Marathon Coach sales strategy

[Petervs]

I found a new way Marathon is selling used coaches, check this out:

http://motors.shop.ebay.com/merchant/marathon_coach_luxury_auctions

Also, I happened to fly over the Marathon factory in Oregon yesterday, they had 7 used coaches and 4 new ones in the parking lot. In my experience less than a typical inventory for them.

Prices are clearly down, now would be a fine time to buy.

[garyde]

Hi Peter. It will be interesting to see what happens with those two Auctions.
I would think most convertors would like to have very little inventory and have a large chunk of change in the bank this year. Marathon probably does it better than most.

[tdelorme]

Peter, Marathon actually started listing units on eBay about a year ago. Problem is, they have yet to sell the first one.
When you think about it, this is just not going to work. When Marathon sells a used coach, they are willing to stand behind the sale for a period of time. I think with a used Marathon it's for a period of six months. Other convertor's units are less, but still Marathon stands behind the sale.
If I sell a unit on eBay, I'll stand behind it until it's out of the driveway. eBay auctions are just that, auctions and it's buyer beware.
This standing behind a sale isn't free for the buyer or seller. I personally believe that having Marathon or Liberty or another convertor be there for me after the sale has considerable worth. The average eBay bidder/buyer doesn't have a clue when he sees Marathon has a coach for sale on eBay, he just sees that the coach is "overpriced" when compared to other units on eBay.
If a "name" convertor wants to sell on eBay, they need to level the playing field and sell the units through a company that is not directly associated with the converting company. Other sellers on eBay aren't going to stand behind a sale, why should they.

[Ray Davis]

We dont know what their reserve prices are, but given the high inital bid prices, my guess is that they can still stand behind it. The units are just NOT going to be given away by Marathon.

I'm not sure we'll see any sizable deals via their Ebay ads.

[sawdust_128]

Peter, Marathon actually started listing units on eBay about a year ago. Problem is, they have yet to sell the first one.
When you think about it, this is just not going to work. When Marathon sells a used coach, they are willing to stand behind the sale for a period of time. I think with a used Marathon it's for a period of six months. Other convertor's units are less, but still Marathon stands behind the sale.
If I sell a unit on eBay, I'll stand behind it until it's out of the driveway. eBay auctions are just that, auctions and it's buyer beware.
This standing behind a sale isn't free for the buyer or seller. I personally believe that having Marathon or Liberty or another convertor be there for me after the sale has considerable worth. The average eBay bidder/buyer doesn't have a clue when he sees Marathon has a coach for sale on eBay, he just sees that the coach is "overpriced" when compared to other units on eBay.
If a "name" convertor wants to sell on eBay, they need to level the playing field and sell the units through a company that is not directly associated with the converting company. Other sellers on eBay aren't going to stand behind a sale, why should they.

As the economy winds up or down, the cost of selling direct (converters directly to the public) becomes a very costly venture. Salaries/benefits are big hitters to the bottom line. On the other side of the paradigm is the indirect model. Featherlite/vantare seeem to be headed in this direction, where (all/more/most) the sales appear to be funneling through their dealers. Although the converter won't be carrying the salaries, ramping up a sales agent/partner/dealer is costly in itself. Care must be taken to choose partners wisely else a lot of effort/expense with little/no return.

The nature of the product (i.e., custom) makes indirect sales much more challenging. I think Featherlite will begin to produce more standardized coaches for the dealers to sell and offer finders fees for true custom products. This would fit an indirect sales model very well. On the other hand, most of the other converters appear to be focused on customization (for higher margins) but do not lend themselves to anything other than direct sales as there will be no way the converter's sales people can avoid competing with their own partners.

Bottom line for me is that IMO if Marathon or any other coverter is going to sell on the www, either directly or indirectly, they are going to have to get behind it 100% and support the end user no matter through what channel the coach is acquired.

[truk4u]

I doubt that Marathon has any expectations of selling on e-bay. Where else can you have exposure to such a large market for about 40 bucks? The sale happens long after the e-bay auction has ended...

It's cheap marketing and a way to get your product in front of thousands of people, even if it's for 7 or 10 days.

[flyu2there]

I do not know about anyone else, but selling big ticket items on E-Bay is a joke. Case in point, I had a very collectible Yenko Camaro that I ran on E-Bay for chits and jiggles.....bid way up but when the auction was closed, no buyer.....vaporized, in fact the top three bidders disappeared. Probably some 17 year old Chinito from Hong Kong. Chatting with the E-Bay folks, evidently it happens all of the time.

As Truk stated, the best one can hope for is some cheapo marketing exposure but, even then, the typical E-Bay audience is probably wrong demographically, especially for a bus.

Now, if you want to liquidate your seventeen volume set of Snoop Doggy Dogg C.D.'s the demographics on E-Bay are spot on....gone in 60 seconds.


John

[rfoster]

Truck -you are right on. It is the one of the cheapest forms of advertising to be had to reach a large prospective audience.

We use Ebay from time to time and has worked out sucessfully. No bad experiences with buyers yet, but for every successful auction, the bandits in S.Africa run fraud ads of our merchandise on Craigs List etc. We try our best to make sure the photo has the phone number embedded into the photo. We get calls from all over the world when the crooks run the ads cause they price the stuff so cheap. It is amazing how many calls we get "That deal is too good to be true" - well guess what dummy?\

Never sold a bus on ebay tho.

[Steve Bennett]

We had a 99 Vantare H3 that we were selling, and that was sitting in our showroom appear on E-Bay. The scammer had used the pictures from our advertising, and had the coach listed with a "buy now" price about $150K less than we were selling the coach for. They were attempting to get a deposit, or deposits on the coach, and would have disappeared with the $'s. Bottom line is, you need to be very careful. We had looked into marketing our coaches on E-bay, but have found that it is really not the best place to be selling an expensive, complex product that typically requires quite a bit of interaction with prospective buyers.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Maybe some folks are tickled pink with the ebay concept but I'm old school. I trust in bricks and mortar, face to face communications, and a company that has a long term history and is not "virtual".

Especially for a bus.

Anybody that wants a Prevost knows therre are several places on the internet to look. After the initial internet inspection I presume real buyers then go look at the goods. Ebay to me is just one more place to look at the goods, but I will never ever buy a bus through the bidding process unless it is at an auction where I can see and examine the bus, and even then I would be very apprehensive because of all that you can never see without several days of inspection.

[Ray Davis]

I did purchase my first bus on Ebay. I actually pushed the "Buy it Now" button for $150k! (still only gives you one point on your profile!)

But, I had called the seller, and indicated it was conditional on me flying up, seeing the bus, and approving.

I also purchased a $50k Corvette on Ebay too. So, here it is, I had purchased $200,000 worth of goods on Ebay, and I had a positive score of 2!

Ray

[Tully]

Purchased my first RV- 1995 American Dream for $50,000. Bought a 1988 Porsche 928 for $18,000. Bought a Cadillac Allante for $12,500. I have 99.9% feed-back. Only one bad deal - A 1974 Plymouth Cuda I bought for $18,000 and it was a dog. Not as described. Put back on Ebay with proper description and only lost $500.00.

I have been lucky.

Tully Lee

* Of course, I look at feed back rating and talk to person at great length to get the proper vibe.

[garyde]

There are plenty of auto dealers which advertise on e bay. check out the ferrari's, Bentley's, Porsche, and others. Most are listed by Dealers from everywhere in the country. I wouldn't mind buying thru one of them with certain conditions.
John is right about the bidding however. I have bid on a few auto's and have never been able to ring the bell. It seems there is always a phantom bidder who is always $1000.00 ahead of me. What's the point if your going to pay the 'buy it now' price.

[tdelorme]

Here is a legit looking eBay auction with no reserve. Starting bid looks reasonable as well. The ad needs more info on the coach but the seller does list his telephone number. I'll bet this one sells.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-Vantare-Conversion-Prevost-Chassis_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ50056QQihZ014QQ itemZ330246997349QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[Petervs]

Ted
I disagree, this bus will not sell on ebay. The seller says he might remove the auction at any time because it is for sale locally. Since the starting bid is about half the going price, and there is no reserve, this seller will yank the auction right near the end if there are not some bids bringing the price to where he wants it.

I have seen this happen many times. It looks tempting. Then it is gone.

If you place a bid, and nobody else does, then you might just think you are getting a bargain, then the rug gets pulled at the last second.

There is no free lunch!

But, ebay is a very effective advertising tool as has been mentioned above.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

With the way some folks are reacting to the changes in the economy and diesel prices I am not sure that $250,000 price is bogus.

On paper we all have lost a ton of equity because the market has become irrational and actual prices seem to be dropping faster than most folks realize.

[Ray Davis]

As someone who is actively looking, I've found prices all over the board. There are a few very good deals out there now. It seems strange, but there seems to be a lot of deals on Vantare at the moment.

On the other hand, there are still many sellers who cling to their high prices, and won't budge from it. One of the coaches I've been very intersted is like that. The customer wants about $50k to $75k more than it's really worth. But, he sells high end cars at very high prices, and won't be scared into selling lower.

So, it's a mixed bag out there at the moment. Generally it feels like XL prices are more affected than XL2, but that's probably not really the case. The two Vantare units I'm thinking of are both XL2 models.

Ray

[jello_jeep]

Ray,,,, from Marathon, to vantare ?? .... OHHHHHhhhh... the shame.... :p
Just kiddin...

[Ray Davis]

Jello,

It doesn't hurt to look! :) Only one I'm not looking at this point is CC, due to the shabby treatment when I needed service.

Primary focus is Marathon, with Liberty second. Marathon is a better choice service-wise for those of us on the west coast, with a new service center in Beaumont, and the factory north in OR.

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

"As someone who is actively looking, I've found prices all over the board. There are a few very good deals out there now. It seems strange, but there seems to be a lot of deals on Vantare at the moment."

Anyone want to take bets that the fact that some Vantare coaches are being given away has something to do with the fact they were dumping new inventory a few months back? Vantare $hit in its own nest and its customers are going to pay.

[sawdust_128]

It's simple. pick up the phone and call the guy. I don't believe that the pricing is out by 50% ("half the going rate"). I see the asking price holding on many units. I see the offer price and closes dropping each day.

Sixty days ago I had a list of candidate coaches. Today, the list (same criteria) of candidates contains coaches 2 years newer.

I tend to agree with Jon's position. Investors watching the marekt know it is down 17 -18.5% YTD. Even really safe, conservative investors are off 3-5% YTD. Liquidity is getting a little rarer and credit getting shorter, cash is King and thems that got are going to hold until they feel a real bottom is near and let's not forget fuel fears and fallout into every other facet of the economy. Thus, buyers are a scarce. Go look at the other segments of the used RV market, it is shocking.