Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Moonduck · 12-04-2003, 08:21 PM

Edmunds - Never used it much. Always too high for realistic values, and not tight enough sampling for my tastes.

Kelly - WAY too high. Kelly is the value people hope they can get for their cars from someone wealthy, drunk, and blind. Kelly, as far as I can tell, is about as accurate as the MSRP listed on a new car window sticker on a new car lot. You know, the one that no one pays.

Black Book - Auction values, very local and very accurate, but only for wholesale. If someone presents you with Black book as basis for their selling price, snap it up, it's very likely to be an obscene price. If someone makes a buy offer based on black book, ignore them, unless your trading it in, then you should probably still ignore thm.

NADA - Very accurate, within reason. Your local area market will always drive the prices on its' own, but NADA has shown to be more in line with reality than the rest. It helps that NADA is a very popular resource for people looking to find what to sell their cars for.

The bottom line is to ask what you want for your car. If it is a reasonable price, someone will buy it. If not, you know it's too high. The market will bear what the market will bear. Personally, I set prices around NADA when I sell, and I do my research locally to make sure the prices are good. Then I show how the car is a good deal. I've made good money selling cars in my spare time and have never screwed anyone on price.

As an aside, I sold cars for about a year before becoming an insurance adjuster and dealing with auto value on a daily basis. I've used just about every tool that you can imagine for value research, and a few you've probably never heard of. In most cases, you think your car is worth, on average, 10-15% (or more if you're really clueless) than it actually is.

As a second aside, accuracy of the various guides changes based on region. The info I'm putting out here is based off of my location Mid-Atlantic Seaboard in Virginia. Your Mileage May vary.

Oh, and here, almost every dealer uses NADA. Kelly books are usually on site, but only if they want to rip someone off.

12-04-2003, 08:21 PM	#5 (permalink)
Moonduck Junkie Location: SE USA	Edmunds - Never used it much. Always too high for realistic values, and not tight enough sampling for my tastes. Kelly - WAY too high. Kelly is the value people hope they can get for their cars from someone wealthy, drunk, and blind. Kelly, as far as I can tell, is about as accurate as the MSRP listed on a new car window sticker on a new car lot. You know, the one that no one pays. Black Book - Auction values, very local and very accurate, but only for wholesale. If someone presents you with Black book as basis for their selling price, snap it up, it's very likely to be an obscene price. If someone makes a buy offer based on black book, ignore them, unless your trading it in, then you should probably still ignore thm. NADA - Very accurate, within reason. Your local area market will always drive the prices on its' own, but NADA has shown to be more in line with reality than the rest. It helps that NADA is a very popular resource for people looking to find what to sell their cars for. The bottom line is to ask what you want for your car. If it is a reasonable price, someone will buy it. If not, you know it's too high. The market will bear what the market will bear. Personally, I set prices around NADA when I sell, and I do my research locally to make sure the prices are good. Then I show how the car is a good deal. I've made good money selling cars in my spare time and have never screwed anyone on price. As an aside, I sold cars for about a year before becoming an insurance adjuster and dealing with auto value on a daily basis. I've used just about every tool that you can imagine for value research, and a few you've probably never heard of. In most cases, you think your car is worth, on average, 10-15% (or more if you're really clueless) than it actually is. As a second aside, accuracy of the various guides changes based on region. The info I'm putting out here is based off of my location Mid-Atlantic Seaboard in Virginia. Your Mileage May vary. Oh, and here, almost every dealer uses NADA. Kelly books are usually on site, but only if they want to rip someone off. Last edited by Moonduck; 12-05-2003 at 02:51 PM..