No reserve auction on eBay tests the market
You knew it had to happen eventually. In this instance, a Tennessee used car dealership acquired a 2011 Nissan LEAF and is offering it up on eBay in a no reserve auction.
Certainly it is a marketing gimmick, as most auctions end up with the item being auctioned going for fair market value, or in some cases even more. This particular specimen seems to be in pretty good shape with low miles, although I just skimmed the ad. Another blog commented on how low the bids were. Duh… there are still days to go. Bids today have nothing to do with the selling price as of the close of bidding. Anyone that has ever bid on anything on eBay before can tell you that.
So why are we commenting on this at all? Because we think that it might provide us some insight on what the real world price of a used Nissan LEAF might be. We have already commented on this, and in fact it is one of our most widely read articles. This time however, the buyer determines the price, not the seller. In that sense, it is slightly different than our previous discussion, which showed that most sellers were unwilling to go below the mid $20,000 range. Our guess is that this 2011 LEAF will also fall somewhere in that same range. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of days.