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Welcome to the MYE28 Cars For Sale subforum. If you have a BMW for sale, and more specifically an E28 for sale, this is the definitive place in the USA to see your car go to a good home. Please read this note before posting your advertisement.
You should put this information with your advertisement; it's absolutely essential for cars above that $5000 threshold, but even for anything but a parts car:
- Mileage (and status of odometer gears).
- Year and make.
- Transmission type (auto or manual)
- Location of seller/car.
- Price (believe if or not, some folks still forget this)
- How many owners and/or where the car has lived - this is mainly to help us determine the likelihood of rust having developed in the past 25 years.
- Working A/C? If not, how long has it been out?
- Major repairs done within the past year. If you have more service history going back further, even better.
- If you have used factory parts, let us know. This is important to many of us.
- Photos sell the car. The number of photos required is directly related to the asking price.
- Post a couple representative medium-resolution photos within the advert using the [IMG] tag. There are a plethora of good free photo-sharing sites available now for the lion's share of your photos, where it is better to post the high-resolution photos. Then provide a link to the photo album.
- Do not use a cellphone camera unless it is a high quality camera with a good flash (10Mpixel+)
- Take your photos during the day, outside, in indirect sunlight.
- Present photos taken now, at the time you're writing your advertisement. Old photos rarely increase your chances of sale, and may unnecessarily raise questions.
- If your car is a $1000 parts car, we just need one or two photos to let us know the general condition and whether we'll need a flatbed truck to get it home.
- If you're asking somewhere between $1000 and $3000 for your car, a few more photos would be helpful because people spending this money on an E28 are mostly concerned with items like rust and major body damage. A couple photos of the interior are also helpful.
- If you're asking over $3000, wash the car before you take your photos. Clean and vacuum out the interior.
- Anyone spending between $3000 and $5000 will be expecting to spend another $1000-2000 to get the car into proper condition. No one is expecting a perfect car in this price range, but at that price, people expect the car to run without major issues. Photos that view the car from all angles, as well as a couple interior shots that show the engine compartment, trunk, and interior are also very helpful. It helps us figure out where we will need to spend that additional money once we purchase it.
- Take a clear photo of the driver's seat. If there is a seat cover on it, you can take a photo with the cover. But take another photo with the cover removed. Buyers need to know what they're dealing with because recovering a driver's seat can get rather expensive, particularly on an M5.
- If you're asking over $5000 for an E28, whether a 528e or 533i/535i, a clean car is expected. Photos will show us how clean it is. Take photos of the car from all angles and add individual shots of body panels. When you take photos of the interior, take them of individual items (the dashboard, the headliner, the driver's seat, the driver's footwell, the passenger's seat, etc.).
- If you're asking in excess of $10000, for ANY model of E28, you're now in a different league. Make sure you have taken photos of everything. This includes everything mentioned previously, as well as VIN stickers (there are 10 on the body of a US model), undercarriage shots, shots in the trunk (with and without the carpet and spare tire) and enough photos that would make any potential seller feel like they have seen the car without physically being there. This is 2014, and the community of buyers is now international. Respect that reality and you will find a happy buyer.
- A couple more notes about high end cars over $10k: if you have compression and leak-down test figures, as well as recent alignment measurements, it's great to include a scan of these tests since some buyers might insist upon this in lieu of a pre-purchase inspection. Also, in that price range, service history is a critical component of the car's value. Include as much information as you can there.
- (optional) If you are unsure of the efficacy of your advertisement, PM one of the people on the forum you observe has successfully sold cars and car parts here before and ask them their opinion before you post it. Despite our acerbic wit, most of us are genuinely kind and helpful people and are willing to spend a few minutes to advise you.
- No hyperbole. Hyperbole scares enthusiasts.
- Never say "photos pending". Write the advert. Take the photos. Then post the advert/photos.
- Saying things like "great car" and "never let me down" and "strong runner" and "shifts like butter" mean nothing to us, since we are not you, we do not know you, and we do not know what you are comparing your E28 experience to.
- Don't bump your advertisement every day or every other day or once a week or once an anything... the only way to generate interest in an item not selling is by lowering your price.
- Do no simply re-post your eBay advertisement. This is a much more sophisticated audience, and your ad has to assume this right away (see first "don't").
- Don't try to hide things. If there is any bad news, disclose it up front. It will do wonders for your credibility and can be the difference between a deal and no deal.
