Tips to Selling Your Used Corvette Online
In the world of exotic cars, the Corvette stands out as an icon of American performance and design. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve had the thrilling experience of owning one of these magnificent machines. But now, it’s time to pass the torch, and the digital age offers countless avenues to find your Corvette a new home. Whether it’s your first time selling a car online or you’re a seasoned pro, this guide promises to navigate you through the online marketplace, ensuring your Corvette for sale doesn’t just find a new owner but the right one. Let’s drive into the details!
How To Get Your Corvette Detailed
Newer Vettes can probably get away with a good wash and interior cleaning. Slightly older or weathered vehicles will definitely need a full detail which should include: wash, clay bar, wheels, interior, polish, sealant, wax, dressings, and paint correction. Total cost $250-$400. If the quote is less than previously mentioned, be wary — a proper detail is very time consuming and labor intensive.
You want to make the prospective buyer’s purchase an emotional one and the best way to do that is visually. He should be enamored with the vehicle at first sight: present factory-esque paint, a spotless engine bay and sparkling, mint condition wheels.
Document Your Corvette’s Service History
Use Carfax or AutoCheck to get a vehicle history report. Both offer unlimited reports by VIN. AutoCheck also offers collision records from police reports and other accident sources, as well as Buyback Protection against unreported titles for qualifying vehicles.
Sort and organize your vehicle’s service records and miscellaneous items like extra keys, owner’s manual and other items that may have come with the vehicle from the factory.
If you’re selling a C4, C5, C6 or C7 Corvette and you don’t have the original window sticker, the factory option 3-digit “RPO” codes can be found on a sticker in the glovebox.
Photos of Your Corvette: DIY Or Hire a Pro?
Ever see a used car ad that has small, blurry, improperly-oriented or just plain horrendous photos? It’s an immediate turn off to all buyers except those looking for bargain basement deals, and that’s not who we want coming to buy our car.
Depending on your vehicle’s selling price, it may or may not be cost effective to hire a professional photographer. Based on a photographer pricing survey by SmartShoot, a pro should shoot your car for $200/hr. Try to get them to throw in some retouching/color correction as part of the deal: the post-processing will ensure your photos really pop.
Alternatively, Jalopnik has an excellent article on how to take the perfect car photo which anyone with a decent camera can use. Envato Tuts+ also has a great article specific to photographing automobiles: 10 Tips on Creative Car Photography.
Price Your Used Corvette
There are several online pricing guides, including the oft mentioned NADA Guides, which cover all Corvette generations, although the consensus seems to be that the guide is inaccurate and prices vehicles too high.
It’s all about real-time data and current market value — we want to know what Corvettes are changing hands for right now. The best place to find this data is in eBay’s Completed Listings section. There you can see what the market is actually willing to pay for a vehicle, rather than what an outdated pricing guide might tell you a vehicle is worth — anything that goes to print is going to be using data that is a few months behind at minimum.
Where To Sell Your Used Corvette
Advertising on Exotic Car List ensures your Corvette doesn’t get lost in the vast sea of online car listings. Instead, it places your vehicle in the spotlight, directly in front of affluent Corvette buyers who possess a genuine passion and appreciation for this lineage of cars.
Congratulations, What’s Next?
If you’ve taken all the necessary steps outlined in this guide, you will be a strong position to sell your Corvette at the top end of its market value. With the capital gained in the sale, you are now free to buy a new Corvette or another new dream car, congrats!
