EBay has about 11 million users. Most users are average people who use eBay as their own personal business, whether they want to purchase or sell goods. However, GM has set up a deal with eBay that allows their certified used car dealers to list their complete used car inventories on eBay.
The inventory is listed in the third party classified section and has been there since the second quarter of 2008. All of GM's brands are participating; Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac have listed vehicles on the site. Hummer, Saab and Saturn can also take advantage of this Internet bargain basement.
There are about 3900 dealerships that sell GM certified cars, so the amount of cars available is enormous. Before GM had this brainstorm of selling cars through eBay, they sold 516,560 used cars from those 3900 dealerships. That's an average of about 133 cars per lot. The dealership does not pay for this eBay listing; it's free, so anything that's sold on the site can be considered an additional sale; one that would never have come to their lot in the first place.
The figures show that eBay sells a lot of cars. People automatically will look on eBay when they are in the market for a car. Small used car dealers, not certified by anyone, have been using eBay for years. They usually use the auction rather than the classified section.
Anyone who is in the market for a used car can almost find one anywhere. Individuals sell their cars on such things like Craig List, the classified section of the local paper, in their front yards, or they park them at the malls and just about anywhere there is traffic. It's hard to say just how many used cars are for sale daily, but it's surely a staggering number.
This move by GM should be a bright spot in the dismal auto industry, since the recession and what some people call a depression, continues. There's no point in buying a new vehicle when you can find a slightly used car one for a lot less money. However, if the dealerships get creative and offer some attractive prices and perhaps some realistic financing to go with it, they could sell a lot of cars. But it's going to take some time and creativity from the dealers to help them reduce their inventories and generate some cash flow in the process.
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