Any new articles on the same topic?

Interesting, I sold a car privately for the first time about the same time as you last year. My experience was more disorganized and had more missteps.

First, I tried the newspaper ad. In fact I did two one month ads. I received zero calls. That was a waste of about $200.

Second I did cars.com. Twice. I received no leads there either. In fact there was very little traffic to my ad. That was about $125 more.

The reason I placed both ads twice was because I started trying to sell right before Xmas. Then I tried again in Jan.

Then I went to Craigslist and got some leads but no sale.

Finally I bought an ad in the local Wheels and Deals trade magazine. I recieved one very low ball cash offer (17% below KBB private party). I recieved another offer about 12% below KBB private party and accepted.

My car had a KBB private party value of ~12k. I found it is much harder to sell something over 10k private party.

After expenses I still netted about $1,000 over the best dealer offer I could get.

We took the cash and paid in full for a used Honda van bought private party. We had to make the change due to a new family edition.

It was difficult, but if I had gone the dealer route I would've paid $14k for the van and traded my car for $8, leaving a $6k balance. Instead I ended up slightly above water.

Due to inexperience, I was nowhere near as meticulous as you with the money and details. The guy was an old farmer with his wife. We met at a fast foot chain near my work. He gave me half in cash and the other half a personal check. We called the bank and verified the funds. I took the check directly to my bank. I held the title until the check cleared. Then I mailed it and he sent me my plate back.

Word to the wise about CarFax. Its worthless. The CarFax for my car was wrong. It listed 5 owners when there were only 2. This cost me a chance at a sale.