With Garry’s business card in hand, I put him on my follow-up list for the following week, but within just a couple of days he was calling me to see when we could get started. The following day I made it out to Garry’s shop where he was storing the T-bird and we talked about options and next steps. Before visiting him, I did some preliminary market research with the little information I had on his 24 year old vehicle with a little over 20k miles. There were a small handful of similar vehicles in the area for sale and they too were asking right around $20K. Most of them were at local dealers, so I figured Garry would probably be settling for something less than that amount if he was motivated to sell.

Since Garry seemed hot to trot on getting his vehicle listed, I agreed to meet with him at his place of business to check out his vehicle the following day. During my visit, I explained that a big part of my process is first getting the car inspected at CarMax, for their no cost conditions assessment, including a physical inspection and a copy of the vehicle’s history report, along with their 7-day offer to buy it based on current auction value. From there we had not only a price floor that we could work to build upon, but some valuable information that we could present to prospective buyers allowing them to see that his car had been recently evaluated independently for any problem areas. This disclosure builds value in the eyes of a buyer and can save them the time and money of getting this information themselves. After explaining these benefits to Garry, I asked him how soon he could get his vehicle checked out so that I could post his ad online. He told me in just a day or two and I set an appointment with him to come back in a few days to review the results with him.

During that visit, I learned that instead of taking the vehicle to CarMax, Garry had paid for a BeenVerified report online that included a history on his vehicle, similar to the AutoCheck report CarMax would provide upon request at no charge. The BeenVerified report also included a “private market value,” which they estimated at $12,128 when sold through a private party.

As nice as it was to see that this report was clean and another value estimate, I let Garry know that we should still get the car to CarMax for the physical inspection report and an actual offer to see where that comes in as compared to the number provided by BeenVerified. He responded by letting me know that he saw the value in getting this information on his vehicle, but he “had a business to run” and this would make finding the time to bring it to CarMax challenging.

Having just met,  I was unsure how Garry would feel about me taking his valuable ride for an hour or two. I felt that this was the opportunity to make the offer to help expedite this sale. Garry quickly accepted the solution  and seemed relieved at the idea of moving this process forward with little effort on his part. I was glad to be able to add more value to his selling experience and prepared to make a trip to visit my former employer.

Within about 30 minutes of my pulling into the CarMax parking lot with Garry’s Thunderbird, I was able to get a report of their inspection findings showing that everything was okay, both mechanically and cosmetically. I was also presented with an offer to buy his car for $9,000 based on their expected auction value.

Before leaving, I requested a copy of the vehicle history report that they pulled to check for even more background information such as potential accidents, odometer rollbacks, or other title issues, prior to making their offer. My store associate kindly printed one off a report for me and fortunately all was clear there too, which would make selling it privately a much smoother process. With this important documentation acquired, I returned to Garry’s shop and presented the findings. He too was pleased that all was clear on their inspection and was not too surprised at their offer. His son, who was sitting in the office with us, even joked, “I will buy it from you for that!” We all laughed and began discussing next steps, which included me putting together and posting the following:

After completing Garry’s ad and running it by him for his approval, it went live and the expected scammers popped up almost immediately. Then things went quiet as days turned into weeks without a single inquiry. This did not come as a shock and I had already advised Garry that due to the demand for convertibles declining in the fall, we might not be closing in the spring if he wanted to get anywhere near his asking price. All we could do was wait and hope that he would not need to keep paying insurance and related ownerships costs too much longer. 

Before long I was contacted by Bill, who had seen my ad and had a few questions and requested that I send him copies of the CarMax inspection and detailed history report. He wanted to know what the services had been performed and I let him know that Garry recently had it in the shop to replace two coils and perform an injector cleaning. Bill thanked me and reached back out a couple of days later to see if he could set up a time the following day to look at the Thunderbird. After confirming with Garry, I scheduled a time with Bill and we were ready for our first showing.

The next day, I met with Bill and we spent several minutes going over the Thunderbird looking for any areas of concern in Garry’s parking lot. Following a detailed visual inspection, we hopped in and headed towards North Ave to get it up to highway speed. Just like my trip to CarMax a few weeks earlier, the car was smooth and responsive and Bill seemed to enjoy his time behind the wheel. 

Bill told me he had one more Thunderbird he wanted to look at before making a decision, but would contact me with any questions if need be. A few days later he texted me this message:

     Our search for a Thunderbird purchase has been narrowed down to 2 vehicles. Both vehicles are 2002 Thunderbird Blue and appear to be mechanically and cosmetically identical. Yours is priced at $20,500 with 23,000 miles. The other, from a dealer (who includes a limited 6 mo. warranty) before tax, title etc. price is $20,800 and milage is 24,027.

     As we participate in car shows, it is important that the vehicle represents all that was original. In the case of your vehicle, we would have to replace the aftermarket radio and microphone wiring with the original 2002 radio and cd changer. I reviewed this option with our local Ford dealer, and he said we would have to purchase in the used market (around $400) and their installations costs were range from $300-$600 depending on what was modified to put in the aftermarket unit. As I said previously. this would be a cash sale (cashier’s check) and will make the final decision by the end of the week or sooner.

     We would like you to review your pricing and provide us with your best price also considering our additional expense for the radio replacement. Of course, we will be asking the “dealer” for their best price also. If yours is the best offer, we will let you know and make an appointment to purchase.

     Thanks for your assistance.

After discussing how to proceed with Garry, we decided that we would reply with the following: 

     I just spoke with the owner about what he would accept at this time for the Thunderbird. He wanted me to let you know that if it helps your decision making, he can get the recent detailed service records showing the exact work he had performed on the vehicle. He also let me know that it won two first place trophies at the Elgin Thunderbird show that will be included with the purchase at $18,700.

     I am not sure if this makes a difference or not, but part of my service involves making a donation to a local nonprofit that matches the amount of my commission and in this case we will be supporting the West Chicago VFW after we complete the sale.

     Please let me know if you need any more information.

 A few long hours later, Bill responded. First, by apologizing for the delay and letting me know he had been attending his grand daughter’s middle school choral concert. He then went on to let me know that he accepted our price and requested the complete service records, which Garry was able to pick up the following morning before our afternoon meeting. 

Within an hour of our reconvening at Garry’s place of business, we celebrated a successful closing to this record smashing sale. To give you some context, prior to Garry’s Thunderbird fetching nearly $10,000 over CarMax’s 7-day offer our biggest spread was $2700. Now Garry’s vehicle had some factors that contributed to this huge price differential. Besides being in near flawless condition, it was an extraordinary vehicle and had become a rare collector’s item. In other words, it wasn’t just any 2002 Ford!

When it was all said and done, we were able to make another $500 donation to our friends at the West Chicago VFW after closing this unprecedented sale. Being able to play a role in taking a $9000 CarMax offer and watching it more than double to $18,700 in a matter of days, felt like a big deal for Carma Services. 

What was learned during this sale could fill pages more, but those stories within a story will need to be shared another day or one of our upcoming Insider emails where we can share details that may not be suitable for public display. This sale certainly included a “not for primetime” sidequest and others that could be shared more openly. If you’d like to be added to our email list to be sure you don’t miss the upcoming exclusive content, please sign up today: Become an Insider