The life of a car salesman

I have been trying to sell my civic for sometime now and for some odd reason (purely sarcastic) I have had very little luck.

A guy called me up yesterday and insisted I was asking too much for my car. He told me he saw newer civics for less. I told him he is free to go buy the other cars, why is he wasting my time and his? He insists that I must justify my price. He does not take into account all the differences between a private seller and a dealer trying to make a quick buck. He says if I lower my price he will come see the car, I say I am not going to lower my price but if you see the car we can negotiate. He insists that he is too far to come for a car so expensive, I say sometimes there is benefit in paying more because you actually do get more. He says that he might as well book a new civic, I say well go ahead…you can go wait a year for the new civic, by which time another model will be well into the market at a much higher price and you will hate yourself for being impatient.

Point being that people ask all the wrong questions, expect all the wrong answers and no one ends up buying or selling because minds are already made up, we just want reinforcement of why we made up our minds.

Now the thing is that we all think we can do something better than the guy / girl (for the sake of not being called sexist) next to us, but what we don’t realize is how exactly we would perform that act of excellence.

Selling is really quite simple in theory. It is just as simple as buying but obviously on the opposite side of the road.

Let’s take the example we are on. Two people standing on opposite sides of the road and they wish to interact but without the road being between them. Now one would think, why doesn’t one of them come over to the other fellow’s side? Well, because that would then mean one person sacrificed something by making the move, while the other did nothing. That is not a 50-50 situation.

The ideal solution would be for them to meet half way, completing the task at hand – meeting in person – yet not compromising more or less than the other. To do this, they would build a bridge (to avoid getting hit by a semi) or the middle of the road (if there is no semi in sight).

If you are not with me, try this formula: Buying + selling = 1

If we don’t sell, how will someone buy? If we don’t buy, how will someone sell? They are proportional to one another, synonymous, complimentary and so forth.

Simple laws of economics which we tend to ignore when in the process of selling / buying.

Coming back to my problem, I can’t seem to sell my car. The idea is that I sell it so I can buy another one. A slightly more expensive one, but a newer one which will last me another few years, as did this current one. The way to do is would be to set a price, attract customers, negotiate an agreeable amount where he offers me something, I lower my price, then he raises his offer and I lower my price yet again and so forth. We do this until we come to a mutually acceptable price and perform the trade. Cash for car

The point I’m trying to make is that I think I don’t want to sell my car, or, on the other hand, the guys trying to buy my car are morons / assholes who don’t know the dynamics of buying things worth more than 10 dollars (for the sake of int’l readers)

I think I don’t want to sell my car because I won’t lower my price below 11 lakh 15,000 rupees (about $18,500) and they won’t offer me more than 10 lakh 50,000 (about $ 17,500). Why the hell should I lose $1000 on my car because other people can’t understand a few things:
1. I am not a dealer
2. My car is in fab condition
3. I doubt anyone has a car in ISB with mileage as low as mine + service records from its purchase to date
4. My car is better kept than most people I know, and they don’t even want to sell their cars!

Anyway, I think it comes down to the fact that people are irrational and inconsiderate about certain facts that cannot be avoided. I'm not being unreasonable about my price, my car is just too good for them fools.

Well, as Timmy has been reinforcing, maybe I should just keep it and work on it instead of getting the new one. Then again, this will lose a lot of mkt value once the new shape comes out next yr. choices choices…