Fiberglass RV Pricing - Holding Value vs. Usage Depreciation

[Roy in TO]

Greg

There are 2 points I can add using Don N's recent sale of his Trillium as an example:

1. Some things that are done to a trailer are overlooked for their value. Don had replaced the frame, axle, rims and tires plus totally rewired the trailer. That is worth a few more $$ than a newbie might realize.
2. This is an international forum. Don had posted his for sale at a certain price yet failed to mention his asking price was in CANADIAN Dollars. He asked why no one seemed to be interested after a few weeks with little action. I replied pointing out the value of his work and an equivalent price in AMERICAN Dollars. A couple of days later, he got his asking price.

Food for thought,
Roy

[Tim Wood]

All good points here and well taken. I know for myself I have always sold a trailer that is in much better shape than when I bought it. That's just my thing, I enjoy tinkering with these fiberglass gems, and I've never gotten my time back in dollars along with many others here. Like someone pointed out sometimes the buyer just doesn't realize the work that's gone into the trailer.

[Raya]

I was going to say that I bring the values down, because I hate the process of selling things. Basically what I do is think to myself "Now what price will guarantee me that the first person who looks at this will buy it and save me the agony of dragging this out another minute." And then I set it just below that

I say "was going to say" because then I remembered that I also hate bargaining on the front end, so I am a horrible haggler. So when buying I bring the values up

I guess I'm a wash then, in terms of affecting trailer values

[Alf S.]

Hi: All... The only thing I ever sold, for what I asked, was our Boler...and it sold in 20 min.
Thanks Fiberglass RV.com!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Daniel V.]

Like Raya I hate the process of selling things.

Although I'm sure this doesn't apply to most of you here, many buyers/visitors have this tendency to treat sellers like crap and waste their time. I apologize in advance for this personal rant, but I've had my share of low-ballers and no-shows while trying to sell stuff through classified ads, so I think many simply realize it's a tough game and decide to play it their way and will try to get the most out of whatever they're selling regardless of what others may think. On some occasions really nice people show up and you can establish a really good rapport with them, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who show up hours late (if they ever do), or spend a lot of time asking questions then offer 1/3 of what you're asking, or are visibly uninformed or not really interested in buying the item in the first place but still waste an hour of your time, or can't pay for it once they settle on a price, etc. etc. So as far as I'm concerned, until you're interested in what I have to offer and somewhere close to my price range, you're just another one of "them". But I understand that's the cost of doing business. End rant.

[Bob H]

All I know is that if the guy I bought my Scamp from knew anything about the internet and especially this forum or Ebay, I wouldn't been able to buy my Scamp as low as I did...he literally didn't know what these things sold for. His loss...my gain.
ConwayBob

[Mitchell]

Hmmm. This thread is taking a very interesting path.

Hello All,
Thank you for adding your respective insights.

I have to ask those, how do you identify yourself from the perspective of being a member of the community of fiberglass 'rvers' that frequent this site and possibly participate in the get-togethers?

I hope Raya will allow me to reflect. You are very consistent when you speak of your hassle free selling method. You are one of the very helpful individuals who spend some of your precious time monitoring this site and then offering free of charge your advice and assistance to those in need. There are a number of others in the community doing similar deeds and certainly that assistance would be worth something dollar wise if nobody were offering it for free. When it comes time to sell, you have said that you focus on something other than the highest price and profit that you can exact from the other party. This to me seems consistent.

It is not a directive, but merely another question to all when I ask, why does one have to sell for a profit or sell at all? The money is already spent and out of the coffers and the item has presumably been used and enjoyed. Why not give it away?
Where would one draw the line between the value of time and information versus the value of an object? What about the line between communal (for the benefit of the community) versus pack behavior?

Suppose you buy a trailer and determine to refurbish and modify it. You conceive of a design which will beautify the trailer as well as making it more functional than it was originally. To the extent that you succeed, the trailer is better than the original in beauty and functionality. How would you price the improvement?

Would you be satisfied with adding the cost of the parts and labor as a premium on the sale price? Certainly the value of the original factory design is well beyond the profit margin of a single unit. Wouldn't the value of your creativity and industriousness manifest exceed any pittance you might add on to the sale price as a premium?

Were it possible that a greater reward might ensue through the admiration of your work by the many that could observe it? For those who have seen Italy, oh what public pleasures the architectural displays of creativity and genius! On the other hand, many wonderful artistic compositions that were meant by the respective artists for the eyes or ears of humanity are sitting selfishly locked away in private vaults.

I state no conclusion but only suggest the possibility that their might be something or that which is more valuable than profit.
Mitchell

[Daniel V.]

It is not a directive, but merely another question to all when I ask, why does one have to sell for a profit or sell at all? The money is already spent and out of the coffers and the item has presumably been used and enjoyed. Why not give it away?
Where would one draw the line between the value of time and information versus the value of an object? What about the line between communal (for the benefit of the community) versus pack behavior?

I can only answer your question with another question. By that rationale, why not 'give' more than market value for a purchase? Or offer something more in return? In many cases trailers have been improved and money has been invested way beyond the asking price, and the owner already knows that they will never be able to recover the total value as a large part of it is, as you say, spent and out of the coffers, and enjoyed. Why, then, try to weasel out a good deal out of them if all you're doing is taking something away from them, that someone else would offer them? It's easy to ask others to be generous when you're the buyer and not the seller. What if, in a better world, sellers started telling hagglers that instead of lowering their price they will make an equivalent donation to charity in their name? Would that work? Then you can 'admire' their work all you want knowing that you paid fair value and that you can't sell it for 50% more the next day for your own profit.

[Donna D.]

Oftentimes the recreational vehicle, in this case a molded lightweight fiberglass towable, is the third in line as an investment. Home first, tug second, then the trailer. And while the tug and trailer may depreciate in value, most wish to purchase replacements or use the funds from a sale for another purpose... such as paying for a college education for children or perhaps even medical bills.

In my mind, charity begins at home. If I were to choose to give my trailer away, I'd start by asking all the members of my family.. then move to friends... then to a charity that is recognized as such. But, there's little to no chance I'd just give it to someone who may turn around and flip it for a profit, which in that case would be 100% as there would be no initial investment.

[nathanj04011]

Or, who's going to be the judge of who appreciates your trailer enough when you are "giving" it away? What if one person said they "liked your trailer a lot" and another said they "loved" it. Does the "loved" person get it because they "obviously" appreciate it more?

[Parker Buckley]

When we sold our Little Guy teardrop after buying our Scamp, I dealt with a guy in Canada; a fireman. I priced the teardrop based on what I thought we had invested. He was buying it for his folks, and agreed on my price. We settled on a meeting place in northern Ohio. About the time we were heading out to meet him, I started gathering up receipts and realized I hadn't paid quite as much for it as I thought, and my mods hadn't amounted to as great a dollar amount as I had estimated. So my wife and I decided to lower the price by $500. We really wanted to be fair to the new owner(s). You can imagine how surprized the guy and his dad were when I told them. The son happily accepted. Next thing I knew, his dad pulled out $200 cash to give to me. So we ended up with an inverse negotiation! In the end, everyone headed home feeling good about the whole transaction. That really meant more to us than the few dollars involved.

Parker

[Greg A]

There are way too many "flippers" involved in molded fiberglass trailers. I can list several known ones right off the top of my head in various parts of the country.

Rest assured if you don't price your trailer correctly as a seller and end up on the very low side, or took Mitchell's theme and gave all or some of it away, the one who will take your missed profit will be the flippers. These folks move quick, usually within hours they've secured the bargain trailers and they are normally back on the market within days. We've had several examples over the last year of these folks at work that we caught and followed their progress on reselling through threads.

The biggest problem with the preponderance of flippers in our market, is that they are very sophisticated searchers and it is very difficult for the normal fiberglass trailer purchaser to beat them to the real deals. That is probably the most unfortunate part of the "dark side" of buying and selling fiberglass trailers.

[Frederick L. Simson]

I have to ask those, [b]how do you identify yourself from the perspective of being a member of the community of fiberglass 'rvers' that frequent this site and possibly participate in the get-togethers?

Interesting question. I hope my rambling non-answer will be understandable in some way.

As a metaphor; I tend to identify myself as a "Fixture" here, like [b]Norm! on his barstool in "Cheers." There are some experiences in trailering (as in life) that have to be lived. You can do your "research", but it is rare to strike gold from the first Craigslist ad. It took me 2 trailers to realize my gold, and I have had some "friends" try to point out to me that it's fools gold. I don't hold that against them.

As a "Fixture" I recognise that I have responsibility... something I see rarely displayed in general. "[b]Be the change that you want to see in the world" is something I try to practice.

More specific to your observations, I had been directly advised to "shill". I won't say by whom or over what transaction... It happened a long time ago, and I learned from that experience... as I hope others will learn.

I have a trailer that I really, really like. It's fa-a-a-ar from perfect. Just like me.

[Robin G]

I agree with Greg about the flippers, But have to say some flippers are honest just like some car sales people....................... (did I just say that?) But in my opinion I think forums like this, help people to get prepared to buy. But when you have a yearning that you can't fullfill all logic get's thrown out the window and people do tend to pay the price. Kinda like having the munchie's for something and when you finally find out what your hungry for, instead of eating just one, you eat the whole bag.

[Robin G]

I haven't been around in a couple of weeks so I certainly don't know if Mitchell was speaking of a particular Ad or not. And since I think that maybe the post did take a different path, though I see that more questions were asked along the way, so I am kinda lost. But I am going to put my two cent's in anyway. If you were talking about members posting replies to comment on a 4 sale ads asking price being too low. I have seen it, and probably contributed to it in a small way myself by sometimes posting a remark about a sale being a screaming deal ( though I have never tried to tell a seller that they need to raise their price, have seen it done though)! I have thought a lot about it. And waver on if I should have remarked about it being a screaming deal. But I tend to do it, for the sake of the members here who are searching for their fiberglass trailer versus the Seller. ( Mostly because of what Donna said about (another topic) the amount of people who join only to sell their egg's and who don't care to join the forum. Only to use the forum for their benefit ( my words not her's, she's nicer than I am). That being said, we as glass owner probably get excited and often times don't think before we speak up about our little wonders. I use to post a lot of referral ad's cause I enjoy the search, and know how hard they are to find. And if you don't know some of the short cuts to searching it can be a draining process. And often times when I run across a 4 sale that I think is way over priced, I don't post it! I don't post for the sake of filling up the page with 4 sales. I post for the sake of people who desire to buy one. That's just me, others will run across the same ad and post it here. I am of the thought that if the seller doesn't get a few hundred calls the first week then maybe they will have a reality check and lower their price. Sometimes I have posted an ad that later I determine could be a scam, I try and warn people to be aware I think it's a funny sale. But I think it all comes down to as others have said, buyer beware! Know the product and be educated on it.

I am kinda like Raya, I hate the whole process when I am the one selling. I just want it sold. Example, I bought a 85 Casita that I paid $2000 for, when a few weeks later I found the newer Casita that I really wanted in the first place, I put the 85 up for sale at the price I bought it for even though I put new tires on before I left the town I purchased it in as well as purchased new flooring (still in box for them to have) all the parts I already ordered from the factory and threw in a few bottles of wax that I had bought to shine it but hadn't had time to do since my "egg" attraction had moved on to the newer one. I wasn't trying to rip anyone off. I just wanted to get it sold and was willing to lose over $300 to do it. Take it or leave it. Of course the kid that bought it, thought I would settle for less, Not! I stuck to my guns and got the $2000 I asked for. Was it a screaming deal? Who knows, I just know what I was willing to pay for it and what I was willing to sell it for.

Personaly I suggest that if your in the search for a fiberglass egg, do it yourself. Don't wait for it to be posted here by one of us or the seller. You call them and be ready to roll the minute you find the ad. I found mine, called, bought, a week before it got posted here in the referral forum ( Thankfully Greg A was on vacation and others didn't find it). So when someone did finally find the Ad and post it, I was able to post it was sold to me! Just like when people are really interested in a certain Ad they post their question on the forum and wait for a response as well as drawing attention of other buyers, rather than calling the seller direct. Being proactive with your buying will get you the trailer you want at the price your willing to pay. Hope my being lost didn't take the post even farther from what you were asking.

[Roger C H]

NADA publishes a pricing guide:

http://www.nadaguides.com/SectionHome.aspx...;p=0&f=5602

[Donna D.]

NADA publishes a pricing guide:

http://www.nadaguides.com/SectionHome.aspx...;p=0&f=5602

This is one way to educate yourself about pricing for molded fiberglass trailers. [b]NOT. As we've mentioned many times on FiberglassRV and all the other fiberglass forums, NADA is most often waaay under when it comes to pricing of molded lightweight fiberglass trailers. We see that most often in insurance claims. If this is the information one is using to determine prices when they wish to buy.... boy, are they in for a shock when reality hits.

[Alf S.]

Hi: All... Old Mr. Webster defines Haggle as..."to argue about the price of an article as a process of buying and selling."
If you don't ask enough you can't go back for more.
I know a fellow who sold his Boler for $800. and couldn't figure out why every caller was triping over themselves to get there first!!!
I bought my '77 for more than it sold for originally. Go Figure!!!
A good deal is reached when two GUYS beat each other up enough that one of 'em says UNCLE!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Steve Dunkel]

This is one way to educate yourself about pricing for molded fiberglass trailers. [b]NOT. As we've mentioned many times on FiberglassRV and all the other fiberglass forums, NADA is most often waaay under when it comes to pricing of molded lightweight fiberglass trailers. We see that most often in insurance claims. If this is the information one is using to determine prices when they wish to buy.... boy, are they in for a shock when reality hits.

I don't think this is necessarily true. NADA seems to give a good approximation for late model trailers.

[Weinel, Alan]

I ran a quote for our 2008 and it seemed "reasonable".

The issue, though, is (like Dawn said), many buyers will CONSIDER whatever you qoute as a "starting point".
SO.... you either start higher and come TO **THE** price, or you make it clear that yours is a FIRM price.

I don't think this is necessarily true. NADA seems to give a good approximation for late model trailers.