I can’t really explain why, but I’ve always found the idea of trading vehicles a bit odd. I understand that selling a car and then buying another is really not much different than trading, but there’s just something about swapping vehicles that feels… odd. This person has a good car; why are they getting rid of that good car? Maybe they like your car better — sure, that’s fine — but it still makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just being closed-minded. Anyway, I’ve sold lots of vehicles over the years, and oftentimes, folks strapped for cash will send me the question “Any trades?” Or some will outright offer something. Especially over the recent months during which I have been selling my vehicles in preparation for a move to LA (which is now about halfway complete), trade talks have been on the upswing. Some of those offers have been bizarre; so let’s take a look at them, and then I’d love to hear from you some of the stranger things you’ve been offered for your vehicle.
Let’s get to the stuff in the headline: Yes, a literal AR-15 rifle. America — what a place!
A Pontiac Fiero And An AR-15 For My Chevy Tracker
This one is in response to the Chevy Tracker I’ve got listed, which has somehow not sold yet despite being an amazing piece of off-road machinery. Behold the message:
This person wants to trade me both a Pontiac Fiero — a mighty fine 1980s mid-engine sports car from General Motors — and an “ar15 300 blackout.” I’d love a Fiero:
As for an AR-15 300 Blackout, I honestly don’t even know what the terms after “AR-15” mean, so I looked them up, and found this:
The 300 Blackout (300 BLK) was designed by Remington/AAC to create a reliable, compact .30 caliber round for the AR platform that uses a standard bolt and magazine. 300 Blackout is optimized for suppressed fire with heavy bullet subsonic loads but can also be used with supersonic ammunition when extra range is needed. The twist rate will work well for subsonic and supersonic loadings alike and there is typically no need for an adjustable gas block when switching back and forth between the two loadings. All these specifications come together to create a round that is great for home defense, law enforcement / military use, as well as hunting.
So the “300” refers to the .30 caliber rounds, and the Blackout is a range of weapons offered by Wilson Combat:
Anyway, these things are worth about two grand new; I’m not sure what they’re worth used, mostly because I don’t really care. I’m pro-Fiero, but not particularly interested in owning an AR-15.
A Literal Houseboat For My Chevy Tracker
Recently a gentleman named Dane offered to trade me his houseboat for my Chevy Tracker. Out of curiosity, I asked to see it. Check it out:
It appears to be a bit of a fixer-upper, but I do like the wood tiles on the walls:
I am honored to have been offered a living quarters in exchange for a vehicle I bought for $700, but I don’t need a houseboat.
God I love how random that trade offer is, though. A houseboat!
A Nice Chevy Suburban For My Chevy Tracker
I actually got one offer that I considered. Check it out:
I inquired further about the condition of this rust-free1995Â Suburban. Here’s what Phillip told me:
V8 4×4 auto, she has a replaced engine and rebuild transmission sits stock from 1995 no rust get a lot of compliments on the body shape being how old bought in Vegas from the mechanic who swapped the engine out270k some miles engine was swapped about 60k ago should last for a bit on the road pretty reliable, she needs a little work but she runs daily driver
A daily-driven, rust-free tow vehicle! I won’t pretend like I wasn’t at least a little intrigued. I mean, the thing looks great:
But alas, rust free Suburbans abound in my new home out west, plus I need to get rid of vehicles, not trade them for bigger ones.
A Rusty Jeep For A Rusty Jeep
I recently sold my 1958 Willys FC-170 in preparation for my move out west, and I received some pretty good trade offers, including this rusty Jeep J4000, which I definitely wouldn’t have turned down if it had more actual metal
This guy offered me some “shop equipment”:
And this person, Scott, I’m just mentioning because he did the classic Facebook Marketplace move that tends to drive people crazy. I’m of course referring to the “punctuation-less one word message”:
Trades
A Chevy Caprice Wagon For My Lexus LX-470
You remember my 2001 Lexus LX-470? The nicest and most expensive car I’ve ever owned? (see above). Well, that thing brought in some nice offers before I eventually sold it for $7,200 — including this one:
Honestly, this Caprice is clean:
Someone even offered a five-speed “cateye” Chevy Silverado!
The “Cateye” Silverado is this one, by the way:
A five-speed truck is a tempting thing.
A Boat For My ‘Stolen’ Willys FC-150
Remember that red 1958 FC-150 I bought for two grand without a title or VIN plate? The one I joked about having been “stolen”? Well, before I sold the thing for five G’s, I got a few good trade offers, including this one for a “50s Willys Project Truck”:
And this one for a 1953 Chevy pickup “3800 model”:
But the crown jewel of trade offers for my “stolen” Willys was this boat:
Behold:
I just love the confidence there; I didn’t even respond to confirm that I’m considering trades at all, and I certainly didn’t say anything about having access to water, but this guy sent over a whole album of boat pictures. Bold. Random. I love it!
A Bunch Of Random Cars For Trade
I’ve also gotten various vehicle-trade offers, of course. For my Chevy Tracker, someone offered a 1998 Lexus LS400:
That’s this car, by the way:
Someone also offered a “partial trade” involving a 2005 Jeep Liberty:
I actually quite like the Liberty, and if Drue had offered a manual model, I may not have been able to resist.
For my Holy Grail Jeep Grand Cherokee — the rare five-speed manual one shown below — someone offered me a Grand Cherokee.
Specifically, it was a person named Jovanni offering me a WJ:
I do like a WJ, but they’re all automatic, and Chrysler autos haven’t been known for their longevity in these vehicles.
What Trade Offers Have You Gotten?
So the various car models are fairly typical trade offers, but an AR-15? A HOUSEBOAT? Another boat? It’s all so random that I just love it. I’d love to hear about the strangest stuff you’ve been offered in exchange for the car you’re trying to sell.
I probably would have taken the house boat offer.
Caprice and/or the LS400. Mmmmmm-hmmmm.
Every single time I post a motorcycle for sale in the Bay Area there’s always someone who offers weed. Probably a CA thing.
The wildest one was when I was selling an 06 M5 in Denver, and someone offered a five-acre plot in the absolute middle of nowhere by Saddle Mountain. We weren’t going to stay long term in CO, but Reader, I was tempted.
Over 40 years ago a boss who owed me back pay gave me his wife’s 1970 Mach 1 to buy some time on the IOU. (Texas) Drove it to Gulf Shores Alabama. Traded it for a couple pounds of pretty great weed. Then traded and sold the weed for a chunk of coke. I forget what happened after that.
I’m the guy who offered you a bag of magic beans for your Lexus. Never heard back from you.
Whenever some ones asks for a trade I say, “I will trade the good that is advertised for cash.”
I would pursue the Fiero. and then use the AR to help fund whatever is wrong with it.
It turns out when used creatively, an AR can be used to fund many project cars. You just need to make sure at least one of them runs well enough to work as a getaway vehicle
I once succesfully traded a 1992 Peugeot 205 CJ for a very original 1960 VW Beetle. Both parts were happy. But usually I just sell them and then buy something else from my car bucket list.
I can’t believe nobody offered you a motorcycle. Anytime I sell a vehicle with any decent value, I get offered at least one, often multiple motorcycles. Usually a Harley, and of that, usually a Sportster that’s worth jack-freaking-squat.
While I haven’t been offered a gun before (I don’t live in Texas), I was once offered what the person offering claimed to be $1500 worth of gun “stuff.” While I had no intention of accepting the offer, I ran the list past a buddy of mine who would know what it even was (I didn’t). He laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s about $200 worth of unsellable garbage.”
Yeah my brother in law was selling a truck and was offered some weird off brand Chinese motorcycles, the website link showed the two of them were worth 25000$, a quick search showed them selling new locally for around 1200 each.
I worry that David took the rusty Jeep trade, I have been offered the contents of a defunct adult video store in exchange for a pickup and somebody wanted to trade weed for a bike I was selling
Dude, unless it was completely rotten, you should have taken the freaking *30 foot cabin cruiser* in trade for that awful FC! Hell, depending on how much a liveaboard slip costs in LA, it might have been a more economical (not to mention way cooler!) way to live in your new city.
Plus, how many cool 80s TV detectives lived on boats? Off the top of my head, Rick Simon (Simon & Simon), Crockett (Miami Vice), the 3 guys and a robot from Riptide (Stephen J. Cannell is a misuderstood genius), and McGyver. You could have been like them! So close…
More like David Janssen as Harry Orwell and the perpetual boat project.
There are certain similarities to the rusty jeep, I guess.
About twelve years ago I drove my MGB to a guy’s house to look at an HMV Freeway he had posted for sale. Although I hadn’t been planning to get rid of the B I also wasn’t opposed to the idea, so when he showed interest in it we agreed to a trade. I’m still happy with the Freeway and the last I heard he was still happy with the B, so I’ll call it a good outcome.
Not terribly interesting, but I did have someone offer me a CFMOTO ATV for a 1974 Ford Maverick I was selling. I passed on the offer, even though it was probably worth 50% more than what I was asking. I just didn’t need another vehicle and didn’t want to deal with the sales process all over again. He did come around and make me a cash offer I accepted, though.
When I was selling my 2007 VW Rabbit, in running condition, one guy offered a 2006 VW Rabbit, pretty much equivalent mileage and equipment, in non-running condition.
Absurd!
As stated, I don’t get rid of vehicles. Parts, though. No one wants to buy parts they only want to trade your broken shit for their broken shit. Got a pair of LS heads and set of ignition coils for an NV3500 trans that I had no clue as to its quality.
My brother in law, that man horsetrades all the damn time. Weirdest one recently was a running jetski and trailer for a smaller jetski that didn’t run and no trailer. B.I.L. got the running jetski. Guy said he just liked to get them running, had no inclination to take them out on the water.
Privately, I thought the running jetski was stolen somehow, but he went to register it and the title was clean.
I have gotten trade offers of guns for guitars before. Never quite understood that one. I don’t look anything like Ted Nugent.
Too bad staff isn’t eligible for COTD, Mark. Best I’ve seen today
Better put your own photo in the ads, so they’ll know ahead of time ????
??? should be 😉
I think one reason people offer trades on used cars is because in some states, they still make you pay sales tax before you can transfer a title. If it’s a trade, there’s no sales tax.
I’ve never been offered anything in trade, but my uncle once traded a non-running 80s Ford Ranger for a trailer, mostly because we were about to cut the ranger in half and make it into a trailer, anyway.
That moment when you know one of the people from these screenshots IRL.
Last time I sold a car private party, it was my Miata because I really didn’t have the room for three cars. I made it very clear in my ad that I wasn’t considering any trades but got offered a 300,000 mile Suburban (some rust but it had subs though), a MKIV Golf GTI, and a Cobalt SS which my friend was trying to convince me to do so he could then buy the Cobalt off of me.
I just mostly got lowballed to hell and back. My favorite was the guy who said he couldn’t pay more than $1000 for my 100% legitimately rust free, never wrecked, all one color, 70,000 Miata just because it needed a clutch and that’s an expensive job.
Eventually some kid threw me a reasonable offer and said if I accepted he’d be there that night with cash and sure enough he followed through on his word. Nice kid even though his dad did ask if he can take a leak behind my garage and then insisted he goes back there even though I said he can use the bathroom in the house multiple times.
I had some odd trade offers when I was selling my almost bone-stock R34 Skyline GTT.
There were lots of heavily-modified Evo VIII and IX, most reportedly ‘over 350kw at the wheels’, curiously many of them hadn’t driven more than a few thousand kms since the modifications. Really reassuring that!!
Other highlights included a VE series Commodore SS Wagon with over 380,000km, a Mazda BT-50 with over 400,000km and a dying clutch, a ’97 Supra that had obviously been through several teenage owners, two broken Harley’s and the perennial broken dirt bike.
They all offered cash my way, but even Mr Broken CRF250 seemed to think their junk was worth most of my sale price!
Hey David! Here in Texas it’s pretty normal to offer guns as things-of-value in a trade like cars/motorcycles/trailers. Quick clarification, .300 BLK is its own caliber, meant to deliver a larger round than the 5.56/.223 that is standard for the AR-15, and to be quieter when suppressed.
Indeed, basically 7.92mm Kurz in a modern package
I never saw the appeal of trading. Honestly, what are the odds that we’ll find a mutually agreeable swap? But I actually did trade my most recent private-party sale. Two years ago I was getting rid of a 2001 Ford Excursion V-10 and I got an offer from a fella who was hard up for a tow vehicle. He offered a low-mileage 2006 Wrangler TJ, plus a little cash, and I couldn’t turn it down.
I also got offered a custom AR-15 for trade when I sold my E30 back in 2017. Then again, this was in Texas, where such things are a very common form of currency. (I politely declined.)
Potential buyer: “Would you consider a trade?”
Me: “Yes, I’d be happy to trade for an appropriately sized stack of dollar bills.”
Not gonna lie, I’d have loved it if David got the houseboat.
He could start his own pirate radio station, tether some floating barges to the houseboat, and park his junky vehicles on them, thereby creating the United Federation of Jeeptopia. A fabled land where there are no annual inspections, where vehicles can live a new life as sacrificial anodes, municipal cease and desist letters don’t exist, and the rust is always only cosmetic.
and even better, no pesky pavement
I’ve only lived in Oregon and Washington; what’s this “annual inspection” of which you speak?
The handmade wooden “ramp” under the J4000 looks entirely appropriate for the situation, by which I mean it’s janky AF.
I wonder what that other person meant by “shop equipment”. That could be interesting, though it would also mean more stuff to transport to and store in CA.
Anyway, that is quite a list. People are so helpful. 🙂
The last car I should private party was an ’80s Town Car, and I got offers for a (broken) tube amp and a vintage ribbon microphone, from two different people.
Also had one guy from New York who really liked it, and called me a couple times a week for several months to remind me of how much he liked it, except he didn’t quite like it enough to figure out how to save a couple grand to actually buy it. Oh, and the film crew that wanted it as a background vehicle in exchange for all you can eat at the craft services table for a day
How was the food?
I passed, was actively trying to sell it, and the rule is to never rent any car to a film or TV production that you want returned in the same condition
“Where’s the Caddy?”
“What?”
“The Caddy we used to have. The Bluesmobile.”
“I traded it.”
“For THIS?”
“No, for a microphone.”
“…Ok, I can see that.”
Jake: This car. This stupid car. Where’s the Cadillac?
Elwood: I traded it.
Jake: You traded the Bluesmobile for this?
Elwood: No, for a microphone.
“Trading” has never appealed to me.
“I can’t unload my shit so you take it and give me your shit”
Generally I’d agree but the lack of taxes on trades is hard to beat.
I’ve always been most intrigued by the FB Marketplace ads that loudly proclaim TRADES ONLY, like they wouldn’t accept cash at all. I often wonder what the motivation is for that kind of thing, and if they end up satisfied after the deal is done.
I’m with DT in that I rarely consider trades. Generally the person trying to trade with me is offering a worse vehicle, and/or more stuff. Neither of which I really need.
I’ve wondered that too. Onthe other hand when I put “No Trades” in a listing I wonder if some people take that as some sort of challenge to not only start offering me trades, but continuously worse and worse trades.
Like ‘price is firm’ and you get things like $10? as a question