Selling my Toy Hauler
I sold my Toy Hauler yesterday. I've kept my mouth shut about it here because I didn't want to have to delete myself for breaking the forum rule against selling stuff here. Now I can vent.
It took three months and I dropped the price once. Most of the people I met with, spoke with, and texted with were weird and I would have felt strange selling to them. One guy was absolutely amazing and I would have loved to sell to him, but his wife nixed the deal. He was a Navy medic transferring back east to Walter Reid and needed a way to transport his road bike for the relocation. He was great and he was totally ready to do the deal, but he had to run it past his wife. When I described his situation to my wife, she said "He doesn't *need* a toy hauler, he *wants* a toy hauler. He should ship his bike and get a travel trailer for the trip." As soon as I heard her female opinion, I knew his wife was going to say the same thing and he was going to fall through.
The biggest surprise to me was how many people were seriously put off by the fact that I wasn't supplying "all the hoses". I kept trying to explain to these guys that they really didn't want my stinky old dump hose and that they should stop by Camping World down the road and pick up some clean dump/fill hoses for themselves. That was a deal killer for at least three guys. I even told the last guy that I'd cruise down to Camping World with him and pick out some supplies for him, but he said the same thing the others had said: "If it's missing all the hoses, then what else are you leaving out?" Are you insane? These things don't even come with a lug wrench (which I was supplying), let alone all the nasty accessories.
I was also surprised by the low level of savvy from most of the shoppers. I understand being new and not knowing anything, but there's a difference between being uninformed and being dumb and nasty. I'm fine with folks being uninformed and I was happy to spend time talking them through all of the systems and explaining how everything works. The ones who bugged me the most were the guys who brought their "expert" buddies to help them kick the tires. 100% of these buddies were only slightly more informed than the prospective buyers, except they brought their attitudes with them. Not helpful.
"Dude, this thing only has six volt batteries. All RVs need to have twelve volt batteries to work. Or else this is a weird trailer that uses six volts and you don't want that."
"Dude, you don't want one that runs off an inverter."
"Dude, this one doesn't have Hapijack (sp?) beds or auto-leveling jacks."
Gaaah! I didn't argue with any of them except the last one. I reminded him that this was a 2005 trailer, not a time machine. Hapijack beds weren't an option back then. And good luck finding leveling jacks on a bumper pull toy hauler, especially not a 2005.
One guy drove up from Orange County after work. It took him hours to get here and kept me waiting because he was so late. He took one look at it and said, "Oh, this is one of those Toy Haulers. I don't need one of them." I would have been pissed that he blew my Friday evening, but he had it worse than I did. At least I didn't have to turn around and drive back to the OC in traffic.
There was another category of guys who brought their kids with them. I love kids and I love the idea of our trailer going to a family. Lord knows how many memories we had in this trailer as our young kids grew into old kids. But man oh man, bringing a truckload of rugrats sure complicates things. Two different guys brought their three kids plus their kids' friends. It was a zoo and it was impossible to carry on a conversation. Another guy brought his family and his brother + family, but they forgot the diaper bag: "We travel light". My wife had to go on a run for supplies when the inevitable happened. I hadn't bargained for that.
The guy who finally bought it was a pleasant surprise. I wouldn't have pegged him as "The One", especially since he's a Raiders fan. :B I was glad to learn that he owns his own plumbing company. I'm glad to see it go to an honest businessman from a good trade and someone who knows how to use his hands and will be able to continue the DIY work that it takes to keep an RV running down the road.
We had one quirk happen at the last minute and it was actually pretty terrifying. His truck had a lot more lift to it than my old truck, so he had a hitch with an adjustable shank to tow it level. The hitch looked weird to me but I didn't want to say anything: I didn't want to bag on his equipment and I didn't want to complicate the deal on the one-yard line. But when the deal and the full orientation was done and hit was time for him to load up and leave, he noticed that his hitch was missing the ball. I assumed it was in the bed of his truck or maybe he planned to use a different hitch. No. And of course he freaked out, because his ball was missing and he wasn't going to be able to hitch up and the sky was falling etc. He said that he had just moved another trailer earlier in the day and the ball was there when he left home. I stopped him and said, "If you're telling me that it simply fell off, then thank God that it fell off in traffic on the way up here instead of on the way home with your new trailer. That would have been an absolute disaster." That kind of changed the tone of things and we were able to run home to my place to pick up the parts and tools to get him back on his way.
He and I took a picture together before he pulled away and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Awesome. I was up late working last night and he was texting me with questions until nearly midnight, so I can tell he made it home safe and he was having fun playing with his new toy.
I'm glad to have this behind me. I didn't think it would take three months to sell it. I've sold plenty of bikes and vehicles and they always go pretty quickly with the usual amount of back and forth haggling. I knew that selling an RV would be slow and it would take a while to find the perfect fit with the perfect buyer, but three months... And all the nutjobs... And all the scammers...
It took three months and I dropped the price once. Most of the people I met with, spoke with, and texted with were weird and I would have felt strange selling to them. One guy was absolutely amazing and I would have loved to sell to him, but his wife nixed the deal. He was a Navy medic transferring back east to Walter Reid and needed a way to transport his road bike for the relocation. He was great and he was totally ready to do the deal, but he had to run it past his wife. When I described his situation to my wife, she said "He doesn't *need* a toy hauler, he *wants* a toy hauler. He should ship his bike and get a travel trailer for the trip." As soon as I heard her female opinion, I knew his wife was going to say the same thing and he was going to fall through.
The biggest surprise to me was how many people were seriously put off by the fact that I wasn't supplying "all the hoses". I kept trying to explain to these guys that they really didn't want my stinky old dump hose and that they should stop by Camping World down the road and pick up some clean dump/fill hoses for themselves. That was a deal killer for at least three guys. I even told the last guy that I'd cruise down to Camping World with him and pick out some supplies for him, but he said the same thing the others had said: "If it's missing all the hoses, then what else are you leaving out?" Are you insane? These things don't even come with a lug wrench (which I was supplying), let alone all the nasty accessories.
I was also surprised by the low level of savvy from most of the shoppers. I understand being new and not knowing anything, but there's a difference between being uninformed and being dumb and nasty. I'm fine with folks being uninformed and I was happy to spend time talking them through all of the systems and explaining how everything works. The ones who bugged me the most were the guys who brought their "expert" buddies to help them kick the tires. 100% of these buddies were only slightly more informed than the prospective buyers, except they brought their attitudes with them. Not helpful.
"Dude, this thing only has six volt batteries. All RVs need to have twelve volt batteries to work. Or else this is a weird trailer that uses six volts and you don't want that."
"Dude, you don't want one that runs off an inverter."
"Dude, this one doesn't have Hapijack (sp?) beds or auto-leveling jacks."
Gaaah! I didn't argue with any of them except the last one. I reminded him that this was a 2005 trailer, not a time machine. Hapijack beds weren't an option back then. And good luck finding leveling jacks on a bumper pull toy hauler, especially not a 2005.
One guy drove up from Orange County after work. It took him hours to get here and kept me waiting because he was so late. He took one look at it and said, "Oh, this is one of those Toy Haulers. I don't need one of them." I would have been pissed that he blew my Friday evening, but he had it worse than I did. At least I didn't have to turn around and drive back to the OC in traffic.
There was another category of guys who brought their kids with them. I love kids and I love the idea of our trailer going to a family. Lord knows how many memories we had in this trailer as our young kids grew into old kids. But man oh man, bringing a truckload of rugrats sure complicates things. Two different guys brought their three kids plus their kids' friends. It was a zoo and it was impossible to carry on a conversation. Another guy brought his family and his brother + family, but they forgot the diaper bag: "We travel light". My wife had to go on a run for supplies when the inevitable happened. I hadn't bargained for that.
The guy who finally bought it was a pleasant surprise. I wouldn't have pegged him as "The One", especially since he's a Raiders fan. :B I was glad to learn that he owns his own plumbing company. I'm glad to see it go to an honest businessman from a good trade and someone who knows how to use his hands and will be able to continue the DIY work that it takes to keep an RV running down the road.
We had one quirk happen at the last minute and it was actually pretty terrifying. His truck had a lot more lift to it than my old truck, so he had a hitch with an adjustable shank to tow it level. The hitch looked weird to me but I didn't want to say anything: I didn't want to bag on his equipment and I didn't want to complicate the deal on the one-yard line. But when the deal and the full orientation was done and hit was time for him to load up and leave, he noticed that his hitch was missing the ball. I assumed it was in the bed of his truck or maybe he planned to use a different hitch. No. And of course he freaked out, because his ball was missing and he wasn't going to be able to hitch up and the sky was falling etc. He said that he had just moved another trailer earlier in the day and the ball was there when he left home. I stopped him and said, "If you're telling me that it simply fell off, then thank God that it fell off in traffic on the way up here instead of on the way home with your new trailer. That would have been an absolute disaster." That kind of changed the tone of things and we were able to run home to my place to pick up the parts and tools to get him back on his way.
He and I took a picture together before he pulled away and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Awesome. I was up late working last night and he was texting me with questions until nearly midnight, so I can tell he made it home safe and he was having fun playing with his new toy.
I'm glad to have this behind me. I didn't think it would take three months to sell it. I've sold plenty of bikes and vehicles and they always go pretty quickly with the usual amount of back and forth haggling. I knew that selling an RV would be slow and it would take a while to find the perfect fit with the perfect buyer, but three months... And all the nutjobs... And all the scammers...
