Dandy selling advice...

Hi all.

After four years of ownership we are going to be selling our Dandy Destiny. This is likely to be going on Ebay shortly but I wanted to ask the knowledgeable folks on here for advice.

Whilst I've not been on the forum for a while some of you may recall the unit itself. It's a high sided early 90's Destiny with built in fridge. A great unit all round with double skinned and one of those Carmen roller style heaters which we have never actually used. We had it serviced/electrics upgraded once we had it so the connections worked properly (the male/female coupling for hook up was reversed - no idea why). There is also a microwave 'built in'.

As I learned previously, like virtually every Dandy it's unique. I have begun to wonder if any are ever uniform. The unique selling point was the cavernous awning with it's fabled annexe - I think Tow Itch was suggesting disco's in the awning. Also the high sided Destiny in pale blue is rare too.

There are naturally a few downpoints after 4 years.
1. Needs a really good clean - easily fixed
2. The Velcro which attaches the skirts had been replaced but will need to be again by the buyer
3. The upright struts on one bedroom side have managed to get kinked. I guess we put it away poorly at some point? However, we have been away in it for the last two years, it's no harder nor easier to erect but it could be a potential weak point (? - advice on this would be welcome).
4. The internal light fitting got broken sometime ago. We've not replaced it - mainly cause it was really poor anyway and a single table lamp works far, far better.

We paid £1600 for it I think. My wife has made replacement covers for all the seats but these are utterly removable for the purist.

So my advice needs...
Point 3 in particular.
Point 4.
Should we consider selling the unit and the awning (with small bedroom chamber) separately.
Realistically what should we expect to get for it?

If anyone knows anyone looking, let them know to PM me.

Seriously, the one piece of advice I'd give to anyone selling is 01257 427221.

This is the number for Ian at Riva Dandy in Wigan.

Ian will take your unit in, give it a full service, attend to any minor repairs, advertise it, show it to prospective buyers, and sell it for a better price than you'll get on ebay.

All of this will cost you no more that the ebay commission for doing sod all.

You might get a quick sale at your asking price on ebay but you might also get a lot of tyre kickers and time wasters wanting you to erect the unit and that disco hall awning for them with no intention of ever parting with any cash.

I think Ian charges £450 commission on a unit up to £4000. That's a fairly small proportion of £4000 but a quarter of £1800. However if he can sell it for £450 more than you can you are in pocket.

Ian sold mine fairly quickly.

I always feel if an advertiser says this fault and that fault etc, easily fixed but doesn't fix them it can't be that easy. To sell it needs to be completely cleared out of all junk and clean. If not it will be a knock down price. Just imagine you are buying it.

Sorry, yes i did have a higher selling price in mind when comparing commission rates.

That said, I do believe that Ian will secure a price that covers both his commission and the cost of delivering the unit to him.

Many buyers will value knowing that it's been professionally serviced and checked over.

The only downside is possibly having to wait for a sale as opposed to a certain timescale but uncertain price on ebay.

Thanks.

I will give Ian a call tomorrow and try and get a rough guide to what it'll fetch. I assume he hosts the unit for sale too.

Endecay wrote:Thanks.

I will give Ian a call tomorrow and try and get a rough guide to what it'll fetch.  I assume he hosts the unit for sale too.

Yes, he'll store it at the workshop and advertise it on the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Ii couldn't argue with peridot especially as you have concerns viz a viz one of the erecting "hoops". Ian certainly has all the round section metalwork in stock as I've bought bits off him and I presume he'd have the square section bits in too.
As is £1,800 sounds quite reasonable. The early highside Destinies have some plus points over the later ones provided a buyer isn't fixated on having an internal toilet  A curtained off toilet a la Porta Potty / Thetford in the awning is still more than possible.
 Noting this conversation took place a few weeks ago I considered my musings might be a bit redundant depending on Endecays course of action. Took a quick look a Riva Dandy Sales' then spied [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on ebay.

For anyone looking for a Destiny here are our initial thoughts on Endecays Destiny when he bought it: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Looking at the lack of bidding and the buy it now price someone could well end up with a bargain. The buy it now is less than his original thought on price wonder why he didn't unload it through Ian.

I remember struggling with that awning only too well. Usually accompanied by comments on how it should be done, but without any actual help. However, once up it was great, especially on a wet week. As to this model not having the inside toilet.....well the annex was a great location for the port-a-potty.

It wasn't long after I sold this that I got another Dandy, that is also sold on and I now have a lovely 4 with awning and heater. From the largest, down to the smallest.

It was £1600 by the way, which was the same as I paid for it a couple of years earlier. Hopefully your Ebay experience is less stressful than mine was. I still don't know why they ended the auction. The only thing I can think of is that I logged on from public wifi to check the progress and it flagged up as a suspicious IP address.

I'm sure I saw this sell on ebay but then be relisted.

What's the story Endecay?

Did someone actually secure it for £800? It could be argued that the unique awning alone was worth that, but probably only by someone who had never tried to erect the monster