Is it just me?

[louixo]

I'm always looking at the classifieds and love to check out used trucks. Over the years, I've bought alot of used equipment, and will be buying more in the coming years. When I'm reading an ad for any vehicle, there are turn off points where, unless it has a really good word description of something I might be interested in, I won't waste my time reading anymore, and I'll trash the ad and move on to the next one.
Here are some turn offs for me:
1. Call for price. If it says that, I see a salesman hiding somewhere who is going to try and screw me.
2. No mileage. Goodbye. Very important.
3. Engine. And the seller puts in "diesel". I personally won't buy a small cat.
4.No pictures. Duhhhh! Pictures are what sells it. I want to see what it looks like.
5.Transmission. Seller puts in 6 speed. 6 speed what, is what I want to know.

I see trucks that stay advertised and unsold for months. If it was my truck not selling for a long period of time, I'd look at the price I was asking, and then think about the above points.

A seller may have all kinds of goodies and gadgets on an older truck. Let's use the year 2000 as a marker. He then wants $10,000-$15,000 more than a comparative truck same year. Doubtful he will get it, because it's still a 2000 model, no matter what's on it. I know there are exceptions with special app trucks rigged for a particular job, but I'm talking over the road trucks here. Expediting in particular.

 

[davekc]

I am pretty much the same way. No interest to call for a price unless I am specing one from the ground up. Certainly not on a used one. I think many are upside down in the loan so individuals are trying anything to get rid of them.

 

[bluejaybee]

I would say that 90% of potential buyers are as you are. Everything you said you disliked, me, too. I want to at least know the basics. Anything else would be a bonus. The color of the carpet, has it been smoked in, does the picture make it appear different than in person. You just can't list too much for me. Of course, the draw card is the price, but sometimes, if out of my range, I will still look at it if it has a good description. There is definitely an advantage to how you describe it.

 

[greg334]

What is scary, is not the listing but the person selling it.

"when was the oil changed last?"

"I don't know, the team that drove it changed if often"

It comes down to the seller knowing something about the truck itself and what went on. If the person isn't involved with the truck's operation or is clueless to what an ECM is or why the thing had a bottom end failure, then it is a big red flag.

What goes hand in hand with that is the thinking that the truck is worth a lot of money when it is not. I know of a great deal on a Landstar Straight truck, it was very well equipped and realistically priced at $22k and sold quickly but it wasn't the only one of that make or year or equipment that was up for sale, there was another just like it with just a different color. The owner was asking $65k for that one, it wasn't worth anything more than $20 because of the milleage but because of the investment of the owner, he expected $65k out of it.

 

[Lawrence]

I agree.

We have a a very clear guide for people to get POSITIVE results ASAP with our ads....yet most never read it:

http://www.expeditersonline.com/classifieds/index.php?a=28&b=139

 

[greg334]

Lawrence,
Seeing the ads are part of the EO experience, have you ever considered requiring email registration for the ads - not the accounts and have those instructions emailed to the user in order for them to get the ad posted.

I had this setup for another purpose but it can work for ads. A user wants to post an ad, he fills out the ad form and then hits the post button. The page he lands on tells him to go check the email for further instructions. There is a link on the bottom of the email that allows him to edit the ad and then post it but requires him to read the info about how to post an effective ad first.

It worked for me and my client, they have about 70k users and a lot of posts that need specific info.

 

[SHARP327]

There was an ad a while back for a "GREAT TRUCK" MUST SEE! but the seller never furnished any pictures............use to get a grunt out of me every time I saw the add listing but I never bothered looking at the add.

But to be fair...I was only window shopping.