sold car on ebay

I recently sold a car on ebay. It was the first time I've sold something so expensive.

My prior experiences were quite disappointing - mainly selling books. In the past I found that a lack of viewer volume and the short duration of an auction was insufficient to create enough awareness and demand for items that weren't actively traded (i.e. things that didn't have a huge demand already).

It seems that books fare better at half.com where they can lay waiting to be purchased for much longer.

Ebay Motors charged me about $64 for the insertion fee and all the bells and whistles for my auction. There will be another fee of $40. I'm not sure if they charge me for anything else.

The car sold for $274 more than my reserve, but $750 below what I would have liked. It did garner about 1500 eyeballs, so they certainly have plenty of traffic.

Now I'm going through the post auction steps. I've sent my buyer and invoice using paypal. He can pay the whole thing or a deposit (hopefully he can self-elect to make a partial payment). I've asked him to pay the balance using cash or send me a certified check that I will wait to clear.

He is responsible for pick-up and delivery after payment is received.

Does anyone have any recommendations on next steps in handling the closing of the transaction? I've never sold a car before, but assume I have to sign the title over to the buyer. Something to check out.

Anyway, I'm glad to be rid of the car. It was old and took up precious driveway space. We really didn't drive it much. One good point is the $400 - $500 per year of insurance I'll be saving.

One interesting point: virtually all the bidding happened in the last 6 hours of a 10 day auction.

Have a wonderful weekend,
makingourway

PS Our eldest boy is getting better. Still not ready to go back to school, but at least no blood in today's stool. He's on a BRAT diet until his stomach settles.