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My old boss said 'price doesn't matter when they're ready to buy' and I proved him wrong last month
I used to work for this guy Jerry who ran a car lot in Bakersfield. He always told me if someone walks in with cash in hand you don't haggle, you just take the deal. So last month I'm selling a 2012 Ford F-150 I flipped for 8 grand. Guy shows up looks at it for 10 minutes says he'll give me 6,500 cash on the spot. I was about to shake and remember Jerry's advice. But I said no I need 7,200. He walked. I sat on that truck for 3 more weeks and sold it for 6,800 to someone else. So Jerry was half right I guess but leaving money on the table is real. Has anyone else had a buyer walk and later regret not taking the deal?
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walker.max1mo ago
Wait, so Jerry's brilliant advice was basically "take whatever they offer or risk sitting on a truck for three more weeks hoping for a better deal"? That's like saying "gambling is fine as long as you don't mind losing". In my experience, that F-150 deal sounds like you made the right call anyway - 300 bucks less but you didn't have to sweat the next month wondering if someone else would offer even less. Jerry probably would've taken that 6,500 cash and called it a win, but you played it smarter even if it meant a little wait.
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nathana481mo ago
Betting against Jerry's "grab it now" panic is usually a safe bet honestly. The guy probably talks people into awful financing rates just to close a deal before lunch. What nobody's bringing up is that waiting three weeks actually let you see how the market was moving, which is way more useful than whatever random number Jerry pulled out of thin air. You basically treated it like a slow chess game while Jerry was playing checkers with his commission on the line. And that 300 dollar difference? That's basically the cost of one good steak dinner per month of waiting, not exactly life changing money considering you avoided the stress of overpaying.
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garcia.laura28d ago
kept expecting Jerry to pop out from behind the cash register and yell "I told you so" while I was sitting there waiting three weeks on that truck. honestly I think my biggest mistake was listening to a guy who still uses a flip phone and calls everyone "chief". the real lesson here is that waiting around for 300 extra bucks made me feel like a genius but really I just spent three weeks washing a dusty Ford in my driveway for no reason. next time I'm probably taking the cash and running before the buyer changes his mind about my questionable paint job.
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