehicle” guide, the first part of “Step 2: Create Your Listing” is to “Describe the Vehicle”.

You begin by clicking on the link for the “Sell Your Item form”. Much of the information that I needed to fill in the “Sell Your Item form” was information that I had already filled out in the “Sell Your Vehicle Checklist”. Thus, I just filled in the fields while referencing the checklist… easy. Uploading the pictures took a little bit of time, but anytime you are uploading 24 pictures it is going to take a little while… easy again. However, things got a little trickier when it came time to fill in the “Vehicle Description” field.

The “Vehicle Description” field is where you put in your sales copy, if you will. I wanted to present Gemma in the best possible light, but I also didn’t want to be misleading. Gemma is an old car by todays standards with her fair share of imperfections. However, for someone who is looking for a cheap car, Gemma could be a real steal. In the end, I decided to just tell the story of how Gemma came into our family and what our relationship with her has been like, while making sure that I included all the details that any inquiring buyer should know.

Here’s what I wrote:

The trickiest part involved describing the problem with Gemma’s ignition key hole. This is, of course, an important issue to note. However, practically speaking, especially in the suburbs and given Gemma’s security system, it need not be a big deal. I know that there are many people who wouldn’t want to leave the key in the ignition all the time, and I understand their concern. At the same time, it was of so little impact to my sister that it wasn’t worth the $2-300 to get it fixed.

Anyway, I put more time into the “Vehicle Description” field than I would have liked ( a couple hours I believe), but I’m happy with the way it came out and believe that is does Gemma justice.

The second part of “Step 2: Create Your Listing” is to “Price Your Vehicle”. There are 4 options: 1) Reserve Price Auctions; 2) No Reserve Price Auctions; 3) Buy It Now listings; 4) Best Offer listings. These options are not mutally exclusive, (you can have a Reserve Price auction with a Buy It Now listing, for example), so there is lots to consider here. I debated internally with myself for a while over a pricing strategy.

I checked out the Kelly Blue Book, which valued Gemma at $1325. This, of course, did not take into consideration her ignition key hole problem. So, if you subtract the $2-300 it would cost to fix the ignition key hole, Gemma would be valued at just over $1000.

I decided that I’d like to try to get at least $400 for Gemma, given her value and the time I had already and would be putting into selling her. So, I could either start the bidding price at $400 or start the bidding at a lower price and set a Reserve of $400. I also toyed with the idea of setting a $1000 or $1100 Buy It Now price, given Gemma’s Blue Book value.

(As a bit of an aside, when I say $400, I really mean $397, and when I say $1000, I really mean $997. Studies show that people are far more willing to spend $397 or $399 than $400, $997 or $999 than $1000, etc. I think it’s weird, but I’m not going to fight it.)

In the end, I decided to forget about the Buy It Now listing and the Reserve, and just keep it simple by starting the bidding at $400 and just see what happens. Besides, I used eBay’s Live Chat to talk to eBay customer service, and they informed me that I can add a Buy It Now or a Reserve after the listing is live.

With the “Price Your Vehicle” part of “Step 2: Create Your Listing” complete, I moved onto the third part, “Set Terms of Sale”. The main thing you are deciding here is how to accept payment (Paypal, cash, etc.) and in how much time (2 days, 7 days, etc.) I’m in Concord, MA at present, which is where Gemma is, but I’m leaving for Santa Fe in about a month, so I want to make sure this is all wrapped up by then. Should something fall through with the first buyer, I want an opportunity to list Gemma on eBay again. I also want to make sure that the buyer is serious soon after the auction ends. So, I decided to ask for a $100 deposit through PayPal within 48 hours of the end of the auction, and the rest of the money within 7 days of the end of the auction.

One last thing to mention is that I opted for a 10 day listing starting at 9:30 EST on Friday. I chose a 10 Day listing because I wanted to give people two weekends to come and have a look at Gemma if they wanted. I felt this was important especially given that she is an old car with a number of imperfections. I chose 9:30 EST in order to give anyone on the West Coast who may be interested the oppertunity to come home from work on Monday and take part in the final hour of the bidding.

With that, “Step 2: Create Your Listing” was complete and Gemma was ready for eBay! In fact, Gemma’s listing went live last Friday night! Go check her out: Gemma on eBay.

(continued in Selling “Gemma” Step 3: Manage Your Listing)