A friend of mine is getting rid of his 1999 Camry and buying a brand new $30k car. Instead of selling privately he decided to sell to Carmax. He called me and was excited that they’d give him $2000 for it. I told him to sell it privately to get a lot more. He said he doesn’t have time to do it, doesn’t want to deal w/ craigslist, etc. He finally said “if you think you can get more than $2000 for it, how about you buy it for $2100 and flip it?”. I thought about it for a while and did some very quick research, then decided to do it.
I test drove the car real quick and it runs spectacularly. I said I’d give him $2200. I was VERY clear though, that I don’t plan on keeping the car. I said:
1) You should sell it privately yourself
2) If you’re just going to trade it in, I’ll buy it to flip on craigslist
His response was “You can buy it from me and sell it for $3,000 and I won’t be upset. I told you I w
So we agreed last night that I’d buy it today for $2200. I took a picture while I was there and put it up on craigslist (before I even have the car) for $2800 firm. I got lots of calls already about the car, and 2 people want to see it tonight. I’m sure it’ll sell for the $2800.. So I will make $600 for about an hour of work.
What do you think of this? This is the ideal situation in a business sense, but I’m literally picking up the car from his house and driving it to my house to meet someone to look at it an hour later. I probably wont even have time to clean it.
Assuming it sells, do you think I should keep the money? I’ve done similar situations before, but in the past I’ve sat on the car for a week or replaced some parts, etc. I think it’d be awkward if he found out I sold it an hour after buying it. I made it very clear that I plan on selling it right away for a profit but it still feels weird.
I’m trying not to look at it as “making money off of a friend”, and to look at it as I made money for a good “investment” and he made $200 more than he was already willing to accept.
Thoughts?
-CBR