Saturday morning. One of the weekend's first sellers, sold and headed home.
50 private sellers. Two days at Harper College.
Here's how the weekend went.
Saturday morning. One of the weekend's first sellers, sold and headed home.
Most of the 50 sellers had tried the usual way first. A Facebook listing, a week of "is it still available?" messages, a no-show or two. Some had a dealer's trade-in number in their pocket and didn't like it.
So when a different option came up, leave your car in one lot for a weekend and let buyers come to it, 50 Chicagoland sellers signed up. On the morning of May 30, they dropped their keys with the Chicagoland Auto Fair team and went home.
Open to the public, free admission, clean titles. That was the whole idea.
Sellers dropped their cars off Saturday morning and went home. By the time the gates opened to buyers at 9, the lot was full of cars and people were already walking the rows.
More than 450 buyers came through over the two days. The first car sold about an hour in, and others followed through the afternoon.
I came to look at one car and ended up walking through a couple dozen in one spot. I called two of the owners right from the lot.
Not every car needed a discount to move. A few drew a crowd.
One seller priced his car expecting the usual back and forth. By Saturday afternoon, three different buyers were going back and forth on it, and one of them offered more than he was asking.
I expected people to talk me down on price. Instead a few buyers were competing for it, and one offered more than I was asking. I didn't think that could happen selling it on my own.
The whole weekend, no seller had to meet a buyer at home. They handed their keys to the team on Saturday and came back for a check or their car on Sunday.
The dealer offered me thousands less than I knew the car was worth. I sold it here to a private buyer for a fair price, and had a check by Sunday night.
What the weekend added up to.
After about 30 “is it still available?” messages on Facebook Marketplace, I was done with it. I brought the car to the fair instead, and it sold in one weekend.
We started Chicagoland Auto Fair because we had both sold cars the old way, and watched friends do the same.
The pattern never changed. Weeks of effort, then a lowball or a stranger at the door. Event #1 was the first time we got to watch sellers skip all of it. Event #2 is July 11 and 12. Same lot, same format.
Same lot. Same weekend format. A new set of cars.
Event #1 sold out all 50 seller spots. Event #2 registration is now live.
Chicagoland Auto Fair is an independent event and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Harper College.