This Car Went from $200 to $4000 in 2 Years

The Trailing Spouse always wanted to be a used car saleman. So with all his spare time - he finally got the chance.

About 2 years ago - my buddy Darrell bought a 1997 Saturn that was in a wreck and the hood was all crumbled. The person sold it to Darrell for $200. Darrell is quite handy with tools - and after much effort - got the car back into pretty good operating condition. The car looked great except the hood looked like it was thru a tornado. Darrel enjoyed riding his bargain around.

After about a year - Darrell decided to buy a fancy Toyota Avalon - and asked me if I wanted to sell the Saturn. Since I have free time to do things like this as a trailing spouse - I said how much do you want for it. He said $500. I said I would sell it - clean it up myself - advertise it on the net and in the paper - pay for everything if I could keep everything over $1000 - he jumped at the offer.

After two days of vacuuming - scrubbing - waxing - polishing - washing - the Saturn looked like new - except the hood looked like someone punched it in the nose. Then I put an ad in the Tallahassee Democrat in the "cars under $2500" category. I also put an ad on the Internet - and even Craigslist.org.

The phone started ringing off the hook - at least 40 calls for the car. The first guy there was young man from Bainbridge - about 20 miles away. He drove the car and loved it. I took him for a demo ride and turned on the sound system. I was blasting a Rolling Stone tune - and the buyer looked confused. I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Cracker Music." He nodded his head and we both busted out laughing. He gave me a deposit of $100 and said he would have the rest the next day.

The rest of the day tons of people showed up to drive it - each one saying - if the deal falls thru to call them.

The next day the guy showed up with cash - $2000. He drove off with the car and the signed title with the biggest smile on his face.

Fast forward a year or so - the cable guy came to our house to check out our Internet. He asked if we remembered him - he said he bought a Saturn off of us. When asked how he liked it - he said it was the best car her ever had. He drove it almost a year and some guy "broad-sided" it while it was parked.

The insurance company paid him $4000 for the car!