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there seems to be a current trend of keeping prices secret why do people advertise vehicles without the price we have had the old POA now they just do not include the price often i have been interested but thought if they cannot put a price i cannot be bothered getting involved in a long conversation just to find out how much it is:-|

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A variation on this is that last year I reponded to an advert selling NOS Fv432 track pads at a price that I could afford. I was told that there had been too many interested people so the items were not for sale any more ! I have not seen them readvertised since and I know that people were being told the same as me for some weeks so I don't think they were sold from that advert.

 

I couldn't work out how they hadn't been sold to the first or second interested person so presumably this was a variation on POA in which you see if there is a lot of interest and then instead of putting up your idea of what you will accept you decide you want to gloat that you have something that lots of others want. Silly man I thought (or something like that).

 

David

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Always seemed to me to be better business sense to say "Offers in the region of £xxxxx" if the seller doesn't want to state a firm price. At least then the viewer of the ad can see if what's being looked for as at least within his/her price range and the seller is not committed to a price.

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Always seemed to me to be better business sense to say "Offers in the region of £xxxxx" if the seller doesn't want to state a firm price. At least then the viewer of the ad can see if what's being looked for as at least within his/her price range and the seller is not committed to a price.

 

I think you are right with " offers in the region of " especially if you are unsure of the market or where the price should be.

i remember being told as a youngster you can't be the buyer and seller ! , so need to give the advertised audience a guide price.

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There is an even more annoying version of 'no price'... when you do ask them what they want for an unpriced item and they say 'to make them an offer'. If I still even bother to make one it will never be more than 2/3s of the usual going rate. Two can play that game... :-D

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I speak as somebody who has bought and sold military vehicles for my own use for 30 years and somebody who has bought and sold within the motor industry for 35 years including a business selling 1,400 cars a month all online so I hope I understand how to market using online ads.

 

The facts are simple, if you don’t put a price on you reduce the number of enquiries by around 80% and only get people ring who are either already in the trade looking for a bargain so aren’t afraid to call and ask or people who will haggle you down and play hard ball because they enjoy it. Genuine buyers generally don’t like to haggle but understand it’s the done thing so will only ring in the first place if there is a starting point.

 

Regarding price if you put ‘£xxxxx, no offers’ then you had better be both cheap and with a desirable product to sell as people only see the seller as difficult to deal with and again just not pick up the phone. If you put the price too high then you reduce the enquiries as you increase the price above the general market. When we were selling 1,400 cars a month we could produce a pricing curve for each car to ‘control’ how fast we sold them using a mathematical formula, we used this to control stock levels. Of course military vehicles are more difficult as there are far less in the market at any one time but the recent trend of pricing your vehicle £5k higher than the last one advertised only generally reduces enquiries as people don’t see the value.

 

An example of this would be universal carriers, the prices have run up each time one is advertised until the current level of around £40-50k. I bet you not many actually sell for anywhere near the advertised prices currently.

 

The good old fashioned sensible price with ‘ono’ or ‘in the region of’ works as both parties have the comfort of a starting point (or indeed just pay the asking price as I have done a few times because I saw the value for me), this way of pricing makes the phone ring. The seller must decide how quickly they want to sell it and the buyer must decide if they personally see it as value for them, therefore generally the lower the price, the quicker it sells. Unless of course you have a Tiger or Panther to sell in which case the ‘no price and if you have to ask you can’t afford it’ rule applies but generally price it every time.

 

The other reason not to price and ask a high price when asked which I have seen is that you have told the wife you are having a clear out of the far too many vehicles you have and then use the excuse that you have advertised them but can’t sell them so they will have to stay, I’m certain I’ve spoken to a few of them in the past as they clearly didn’t want to sell!!!!

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I admit to being one of those that wouldn't bother nowadays to ring unless there was an idea of the price required......

I know honesty is the best policy etc and all that kind of stuff but...when I've rung up for something and find that the price being asked is ridiculous...... I find it hard to be totally honest and say

" mate ...you gotta be having a laugh! get out of it !!!!"

which is probably what needs saying..... but that still seems to me to be a bit rude :) (call me too 'old fashioned' or 'daft' or whatever you want) .....

My feelings are I guess , if someone is naive/stupid enough to think their item is worth maybe 5 or 10 times what the going rate is ?... then who am I to go and spoil their fantasy ?

Plus...lets be honest .....if someone is asking lets say £10,000 for something you know is really only worth £5000 ?...then such a clown as would be asking double it's true value ?...is hardly likely to be prepared to 'haggle' as far as the 'sensible land' the rest of us live in .....

To be fair I've often tried to buy things off such folk in the past and have given up as the situation is obviously hopeless.........and in many of those such cases the item / vehicle etc that I've been trying to buy ?.. has stayed with the buyer for many years afterwards and continued to rot away ....( often to only end up being scrapped for a pittance of what he was originally asking despite repeated attempts to buy it......but that's another story all together :) )

To sum up ...

I far prefer the 'old fashioned' way of , stating the price and then adding 'o.n.o.' to the end of it ....at least then a prospective purchaser knows what the vendor is 'roughly expecting' .... and you also both also know there is some haggling to be done :):)

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  • 2 months later...

I well understand both side of the coins as stated so far.

 

I would however say that no one has mentioned how us folks in the colonies get screwed over very well, I have often had UK residents buy items as the foreign sales price is higher and quite often we get sent stuff that is not as advertised or the duff bunch of the batch and then get stiffed. If they know it is going to a UK buyer then we don't get the jink but eat the VAT.

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Fishing or just don’t know what it is worth

 

When I see a For Sale listing with no price listed always brings two things to mind for me. First that the seller is on a Fishing Trip looking for a fish to come along and bite, the bigger the fish the better. Just look at all the items on E-bay that are perpetually for sale but never seem to sell. The other option is the seller really just not know what it is worth. Either way the first e-mail or telephone call will likely tell which. There is noting wrong with trying to get as much for an object you are sell if that is your goal.

 

Having said all that, my introduction to owning an MV came 38 years ago from a rather obscure description of an MV with no price in Hemmings Motor News, no photo and the only real description being “C-8-A” now this was pre-internet so how may of you could have identified it as a CMP (Canadian Military Pattern) HUP (Heavy Utility Personal). Well I had Bart Vanderveen’s Obserers Guide and could actually look it up. Liked what it looked like and armed with a little information called the number in the Ad. The young man who owned it wanted more than I was interested or could pay at that time ($3000 US Dollars just about what a new 4x4 cost at the time) but I was interested so drove 100 miles to look at it and talked with the owner. We talked and I left saying I’d check with him in a couple of months which I did. By that time he was overwhelmed with the lack of interest his ad had generated. Little more talking and it came out he wanted something to go off roading. I said I had just the thing a brand new OSSA Trials Bike which had cost me $900 and a deal was struck straight swap. We both got something we wanted.

 

Moral of the story- no price listed and your interested give them a call.

 

Cheers Phil

 

PS Yes the same HUP as my Avitar Picture

Edited by CMP-Phil
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Talking of 'fishing'

I have two of these in the shed that i gave £20.00 a piece for some time ago.

 

Fish Hook.jpg

 

Therefore, according to eBay, i now have £1200.00 sat in my shed !

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-MILITARY-INSTRUMENT-PANEL-AUSTIN-CHAMP-HUMBER-FV1600-FERRET-LEYLAND-Martians-/262498118787?hash=item3d1e1b6c83:g:BLUAAOSwNSxU9aCo

 

Happy hunting J. R. Hartley !

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Talking of 'fishing'

I have two of these in the shed that i gave £20.00 a piece for some time ago.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]123718[/ATTACH]

 

Therefore, according to eBay, i now have £1200.00 sat in my shed !

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-MILITARY-INSTRUMENT-PANEL-AUSTIN-CHAMP-HUMBER-FV1600-FERRET-LEYLAND-Martians-/262498118787?hash=item3d1e1b6c83:g:BLUAAOSwNSxU9aCo

 

Happy hunting J. R. Hartley !

You and me both

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I can only speak from experience.

More often than not, POA or no price often means the seller is asking a ridiculous price for the item and they know it.

I must admit, if the ads do not give a price or indication of price I can't be bothered to make an enquiry unless I really want something.

In that case, 9 times out of 10 - see my first point!

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Talking of 'fishing'

I have two of these in the shed that i gave £20.00 a piece for some time ago.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]123718[/ATTACH]

 

Therefore, according to eBay, i now have £1200.00 sat in my shed !

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-MILITARY-INSTRUMENT-PANEL-AUSTIN-CHAMP-HUMBER-FV1600-FERRET-LEYLAND-Martians-/262498118787?hash=item3d1e1b6c83:g:BLUAAOSwNSxU9aCo

 

Happy hunting J. R. Hartley !

 

I'll give you £40 for one! :)

 

Cheers,

Terry

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Talking of 'fishing'

I have two of these in the shed that i gave £20.00 a piece for some time ago.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]123718[/ATTACH]

 

Therefore, according to eBay, i now have £1200.00 sat in my shed !

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-MILITARY-INSTRUMENT-PANEL-AUSTIN-CHAMP-HUMBER-FV1600-FERRET-LEYLAND-Martians-/262498118787?hash=item3d1e1b6c83:g:BLUAAOSwNSxU9aCo

 

Happy hunting J. R. Hartley !

 

Even I have one lying around here somewhere although mine isn't NOS

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Talking of 'fishing'

I have two of these in the shed that i gave £20.00 a piece for some time ago.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]123718[/ATTACH]

 

Therefore, according to eBay, i now have £1200.00 sat in my shed !

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-MILITARY-INSTRUMENT-PANEL-AUSTIN-CHAMP-HUMBER-FV1600-FERRET-LEYLAND-Martians-/262498118787?hash=item3d1e1b6c83:g:BLUAAOSwNSxU9aCo

 

Happy hunting J. R. Hartley !

 

 

Or - also according to eBay you just made a fivers profit on each! :) :)

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/British-Army-Vehicle-Dash-Panel-Ferret-Saracen-Champ-etc/192115247121?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41434%26meid%3D839d67214d5f4340bdb46dbede88feca%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D262498118787

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