Missed an '88 Bigfoot 5th wheel for sale in southern Utah.....

[oldcarguy6547]

Ad was mis-titled ("Price reduced / Big foot") with no photos, so I don't think most people paid much attention to it - I live a 12 hour drive from St George where the trailer was located, was trying to arrange to inspect it, but the seller wasn't very cooperative. He finally put up photos this morning and sold it about 6 hours later - $4500.

[Jon in AZ]

Sorry to hear that, Barry. I can feel your disappointment, as that's a pretty rare model. At that price, assuming it was not a wreck, it's not surprising it was gone quickly and locally.

It's a pity on both sides, really. If the seller had put more effort into marketing the trailer, s/he might have gotten a better price, and more people might have had a shot at it. At a higher price, it is more likely to go to someone who will care for it as it deserves.

But this is an old song. Many sellers, for a variety of reasons- lack of technical skill, fear of long distance buyers and scams, illness, bereavement- just want it gone quickly and are not fully engaged.

Finding a molded trailer is a lot like fishing, requiring patience and quick action. You hook a few you have to throw back, and you lose a few keepers.

Put on another worm and keep at it!

[Kenny Strong]

scams are often set up this way. get interest, get hold money. sent by a company, where the money sent it is gone. no way to get it back !

[oldcarguy6547]

Don't think this was a scammer, just a guy that was neither cooperative or communicative. He ultimately posted photos of the 5th wheel in front of his house with cars parked in the driveway with Utah plates with the numbers visible - not what I'd expect of a scammer.

I wasn't ready to jump in the truck and make a 1400 mile round trip without seeing photos first, and he apparently wasn't the sort to work with a serious out of town buyer and hold the trailer for the 2-3 days it would have taken me to get there with cash.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by oldcarguy6547

I wasn't ready to jump in the truck and make a 1400 mile round trip without seeing photos first, and he apparently wasn't the sort to work with a serious out of town buyer and hold the trailer for the 2-3 days it would have taken me to get there with cash.

Sometimes it works out like that. A few folks here have been able to work it out with sellers. I may be wrong but I would think that a scenario like this for long distance would be better accepted/understood by members of any FG group. Your TT is out there Barry, good luck with the search .

[Patdeesky]

I live in Utah. St. George is known to be a large retirement city. As others stated above: old age, illness, no rush to do anything, etc. are probable causes why the owner didn't post pictures.

Wouldn't even surprise me that the guy possibly shuffled his feet at a balking wife telling him to get rid of it. Not wanting to part with something he 'earned' however he did, making it impossible to buy is a tactic.

Who knows what was going through the gentleman's head?

[stude]

Originally Posted by oldcarguy6547

Ad was mis-titled ("Price reduced / Big foot") with no photos, so I don't think most people paid much attention to it - I live a 12 hour drive from St George where the trailer was located, was trying to arrange to inspect it, but the seller wasn't very cooperative. He finally put up photos this morning and sold it about 6 hours later - $4500.

:there is a 2004 Bigfoot Motorhome for sale in British Columbia for around $34,000.00
Stude

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by oldcarguy6547

Ad was mis-titled ("Price reduced / Big foot") with no photos, so I don't think most people paid much attention to it - I live a 12 hour drive from St George where the trailer was located, was trying to arrange to inspect it, but the seller wasn't very cooperative. He finally put up photos this morning and sold it about 6 hours later - $4500.

And here's another!
https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/tro/...484597947.html

[thrifty bill]

I bought my truck in a somewhat similar deal. The 85 year old seller did have pictures, but they were in a dark barn, couldn't see anything (couldn't even tell it was a truck).

It was going to be a serious drive for me, so I asked him to move the truck outside and take some good pictures. He had a young guy doing odd jobs help him do it, the pictures were outstanding.

So I immediately launched. I knew as soon as those new pictures showed up in his C/L ad, the truck was going to be long gone.

Inconvenient for me? Oh yeah, you bet. And when buying a truck, you need two drivers, one to drive over with your car (and drive the car back), and a second one to drive the truck I bought.

Seems like scammers have no problems putting up pictures (typically stolen from another ad). But real people often don't have pictures due to lack of computer skills, don't want to do it, whatever. I buy and sell vintage classic bicycles. My best buys always start with an ad with no details and no pictures. For those into bicycles, I bought a vintage Pinarello once, off a four work ad: Race bike bad paint $50.


Trick on pictures, give them your phone number and ask them to text them to you. The one thing you do not want is for the pictures to end up on the ad!!

[oldcarguy6547]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

And here's another!
https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/tro/...484597947.html

Same trailer that was listed in St George - looks like a Las Vegas "flipper" bought it (St George is only a couple of hours east of Vegas), spray-glossed the tires, put on 3 cheap hubcaps and is looking for a fast $2700 profit........

[Jon in AZ]

Whether he got that trailer for $6750-$2700=$4050 or $4500, I'd call him smart. If there are no major hidden issues it was significantly undervalued and a pretty good deal even at his asking price. Since you know what he paid, you might be able to dicker. In your favor, fifth wheels tend to take longer to sell because not as many potential buyers own a pickup. Research the value of this model, decide what it's worth to you, and make an offer. If it's still for sale in two weeks, make another.

The only thing to lose is watching the tail lights disappear behind some else's truck twice.

If I had a truck it might be my tail lights you'd be chasing!

[thrifty bill]

Don't let the fact that he got a smoking hot deal prevent you from getting a really good deal as well. I have paid flippers before good money on stuff. I call it a finders fee. He beat you to it. Thats how it works.

Myself, I am surprised guy isn't asking for more. A Bigfoot fifth wheel in nice shape? $10K would be a pretty reasonable deal. Hopefully he doesn't read this thread.

I doubt if it will last long.

I once was in a Goodwill, heading back to where they display bikes. Guy directly in front of me, one second lead, grabs this Bianchi ($10 price tag) and heads straight to the register. I paid the guy $50 to just hand the bike to me, and I paid the Goodwill price as well. He thought I was crazy. I called it a finders fee.

[David Tilston]

Interesting how things change. There was a time, not so long ago, that Bigfoot 20' fifth wheel trailers were very hard to sell. I think the higher box on new pickups makes it necessary to modify the axle, or axles.
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...0-a-54102.html
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...0-a-49687.html

[thrifty bill]

Dave is right. The demand for molded fiberglass fifth wheels seems to be a lot less than molded trailers. The supply is much less as well.

And the low height of the older Bigfoot fifth wheels could be a problem.
The bed height on modern trucks keep getting higher and higher! We had to get side steps for our 2010 F150, along with a tailgate step. All of the manufacturers seem to be doing the same right now, making them all tall.

Many people want a super light trailer they can pull behind their small SUV. So the Bolers, Trilliums, Scamps, and a few others are very popular and sell fast.

Last year when we were looking for our Escape, we did consider an Escape fifth wheel. While the trailers tended to sell in one or two days (or less), there was a fifth wheel for sale for several weeks. Ultimately, we decided to go with the pull behind instead.

I do think that Bigfoot will sell quickly, we will just have to see. Maybe the low fifth wheel height could stall it out! Realize right now, the flipper may be looking at a $2500 to $300 profit. But if he has to lower his price, his profit drops as well. And if he has to sit on it for a while, he is tying up his money. So flippers can take on some risk. There are no sure things out there.

We bought our current house 14 years ago from a flipper. They bought it one day before we saw it. Those 24 hours cost us quite a bit of $$. Ultimately, it was worth it to us, so no regrets. But we definitely paid over market.

[Joe & Cherie]

https://fayar.craigslist.org/rvs/d/b...483693557.html

[oldcarguy6547]

It will be interesting to watch what happens with that 5th wheel - a couple of weeks ago, I charted all the sales of those trailers I could find here, on the Fiberglass RVs For Sale website, and on various Canadian classifieds sites that don't delete ads.

Of 35+ listings in the last 4 years, the vast majority (29) were in Canada; most were priced between $2500 and $6000 USD (at current exchange rates) - based on that data, current pricing for this one's on the high end of the curve.

I'm in no rush to buy a trailer at this point - there are numerous decent 18-20' 5th wheels around northern CA at near give-away prices ($800-$2000) right now, so having never owned a 5th wheel, I'm seriously considering starting there to see whether we prefer that option or want to go to a bumper pull.

We just picked up a new-to-us 2002 GMC Sierra 1500 from a maintenance fanatic original owner that had it set up for towing bumper-pull trailers - if the decision is to go with a 5th wheel, I'll need to find and install a good used 5th wheel slider, so I couldn't drop everything today and head for Las Vegas to pick that unit up anyway.

[thrifty bill]

Good for you. Data in hand wins. Maybe that flipper will lose serious money. One thing if you buy to flip, at some point, the item needs to go, whether at a profit or a loss. Certainly the fifth wheel market is much smaller so may not enjoy the pricing that pull behind molded trailers enjoy.

[oldcarguy6547]

I'm planning to keep an eye on the Vegas listing - if it's still there in a couple of weeks and I have a slider hitch and mounting rails in hand I may contact him, tell him I know where he got the trailer and what the paid for it and offer him $5k. He'd see a $500 profit and I'd save about 300 miles driving distance over what I would have had to do if it had been purchased from the original seller in St George Utah - fair deal on both ends.

Don't think I'm ready to go much higher than that, especially for one with a single axle - we're looking at doing some fairly extensive interstate road trips, and I'd really prefer the added towing security offered by a tandem axle trailer.

[Kazmar Rose]

Hi,
Found the the listing on the Las Vegas Craig's list as well. I live 25 miles away. Gave the seller a call this morning, as my husband and I wanted to drive over and take a look. He informed me that since he added new tires & rims, the price has increased.
I was in a vehicle and I was trying to confirm what he said. I'm sure, he said 9,600.00 instead of the 6,750.00 which was posted on his listing, I even repeated it out loud, so that my husband could hear. I responded by saying, oh, that is unfortunate as it wasn't in my budget. He replied 'ok' and hung up without giving me a chance to negotiate.
I was so disappointed, but my husband reassured me that "it wasn't" meant to be and something better will come along. Besides, it's 30 years old and might have issues. I don't mind adding upgrades and making it our own, but I don't to spend all our time repairing and missing out on the opportunities to travel.
I'm sure he is a "flipper" and will try to get the highest price.
Oh well, we'll be on the look-out once again. I'm so happy to be part of this forum, as there is a plethora of the information, advice, and suggestions so that it will hopefully point us in the right direction.

[thrifty bill]

Asking too much is not limited to flippers. In fact, sometimes flippers are more realistic on pricing as they are in the get in and get out fast mode. Many are not interested in waiting for top dollar. Meanwhile, some owners are stuck on a price and won't let go of it. A flipper is often motivated to sell, so they can take the money and invest into the next one.

Now flippers come in all shapes.sizes/types too.


Since the seller's ad states a price of $6750, I'd ask that price directly. "Your ad shows the price is $6,750, is that correct?" When I find sellers that raise price after posting the ad, I just walk away. But the guy may be confused, and have more than one trailer for sale, so I'd ask clarification to be crystal clear. A jump to $9,600 is insane.