There’s nothing I hate more on god’s green earth than selling cars. The addition of 3 letters (OBO, which stands for “Or Best Offer”) to your ad brings the crazies out of the woodwork. I detest putting OBO in an ad because you’re just asking for people to call who want to wheel and deal, but since I wasn’t exactly sure what the car was worth I had to do it this time. Fortunately since I posted the car for sale online I was able to weed out most of the tire kickers through e-mail. The very first e-mail I got was from a guy offering me half price ($1000) and wanting me to meet him halfway between here and Waco, TX (over 400 miles). I get several e-mails asking me, “what’s your bottom dollar.” I wonder if those people were actually interested in the car, if they just live to bargain, or if they were looking for something cheap to turn around and resell. I’ll never know. I even got the obligitory e-mail from a Nigerian scammer who has promised to send me a cashier’s check if I will mail him the item (my car).
Around 8pm last night I got an e-mail from a nice fellow named Lewis, an older gentleman who was looking for a car with good mileage. Although he lives almost an hour away in Harrah, he was adamant about seeing the car last night. I ended up meeting Lewis up at the Mexican restaurant on the corner of I-40 and Morgan road around 9:30pm. Lewis saw the Tracker, sat down in the driver’s sear and offered me $1,800 for the car (which I accepted). I spent a couple of hours last night getting the spare set of tires, the original soft top, the original tail lights, and all the other odds and ends I’ve accumulated over the years packed up and ready to go.
While the guy was looking over the car, practially the entire staff of the Mexican restaurant came out to look at the car. One of them even got in the passenger’s seat and sat down. My mom (who I took along for moral support) tried explaining to them that the car was already sold but something got lost in translation and it took a few times for them to get the idea. It certainly was good for business though — I think Lewis was glad we had already shook on the deal, as those guys from the restaurant were really interested as well.
Susan and I met Lewis and his wife halfway between here and Harrah in Midwest City. Lewis gave me $1,800 cash, I gave him a signed title, and that was that.