Selling our 5th Wheel--Consignment

I've sold several trailers as well as other vehicles myself. It can be a pain but all the money is yours. With the recent problems you hear about regarding Craigslist deals gone bad...keep in mind it is very few when compared to the number of deals daily. I would have a friend or my DW stay hidden and watch the deal. Work out a signal that would alert her to call the police if something is wrong. Or have a couple of large friends with me when doing the deal. Be sure to have the buyer sign a document indicating the sale was "as is / where is" No warranty implied.

Waiting for the buyer to come up with financing or cash can be frustrating as well. I've only had one person that had to get financing all of the others were cash sales.

If you price your RV a little lower than the market you will sell it quicker.

Several problems with consignment...first the commission can be high 20-30% or more
> Get what they plan to do to market your RV in writing and check to make sure they are working the plan
> Recently a consignment dealer went belly up and the folks who had RVs with them never got paid for sold RVs and the RVs left on the lot are tied up in litigation.

I've sold lots of items on Craigslist, and never had a problem. I do require that the only acceptable form of payment is cash. For anything over $100, I have the buyer meet me at my bank where the payment is immediately deposited, and then the paperwork (if any) is notarized if required.

What you don't want is for somebody to give you a large amount of cash which they can then try to steal back from you later.

I'd sell it yourselves. Not too many creeps will come to your house to look at a travel trailer. We thought of consignment once, but they wanted 10% plus advertising fee. It only went on RV Trader and one other site. I coulda done that myself for cheap rate. Meet a potential buyer at your bank/credit union to do deal and sign docs. Make sure checks clear first before handing over title. And get a $1,000 deposit if they want it. That helps clear out the riff raff at the beginning. One guy wanted me to bring it his place for him to look at. I said NO!

We sold our previous trailer on consignment.

It sold in less than a week and I got more after commission than I planned to sell on my own.

Very positive experience.

I tried to sell my trailer myself by listing on RVTrader and Craigs list. I used a lower price then the low retail price. Had just a few calls that were looking for a give away. Decided to consign with a dealer that gets more traffic then I would. After 1 month it has not sold yet. The fee is 10% of sales price. No fee for paper work etc. I prefer not to have to handle all the paper work, title, and collecting the money.
Don

TucsonJim wrote:
I've sold lots of items on Craigslist, and never had a problem. I do require that the only acceptable form of payment is cash. For anything over $100, I have the buyer meet me at my bank where the payment is immediately deposited, and then the paperwork (if any) is notarized if required.

What you don't want is for somebody to give you a large amount of cash which they can then try to steal back from you later.

The scenario where they try to steal the money back is exactly what we are worried about in selling the 5th wheel. It is only 4 years old with very little use. So, the book value is still fairly high. The only reason we are selling it is because DH doesn't have much vacation time and we don't use it. I hate to sell it, but our plans are to return to RV'ing when we retire in about 10 years and sell the house.

Thanks for all of the replies. The two dealers that we talked to will pay the low end of book value and then they will list it for about $5,000 higher to prospective buyers. So, the amount coming to us is a set amount--regardless of the condition of our 5th wheel. Neither of the dealers has seen it and they won't offer any more money.

ttstansfield wrote:
Thanks for all of the replies. The two dealers that we talked to will pay the low end of book value and then they will list it for about $5,000 higher to prospective buyers. So, the amount coming to us is a set amount--regardless of the condition of our 5th wheel. Neither of the dealers has seen it and they won't offer any more money.

If you are not using it you are losing money on depreciation by the day.

Sell it ASAP.

We sold ours through Bennett's Camping Center in Granbury, Texas.

I have bought & sold many things on CL including trailers, trucks & household items.

Just delete messages that sound incoherent, crazy or unreasonable.

Set up any meetings over the phone after a reasonable email exchange. They'll want to know all about your trailer just as you would if you were the buyer.You'll also have a chance to talk to the people and get a feel for what you can expect.

In the end, do what you're comfortable with.

Remember you can bring the trailer to a public place to meet, or even meet in the parking lot of a police station?