Main blog
Those who have been around long enough to remember say that the first car ever sold on bidorbuy.co.za was an Audi. It was second-hand and it was auctioned off for R140,000 or thereabouts.
That was over a year ago. Since then, there have been no cars sold on bidorbuy. (The brand-new cars auctioned as a part of the July-August bidorbuy radio advertising campaign do not count: we mean cars that sellers put on the site all by themselves.) Not that this had anyone at bidorbuy worried. On the contrary. bidorbuy has been, and still is, somewhat uneasy about the implications and complications connected with the sale of second-hand cars – for they surely would be second-hand – on the site. There is a lot to worry about. The value of the product. The success fee. The shipping costs. And above all else, the impossibility to test-drive the car, to – so to say – kick the tyres.
In spite of all the impediments, this week bidorbuy was practically inundated with car listings. All right, we exaggerate a little, but when you have two cars appear after a year of absolute lull – and on a Crazy Wednesday R1-no-reserve auction too – it feels almost like being inundated.
Both the 1995 Mercedes Benz S320 and the 2001 Fiat Sienna did sell on that historic October the 1st 2008 Crazy Wednesday auction. Whether to the satisfaction of all the parties involved or not – we do not know. We are, of course, thrilled to see something new on the site, but as for the implications and complications that may ensue from a sale, that is strictly between the seller and the buyer (please see the blog entry entitled “Buy it ON…†below.)
Still, the “implications and complications†part remains strong enough to make bidorbuy refrain from actively promoting car sales on the site, at least until a comprehensive policy is thoroughly thought out and put together. In the meantime, bidorbuy will concentrate, in its wheels category, on building up the “Classifieds†collection of cars. And with more than 35,000 cars featured, what a collection it already is!