Joe, a self-described eWillys addict (aka – Joe in Mesa), created this post about the reasons why some jeeps never seem to sell. He’s organized the problems into four categories: seller issues, ad issues, buyer behavior, or the jeep itself. His examples reflect what I’ve experienced. No doubt there are more . . . Perhaps you’ll find this instructive or amusing. Thanks to Joe for assembling it.
SELLER ISSUES:
- Unrealistic seller (thinks jeep is worthy of Barrett-Jackson price).
- Reluctant seller (doesn’t really want to part with his/her “baby”).
- Seller won’t respond (doesn’t answer phone or email). Could be jaded from the SPAM attempts. Some people get slammed with email SPAM when posting to craigslist. Others have received telemarketers after posting their phone number.
- Email responses from buyers are going into seller’s junk mail. Dave has run into this problem when replying to a Craigslist ad using a yahoo account.
AD ISSUES:
- Wrong contact info in ad (incorrect phone number or email address. Sometimes just a “type-O”).
- Misspelled “Willys” or other issue making ad hard to find (copy the spelling from your vehicle!). That’s why Dave uses a whole bunch of different spellings for “Willys” when searching Craigslist. He just got a great deal on a 25 page brochure off of eBay because the seller spelled misspelled the name WYLLIS. Sometimes Willys nor Jeep is used in an ad. One alternative some sellers use is “flat fender” as in “Flat Fender for Sale”.
- Old ads, seldom updated. Only gets reposted with the same price, pics, and description every time. Buyers quickly tire of old ads.
- Poor pics or lack of pics in ad. Have great pics can really help. Conversely having poor or no pics will turn off many potential buyers, that sometimes no-pic ads are fantastic deals. But, you have to investigate a lot of bad ads to find a good deal.
BUYER BEHAVIOR:
- Not local to buyers: too far from the major metro area. Some folks don’t want to deal with an absent buyer. Some want the money quick and don’t trust paypal. Others don’t trust absent buyers.
- Particular buyers. Many jeeps are worth the hard work but not everyone can afford the time it takes or don’t have the facilities to repair a mechanically challenging-jeep.
- Cheap local buyers (many people only want a deal, a “steal”, or a bargain).
- Scared, reluctant local buyers (see reasons for HARDER to sell, below)
JEEP ITSELF:
Technically the jeep itself should never be an issue that a low enough price can’t solve (a common example would be “no engine”: I bought one of those), but some jeeps are much HARDER to sell:
- – no title (in some states nearly impossible to resolve, and expensive in many others)
- – excessive rust
- – bad engine (cracked, seized, etc.. IMHO “no engine” jeeps sell better than “bad engine” ones).
- – horribly ugly (despite the current saying, there really isn’t a butt for EVERY seat)
- – similarly, “what the heck did Bubba do?… and why’d he do THAT?”
- – botched, incomplete “projects”
- – jeep covered by piles of misc. parts, furniture, dust, animal droppings, etc. (“barn find”? Really?)
- – jeep looks way better in the photos than in person.
- – seller places an ad without pics, but offers a description that doesn’t match with what a buyer finds when he or she sees the vehicle in person.
- – Bottom Line: insufficient value (cost too much to fix or restore… even if you gave it away for free)
Could there be other reasons? Poor economy (buyer issue), seller is a jerk, nearly impossible to move/get (tree growing up through frame, buried deep in a barn or basement, holding up the corner of the structure, in window of Banana Republic mall store…)?
So, buying a jeep can be an adventure!
Had a seller who had a combination:
1. No pics in CL ad and no way for seller to get them to buyers. Seller had no computer, camera, or cell phone camera. Seller stated he was 72 years old and completely anti-technology, and boasted about his rotary phone and tape-based answering machine.
2. no email, no texts
3. call seller in a 2 hour dinner time window ONLY
4. not available to show the car except on weekends (actually good for the buyer). But, every time I called to make an appointment to see it (during his 2 hour weekday dinner hour call window) on a weekend, he was going to be out of town all weekend.
5. Seller lived in self described “remote” area just outside a major metropolis. Wanted to meet me out by the highway and have me follow him to his place. After I said I could find it, he gave me directions (take route xx to exit yy, turn right, turn left at Sunoco, travel 2 miles, turn left at green barn) and no actual street address. I later used google street view to follow those directions and found he was one of those old properties in a modern subdivision. The Willys was visible in the street view parked under a tree on the property.
6. Willys described as running, but from a gas can. With more probing, the last time it ran from the gas can was 5 years ago.
7. No price listed in original ad (posted by a friend on CL). Seller stated he was interested in finding a good home with a Willys enthusiast and stated that because I had pronounced Willys (Will-is) properly, I could buy it for $3500. Had I failed to correctly pronounce it, I would, presumably, have been quoted a higher price.
I eventually gave up on him. Don’t know if he ever sold it. I’ll have to check google maps a year from now to see if its still under the tree. LOL
So, in this case, the seller was clearly the problem. It’s been my experience that seller issues are more likely to prevent a purchase than remote buyers or problems found during inspection.
I think Joe hit the nail on the head, nice writeup!
-Merlin
There was a seller problem, ad problem, title problem, and Jeep problem with mine but persistence paid off! lol
Mitch
Good discussion I think. I might remind you I have helped ridicule sellers here. The ads that say “don’t waste my time” or “I know what it’s worth” or maybe the best is “runs good, bring a battery and gas can”, say what???
Advise for buying is good. Misspellings, lack of total vehicle name. Mine was listed as FC150. Nothing else. I wasn’t looking for one but only found it doing a year by year search looking for a Ford pickup. Jeep, Willys, Kaiser, etc, all seem to mean different things to different people.
Not to hijack this thread but. There is a radio program called History of Kenosha, WI. The guy must be in his 70’s and seems well educated with an interest in old cars, especially Nash, Hudson, Rambler, because of their connection with Kenosha. I’ve heard him say more than once the correct enunciation is Willis. What is up with that? Nobody talks that way.
John
John,
As I understand it, he is correct about the pronunciation of ‘Willys’ as Willis. However, because of the name’s spelling, many many people mispronounce it. Even workers at the Willys plant mispronounced it (see bottom of page http://www.public.asu.edu/~grover/willys/ws.html). I have learned that some folks (jeep and pre-jeep vehicle lovers) are real sticklers for pronouncing it correctly and I can’t blame the for that.
In my case, until the age of 46 I’d never heard it pronounced any other way than Willeez. Because of my own history and because of the spelling, I will continue to say it ‘incorrectly’. But, this is one aspect of the jeep world this ol’ dog just can’t embrace. It will always be Willeez to me.
– Dave
One point I was trying to suggest, albeit VERY indirectly, is: GO FOR IT. Check out that jeep that’s STILL for sale. It could just be that noone else noticed it’s true value… and you could catch that seller finally ready to accept even a slightly realistic offer. It’s happened for me; being the only one who showed real interest, passion, and enough knowledge to impress them that I’d be a worthy buyer.
Long live Willeez !