Let’s say you’ve tried camping and you’re done with it, at least for now. You go to Facebook Marketplace and list your RV. Your phone dings all day long with low ball offers and “willing to trade for my broken truck?”, “how are the tires?”, “is that your best price”, “what’s it weigh?”, “clean title?”, “How many miles?”, “Want to meet over by the dumpster at the abandoned Kmart so I can check it out?” All this without any valid offers.
Consigning your RV through a dealership may be a better option for you if haggling online isn’t your cup o’ tea.
Consignment is one way to sell your camper without the stress of doing it yourself. Bish’s RV took in about 1,500 RVs for consignment and sold about 1,300 of them across the country in 2022. Using our experience, we’ll help you understand the benefits of consignment so you can decide if it’s the best choice for you.
Selling Privately
If you choose to sell your RV privately, you may use Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or RV Trader. You can use these sites and have a seamless, easy sales process. Or it can turn into a chaotic mess. You could receive several messages a day that end with you being annoyed at best and stuffed in an abandoned Kmart dumpster at worst. You’ll also need to find the extra time to meet with potential buyers—if you even get to that point.
When you consign your RV the dealer handles all the questions, low-ball offers, appointments, and showings. This saves the worst parts for the people paid to deal with it.
What You’ll Make
What you’ll make depends on your RV and the agreement you make with the dealership. The dealer agreement will include the net amount you’ll receive when your RV sells. Net amount is the amount you take home. Sometimes the dealer will have a hot buyer on the sales floor that wants your camper, but is offering under the sale price. The dealer will contact you if this comes up and if you’d like to sell faster, you’ll have to consider changing the originally agreed to price.
When you consign, you may take home more profit than you could selling your RV privately. A dealership has extra resources (professional photos, advertising, foot traffic, proper evaluation tools), so it’s also possible to take home more than you would selling privately. The dealer also does an inspection, which gives the RV buyer more confidence in the camper, increasing the RV’s value.
Without dealer tools, you may not get the same attention on your camper or know the exact value of it. E.g. You may post the RV privately for 20k. But if you consign, the dealer has the tools to know the exact value of your camper and they could sell it for more than you expected, which leaves you 21k in take home pay.
Larger Market Area
Using a website to list your RV can get it seen by a lot of potential buyers’ eyes, but your sale radius will be limited. Facebook Marketplace, for example, will limit you to a 100 mile radius.
If you consign your camper at a dealership like Bish’s RV your RV will be listed on the dealer’s website If you consign your camper at a dealership like Bish’s RV your RV will be listed on the dealer’s website with a good description of your RV and nearly 100 photos you won’t have to take. Bish’s has dozens of locations (and growing) from Oregon to Virginia. Our market area allows thousands of eyes that are actually interested in buying an RV to see your camper. Bish’s can also deliver your RV to any of the lower 48 states.
Simpler Financing
When you sell your RV privately, you’ll likely have to wait for the buyer to be approved for financing. Most buyers don’t have the means to buy an RV outright with cash. Your buyer will probably need to go to their local bank, fill out a finance application, and then wait for approval. All this while you wait (and pass on possible offers), hoping they won’t flake or fail to get the financing.
At a dealer your potential buyer will have access to inhouse finance professionals who can have an approval within minutes. At Bish’s, if we have a hot buyer on the floor before noon and they want to take the camper home that day, we have the ability to make it happen, and we do it all the time!
Ability to Trade
Consigning through your local dealer may be a great option if you are completely done with camping, just want to get paid for your used RV, and have no desire to entertain any sort of trade. Dealers have the ability to accept all sorts of trades–trucks, boats, utvs, and even motorcycles (depending on the dealership). A dealership can make the trades to get your deal to happen and you can end up with all of your cash and none of the hassle.
No Prep Work
You can save yourself a weekend of work cleaning and prepping your camper when you consign your RV. The dealership will get it completely ready for photos and to show on the lot. You will need to clear out any of your personal belongings that you would like to keep. If you don’t, the dealership will throw them out during the cleaning process.
Knowing why you may want to consign your RV is an important part of knowing if it’s the best decision for you. If you would prefer consignment over navigating the murky waters of selling privately, Bish’s RV would love to take the stress off your shoulders and get that dusty RV off your driveway.
Learn more about How Consignment Works!
Contact our Professional Consignment team for any questions you have on consignment!
