Why are dealerships selling on ebay?

[brucedp]

-This is an inquiry, not a for sale ad-

Why is Nissan Boardwalk in Redwood City, CA selling on ebay?

One for $33k8 "Make Offer":
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270763168385
Six for $35k "Make Offer":
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270765571142
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270767871409
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270767871407
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270767871411
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270767871408
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SL-Electric/270767871406

I thought there was a long waiting list to get one's Leaf EV?
If there is, trying to get a few more bucks of profit over
meeting the waiting list commitment is not cool.

Aren't there other dealerships that still need Leaf EVs to
meet their commitments?

I am going to them today, but thought I would ask the
forum who would know more about dealerships using ebay to
bag sales. What's the dealio?
-Bruce

 

[LakeLeaf]

If Boardwalk has that many orphans, it seems like EBay is a good way to reach a wider audience.

Once a car is delivered to the dealer - if unclaimed by the orderer - it is the property of the dealer to dispose of as they see fit. It doesn't go back into the queue for people who are on the waiting list as it is no longer owned by Nissan corporate.

Of course the dealer could sell to others on the list at the dealership. I have no idea if Boardwalk isn't doing that, or if they don't have anyone left on the list.

 

[Herm]

I wonder if they found a way to game the system.. perhaps all the nieces and nephews of the owner ordered a Leaf when it became possible to do so.. without intentions to take delivery.

 

[Packet]

That's a surprising number of orphans, yah.

 

[brucedp]

Bottom line: there is only one Leaf EV available as of
today 06/19/2011 11am pst at $43k color black, see
http://brucedp11.150m.com/leaf-ev-rwc-boardwalk-201106.html
Dealership sales contact: Wahid, cell 415-246-7776, at the
dealership Sun 11a-6p, Weekdays 11-8 (except off on Tue & Wed).

OK here is the poop:
Nissan Boardwalk dealership has a contract with a vendor to
automatically put up an ebay listing up when a Leaf EV is
delivered to them whether it is pre-allocated to people on the
Leaf EV waiting list or not (yes, I let them know this is a
really dumb practice).

So, there may be people doing data entry to create these listings,
but we (the EV community) should not read anything at all into
them. Those listed Leaf EVs may already be picked up at the price
set when the person signed up for it, or if orphaned, the dealership
is going to raise the price on it as a response to market demand.

As Leaf EVs are in very high demand, a price hike up by almost
$10k is not an unaffordable price to many in this affluent
Silicon Valley, CA area. Some families buy two Leaf EVs per
household because they are available and cheaper than a Tesla EV.

So, all of us can drop any conjecture, or ideas about who-hit-john.
Some poor underpaid soul put them up on ebay, and now the EV
community knows to not make a big deal about any more we see in
the future.

Basically, if you have the bucks to blow, you can get one now.



{brucedp.150m.com}

 

[MsLusty]

I know I'm just anxious and hoping against hope, but I just checked all those to see if any of them matches the VIN on my dashboard. :roll:

 

[johnr]

Bottom line: there is only one Leaf EV available as of
today 06/19/2011 11am pst at $43k color black, see
http://brucedp11.150m.com/leaf-ev-rwc-boardwalk-201106.html
Dealership sales contact: Wahid, cell 415-246-7776, at the
dealership Sun 11a-6p, Weekdays 11-8 (except off on Tue & Wed).

OK here is the poop:
Nissan Boardwalk dealership has a contract with a vendor to
automatically put up an ebay listing up when a Leaf EV is
delivered to them whether it is pre-allocated to people on the
Leaf EV waiting list or not (yes, I let them know this is a
really dumb practice).

So, there may be people doing data entry to create these listings,
but we (the EV community) should not read anything at all into
them. Those listed Leaf EVs may already be picked up at the price
set when the person signed up for it, or if orphaned, the dealership
is going to raise the price on it as a response to market demand.

As Leaf EVs are in very high demand, a price hike up by almost
$10k is not an unaffordable price to many in this affluent
Silicon Valley, CA area. Some families buy two Leaf EVs per
household because they are available and cheaper than a Tesla EV.

So, all of us can drop any conjecture, or ideas about who-hit-john.
Some poor underpaid soul put them up on ebay, and now the EV
community knows to not make a big deal about any more we see in
the future.

Basically, if you have the bucks to blow, you can get one now.



{brucedp.150m.com}

If people bid on the ebay auction and someone wins the auction before the dealership realizes their mistake, that dealership is going to find themselves in a very sticky situation... :roll:

 

[BrendanDolan]

It's my fault. Our DMS populates inventory into our inventory manager, and then that feed gets sent off to various sites (eBay being one of them). I haven't found a way to suppress LEAF from that feed (as that feed has all of my other inventory, and eBay local has plenty of my other brands cars in it). Those are all pre sold cars, and not orphans, and when they get picked up, my DMS marks them sold, they pull from my inventory manager, and then they get removed from eBay local.

Nobody can bid on them (as if you click make an offer, it just sends me an email), and when I get an email, I let the customers know they're sold, ask if they'd like to join our waiting list, and then give them instructions on how to make an account with Nissan to reserve their own.

If I had more free time to spend on hold with my vendors I could probably suppress LEAF from the feed, but at the end of the day it allows me to get into contact with people who are interested in orphans, or interested in ordering cars for themselves in the future, so alls well that ends well. :lol:

 

[MsLusty]

Looks like Boardwalk got in another big shipment. Of course my car doesn't seem to be among them, although my dashboard still says "week of June 24". Here's the lucky VIN #s from their Ebay listings:

2514
2544
3732
3888
4014
4115
4376
4406
4443
4454
4507
4533
4575
4604
4653
4710
4723

 

[davewill]

If I had more free time to spend on hold with my vendors I could probably suppress LEAF from the feed, but at the end of the day it allows me to get into contact with people who are interested in orphans, or interested in ordering cars for themselves in the future, so alls well that ends well. :lol:

There's a name for advertising things you don't have to sell just to get sales leads...I just can't remember it, though.

 

[leaf561]

Looks like Boardwalk got in another big shipment. Of course my car doesn't seem to be among them, although my dashboard still says "week of June 24". Here's the lucky VIN #s from their Ebay listings:

2514
2544
3732
...

Now here is a good way to check whether your car has arrived at the dealer

 

[MsLusty]

There's a name for advertising things you don't have to sell just to get sales leads...I just can't remember it, though.

On the other hand, as someone waiting anxiously for a car to show up at the dealership, I appreciate having a ready listing of the cars they've received so that I can tell right away whether they got my car.

 

[MsLusty]

...and in a new bizarre development, Boardwalk seems to be listing their Leafs on EBay with photos of (I assume) of actual used vehicles they have for sale. With price and VIN #s associated with the Leafs in question:

I'm interested that they have this SV listed with a price of only $23k:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Niss...a2fQQitemZ270774557231QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks