My choice to sell my old truck myself versus trading it in

John Scott · 2026-03-29T06:20:07.174316+00:00

I had a 2012 Ford F-150 with about 120,000 miles on it. The dealer offered me $8,500 as a trade-in on a newer vehicle. I knew I could get more selling it myself, but that meant dealing with listing it, showing it, and handling all the paperwork. I chose to sell it myself. It took about three weeks, I had to meet a few people for test drives, and one guy tried to lowball me at $9,000. I held out and sold it for $11,200 to a guy from the next town over. The extra cash was great, but I spent a lot of time on it and had some stressful moments with strangers coming to my house. For those who have sold a car, was the extra money worth the hassle, or would you take the easier trade-in next time?

fiona_scott446mo ago

Ugh, the texts and no-shows are the worst part. I sold my old car myself and had this one person set up three different times to see it and just never showed up. It makes you want to pull your hair out. That vacation money is a nice way to look at it though.

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aarons364mo ago

$11,200 minus the $2,700 over trade-in doesn't pay for three weeks of headaches.

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quinn_nguyen6mo ago

Yeah I did the same thing last year. Got way more cash selling it myself, but man all those texts and no-shows were a pain. Still, that extra couple grand paid for a nice vacation so it worked out.

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