The Joys of Selling Your Airplane

[kevin]

So, they call me up, tell me that they would like me to fly my airplane to Skagit Bay Regional so they can do a prebuy on it. This is out of the blue, no other conversation. I want to know if we are together on price, if they want to inspect it then lowball me, let's not waste time. He says "oh no, we are close". I tell him I need him to pay for the fuel up and back (it is an hour flight away), if he will fax me a written promise to do that, I will bring it up. He says no problem. "He/they" in all he sentences above is the shop foreman of an outfit called "Corporate Air" at Skagit. He says he is representing a buyer. Since I have bought and sold a number of airplanes, I know that strange things happen, so I agree, and flew it up there this morning.

I arrive, and the buyer turns out to be a 75 year old doctor, without a pilot's license, who got mad when they made him take off his shoes getting on the airlines, and has decided he wants a airplane to travel to visit his family in Minnesota (from Seattle). (When I get this far into the story with them, I have pretty much lost any hope of selling the airplane.) Anyway, the doctor goes out and looks at my airplane for maybe 5 minutes and comes back and says "no on that one". He peels off $200 from a wad of bills, hands them to the shop foreman, and says to "take care of him (me)". So Corporate Air fills my airplane with fuel, and pays me $65 for the fuel on the flight up. Before I leave, I ask in parting, what made you decide so quickly that you didn't want my airplane. The Corporate Air guy, Craig, says the my airplane was advertised by a broker (I am not sure who), and that the broker's ad said my airplane was a 10 out of 10 interior and exterior (meaning like a Riley just out of the factory, leather seats, the whole shot). My airplane, while very nice, is not a 10 like that. When I was on the phone with him, I gave him this website address and told him the correct specifications were there, but he says he never looked at it.

Another weird airplane selling experience. Oh well, it was beautiful flight both directions, and the fuel was free... :-D

Kevin