As part of our downsizing in order to Roll With It, we needed to part with one of our Jeep Wranglers. Our ’92 Jeep spends most of its time parked at the Airport in Houston so that I have some transportation while in Houston working. We also have a ’13 JKU that is tricked out for wheeling – this one will follow us on our Journey (Driven by Kaylin) so that we can wheel while out and about.
It was decided that Julie’s Jeep would have to go. No problem – I listed it on Craigslist, Facebook, Cars.com, Autotrader.com and Ebay – I figured one of these would find the right buyer. What I was not prepared for were the number of scammers out to get me.
Here was my first scam – I call it “PayPal Schmaypal”.
As soon as I called him out about living near McGuire AFB the communication stopped. Here is how the scam works: Buyer steals another person’s PayPal account, makes the purchase with seller by depositing full amount into buyer PayPal account. Seller transportation service picks up car. PayPal discovers the fraud and takes the money back out of your bank account.
My Second scam I call – “Get the CarFax”
In this scam the buyer gets you excited about the prospect of selling full price. Buyer then attempts to make you comfortable by mentioning his Church function. Also, when I mentioned hail damage, he did not question it and just asked me to send the report.
The buyer sends you to a site that sounds legitimate (Carfax in the title) but is not. If you go to the site and give them your name, address and credit card number, the send you a car report and then go on a shopping spree with your credit card – or he gets a commission for sending you to the site. Either way why risk it, he has no plans to purchase the vehicle.
The third scam I call “Dumb Down the Price”
In this scam the car buyer is a legitimate car wholesaler. How this scam works is that he get you to your bottom price over the phone during your first conversation. He then sets up a time and place for the transaction to happen usually a bank or neutral location to make you feel comfortable with him and that he is not trying to scam you.
If you felt confident with the sale, you may have removed your ads and turned down any prospects because for all intents and purposes, the car is sold. Then the day before the transaction he asks about the condition of the vehicle. At this point he offers a lower price because he has to make all the repairs.
If you agree, he has one more opportunity to lower the price. On the day of the sale, he will look the vehicle over and offer you one more low ball price while holding out cash money in his hand. In this case he would have lowered my price from $24,900 list to about $20,000 cash – a $4900 built in profit for him before he even sells the car.
In this case, I had already lowered the listing price from the blue book price of $26,500 to cover cosmetic repairs. I was willing to settle at $23K for a quick sale and he got me to lower another $400 for hail damage – Which I had already subtracted out.
I got sick of his low-balling and gave him an ultimatum which to my benefit he did not accept.
What I did to sell the Jeep:
So I got tired of the scammers calling and txting. My sister in-law told me about a site called GiveMeTheVIN.com where she had a successful sale. I signed up and got an immediate offer. I sold the car alone without the accessories for $22K. I sold the off-road doors for $275. Sold the softtop for $100, gave away the bumpers, mats and shocks, and will sell the set of wheels for about $1000. Total $23375.
GiveMeTheVIN.com pays better than the cars.com offers, CarMax or dealer trade in. You will not get as much as selling it to another person, but it sure saves you from the hassle of the scammers.