you are right paul,there are a hell of alot of shitters about.i have been saying this to my missus and mates for a little while.i notice it mainly with the saffs at shows,you see lovely 3drs,500's and escys but the saffs seem so unloved and ragged to the death.the amount on show i have looked at and thought "why do you show that when you clearly dont give a crap about it?"they hardly bother to clean hem for a show either.

a good car will always sell at good money if the cash is in the right blokes pocket.like me at the mo,im desperately trying to get cash toghether to buy a mates cossie off him. nice clean car and modded the way i want

 

last year my business was 70% rs cars for sale,20%rs parts and 10%other cars for sale.

now its 75%other cars for sale,25%rs cars for sale and 0%rs parts.


nowhere near as much fun now as i have do deal with a lot more run of the mill cars which dont sell as well as the good rs cars but i realised like paul that a lot of the cars available to us now rs-wise are not worth us buying.

im going on holiday on friday and am going to have a serious think about the business while im away-resting.

 

In all fairness that's not Ebays fault, if people prefer to use it then that's life sadly.

 

eBay is great in some respects, but absolutely rubbish in others.

IMO, its a big part of the reason that my own company has never really progressed, but then that also isnt helped when the supplier themselves sell items on eBay and under cut their customer, which is no good!

Cars in general tend to be a slow moving market now unless you're established. Near me the price of second hand cars have gone up as well.

What are you planing on doing Paul if you're moving away from the breaking side?

 

yeah i know.unfortunately we live in a world thats full of lazy buggers that cant be bothered to get up and go out

 

I think many business' use ebay now and work on a small profit margin so sales figures are high. Ł3-4-5+ profit per item soon adds up when your selling 20+ items. Maybe not big money no, but it helps keep there business going and pay towards their other costs.

I think many people see ebay as a 'little extra' to supplement their 'main' business so to speak. Although no doubts theres loads that purely rely on ebay to earn a living.

The problem regarding the price of parts getting lower and lower is a viscious cycle in my opinion. If breakers see people selling loads on ebay cheap, it lowers the value of their parts in their shops, so they feel they have to compeat and also list on ebay, therefore lowering the prices even further as the supply has increased giving the customer more choice.

Ok this may benefit the people who want parts now, but as said above, everyone will suffer in the long run as the value of the cars are often determined by the value of parts. The other people to benefit will be buyers who couldnt quite afford a cossie before.

Thats the theory anyway, whether it actually happens like that is anyones guess.

 

What I was getting at, no way it's worth Ł1500 like that!

 

Bang on the button mate

It seems great for a buyer at the mo ,,but it will ruin the cossies value very soon

 

Good cossies will ALWAYS hold thier money.....

As said before, people are no longer held by the short and curlys by breakers, as Ebay has provided a mass marked for people to sell stuff nationwide, a few years ago you have 7-8 pages of cars and parts in the back of Fast ford as that was the only real place to sell them now there is barely 5 pages, and smallish sites like the RSOC BB at the time for the minority that used the net....

Now people won't sell thier cars at knockdown prices to traders as they can sell it far easier on Fleabay...

it will end up the same as MK1/2 escorts, the shitters get broken, the good ones just go up in value, a good 4x4 saffy is now 5k+, a year ago they were around for under 4k good and bad in equal mesures....

 

traders buy from ebay aswell cant have it both ways

 

and sell....

 

[quote="RWD_cossie_wil"]Good cossies will ALWAYS hold thier money.....


Now people won't sell thier cars at knockdown prices to traders as they can sell it far easier on Fleabay...

Thats my point in the post mate these cheap cossies arnt selling on fleebay

And i still buy plenty of cheap cossie thanks ,,its the parts i cant sell on thats the problem

 

I have only ever bought 1 cossie from e/bay

 

[quote="NORTH YORKS RS SPARES"]Is there no money in doing them up instead and selling them on? Or is this just even more hassle in the long run?

 

well a seem to have been out bid by you on a few items,so you must buy parts off there aswell

 

I do buy the odd part

 

[I do buy the odd part [/quote]

is that cause its cheaper to buy off ebay than cosworth breakers mate

 

is that cause its cheaper to buy off ebay than cosworth breakers mate [/quote]

Look at my feedback mate and check what i have bought

Only hard to find / special items mate ,,not run of the mill stuff

 

good to see you supporting the bed room traders paul

 

Oh the Irony

 

Hey , i will buy of anyone , and pay good money for parts if i want them

I wont penny pinch and spend all day ringing round or e.mailing every tom dick and harry just to save Ł2

If i want somthing i buy it ,,simple

Isnt it also funny how people love to have a go at traders and think its great that we are being undercut by bedroom traders who will rip you of as soon as look at you ,, British people are a very funny lot , and then we wonder why this country is going down hill so fast and yet all other countries are growing at a fast rate
Please dont forget that REAL traders pay Tax / rates / etc etc that put money back into the pot , and if there were no real traders / shops etc left and nobody putting money back into the pot what do you think will happen to your TAXES ,,,,, get your money out fellas because you will only pay more in the long run

Well as this post has turned into a "lets have a go at traders " post ( because we resent that thay have loads of money and we dont )

I will now go and sit in my office and think of my new business plan and decide what i can do next ,, while you all go to work for somone else and wonder what it must be like to have the balls to set up a business and actually have a go

 

For a totally standard Grey Series 2 back in 2002, Good paint work but drivers door and roof tatty, 113k on what seemed a good engine and it was, good interior with only a tiny rip on drivers seat, good alloys but one dis-coloured and 4 good tyres with a years MOT and 3 months tax

I paid Ł1000, so FUCK paying Ł700 for that LOL

 

personally i cannot see whats wrong with ebay,if you do it PROPERLY and are geared up to work correctly with it you can build up a huge business.

the more rare 909 group A parts seem to do very well on ebay now,in fact i cannot think of a better place to sell these parts nowadays,almost every rally crew using proper escorts/sapphires are all buying on ebay,it can be a little time consuming but no more than somebody ringing you up and effectivley wasting your time to sound you out on prices or compare to what they want to sell.on ebay 98% of the time its a bid that actually leads to a sale,mostly instant payments so you can ship next day keeping everybody happy,

even if somebody rings for a part they almost always want pictures emailed.if its on ebay with good pictures/description then the phone call isnt even needed.

as for buying cars on there,ive not baught many road cars but have baught over 50 rally cars over the last few years.most of them were a bargain.

rallycars for sale.net is a waste of time,as is motoring news etc,ive never advertised in the glossy mags and never felt a need to either.
i supose its all down to how you run your business,i know mine is different to you paul as mine is 90% motorsport/rallying but the other 10% for the road still does well i find.

i think the jap thing is a longshot as well paul,to many established business's at that game now and the jap thing was better 10 years ago when it all exploded from nowhere,now its no where near like the good old days with ships full of impreza and early evos.the margines arnt there and all the top contacts in japan only look after the established,trying to get among that without the right guys behind you will be very tough.

road car sales still seem to be a decent way to make a living,ive plenty of friends still making a good living from it.

now the real money at the moment has nothing to do with cars,but thats a whole different story.