Trying to Sell Betty 2.0

January 17^th-27^th, 2020

Returning to Auckland, I took the van in for an oil change and 21 point inspection and then went to Ambury Campground, the closest camp spot I could find to the main part of the city.  I would spend the better part of the next week and a half here while trying to sell the van.  It was a decent site near the ocean and situated on part of a public farm so there were sheep in one field, goats in another, pukekos wandering around and even some chickens free ranging. 

I was there enough time to get to know a few of the chickens.  There was one brown hen with half a dozen juvenile chicks that were feathered grey or brown.  A black hen with a little baby chick still sporting its light yellow fluffy feathers were pretty cute and I made sure the little one got something to eat once in a while.  Then there was one loner juvenile who was missing a few feathers around its neck and I saw the hens chase it away once or twice.  But it was brave enough to come up to me a few times so I fed him some granola whenever I could…good luck lil buddy!

My loner friend:

The mother hen and her cute chick:

It was only a 20-25 minute drive to both sites for the car fairs that run every Saturday and Sunday.  The Saturday fair started at 8 am and as I arrived at the parking lot where I had purchased Betty 2.0 three months earlier, I was surprised to see no other vehicles there.  A guy greeted me and gave me a map stating that the fair had been moved about 900 meters down the road due to a tennis tournament in town needing this parking lot.  No biggie but I wondered if it might deter some backpackers from walking down from the hostels.

Being a bit hopeful, I listed the van for $14,700 which was $200 more than what I paid for it although it was listed for $14,950 when I bought it.  Well that turned out to be real wishful thinking.  Even though it was only one month into the summer, it turned out that it was definitely a buyer’s market.   It was very slow at the start with hardly any foot traffic.  On either side of me were guys who were dealers, locals who buy a van, convert it and then sell it for profit to travellers.  I bought my van off of a dealer and I learned that that is not a great idea.  These guys don’t have the pressure of selling like backpackers do since travellers often have a plane flight in the near future (as I did).  I had a few people somewhat seriously check out the van later in the morning.  A retired American couple in their 60s seemed quite interested but were unwilling to buy at that moment although we did exchange contact info.  The market closed at 1pm and it looked like I’d be heading to the Sunday market the following day.

The Sunday market is held at a parking lot for a large horse racing venue called Ellerslie and it is a bigger fair than the Saturday one, so I felt hopeful. Overnight I decided to lower my price to $12,900.  I figured with bartering I would hopefully get in the neighborhood of $12,400 which would mean that it cost me $700/month for the van which seemed reasonable to me. 

A beautiful sunset during the week:

These markets cost $30-35 to enter as a seller and they write down your price and the vehicle’s year as you enter on a poster for you to display on your vehicle.  They accidentally gave me two posters so part way through the exhibition I took the blank one and put in a new price, dropping it to $11,900.  There was more foot traffic later in the morning and I did go on three test drives with prospective buyers but still no sale.  Well that was disappointing…

Now there were only 10 days until I was scheduled to fly back to Canada and just the next weekend’s two fair days left.  During that week I made flyers about the van and put them in all of the hostels in downtown.  I kept advertising it on Facebook too and I did have one guy call about it.  We met up one afternoon and went for a test drive.  He was interested but could only afford $8250 NZD.  That was a long drop from the $14,500 I just paid 3 months ago, however at least it was an offer.  I told him I would see if I could sell it in the upcoming weekend at the fairs and if not, it was his.  That did take some pressure off me at least.

One afternoon I drove down to a viewpoint near the airport where you could watch planes landing.

For the following Saturday market, I dropped the price again to $10,500.  Another American couple in their late 50s seemed interested but they had just arrived, were jet lagged, and were not planning on buying that day, but perhaps I’d see them at the Sunday market the next day.  It was a pretty slow day otherwise and I almost felt sorry for the few buyers who arrived as all eyes were on them as they walked around…there were way too many vans and not enough newcomers.

Hanging out with the other campervanners (is that a word?  If not, it should be…), it was hard not to make some new friends.  There was a couple one vehicle over from me that I chatted with.  Sarah was from England and Ollie from Montreal.  They were at the end of the row and just as the fair was starting Sarah was giggling and said “Did you see that?!?”  I guess some dealer guy got out of his vehicle that was on a bit of a slope in the gravel parking lot, didn’t put on the handbrake and the car rolled down the incline and right down the alley between vans and eventually stopped as it ran into a grassy hill at a fast walking pace.  Sarah had run over to the driver’s door and tried to get in to put on the brake but the door was locked.  Lucky it didn’t hit their or anyone else’s vehicle!

And now the final Sunday arrived and I returned to Ellerslie.  I dropped my price again, to $9950.  She’s got to sell now…  The morning started slowly but it started to pick up, however there were a lot of vans.  Even the dealers were saying that this was not a normal season, a lot slower than previous ones.  I did have some bites and did a test drive with a Turkish couple in their late 20s.  They were interested but could only afford $8750.  Okay, $500 more that my backup deal but still a little hard to swallow.  I told them I would let them know later that afternoon as I was meeting up with the American couple for a test drive.  In the end they backed out so I let the Turkish couple, Batu and Lily, that they had successfully purchased Betty 2.0…they were quite excited.  It was a bit of a big pill to swallow, losing that much in just three months but I chalked up a couple thousand of the dollars lost to buying it from a dealer and then another couple thousand to the fact that it was a bad year and bad time to be selling.  Oh well…it’s only money right?!?

I met up with Batu and Lily the following day to work on the logistics on transferring the ownership of the van.  I picked them up at the university and we headed to a pub to chat and have a drink.  The following day I was flying out at 8:30pm so we met up in the day and finished the transfer of the ownership and money.  Batu had badly burned his calf in Bali when he dropped a motorcycle.  He hadn’t taken care of the wound very well and it had become infected.  I experienced an infection from a wound many years ago when I got a grass burn on my leg on a paragliding training hill.  It was at a farm so who knows what lovely stuff I got in my wound.  Anyways, I ended up with a fever and had to have antibiotics via IV at a hospital.  Amazing to think that if that had happened a few hundred years before, I would have lost the leg, and maybe my life.  Batu seemed to be showing the symptoms of an infection, slight fever, pain spreading down to his foot, the calf muscle getting hard.  So we visited a doctor’s office then got the meds he needed.  I’m sure he’ll be okay but it definitely needed proper treatment.

They dropped me off at the airport in the late afternoon.  Both were very excited about the prospects of their new van life.  I had that same feeling 3 months earlier, but now I was ready to head back to Canada and have a bit of winter.  Take care Betty 2.0 and enjoy your next lap of New Zealand!