Selling aircraft to dealers?

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GS_C152

Filing Flight Plan
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Jun 17, 2023
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GS_C152
First off let me say that I'm asking this on behalf of my nephew who's a computer science grad.

So we were watching something on the TV and the ads rolled around. In Britain (where I live), there's a company called Motorway, which is basically a website where you list cars and used car dealers bid against one another (sort of like an auction but they can't see what other dealers have bid) and then you as the owner can choose to accept, at which point they send someone out to test drive, make sure everything from the listing is true and ultimately pay and take it away, or decline if it went for less than you were hoping.

His question was did something like this exist for aviation? For instance I need to get rid of my aircraft quickly because I need the cash, and rather than ringing up/emailing all the used aircraft dealers in the country and asking for a price is there something like this I can use to sell my aircraft? If not why not as surely it would get rid of most of the time wasters/tyre kickers that come with selling aircraft anything on the open market?

There isn't anything like this in Britain to my knowledge but then our aviation market is tiny compared to the US hence the question here.

Also, if there isn't a system like this already, how do used aircraft dealers find new stock? Surely it can't be all trade-ins?
 
Probably an aircraft broker would be the closest thing to this. I think there are a number which will take physical possession of the aircraft and do all of the necessary advertising, negotiations, and so forth, of course for a percentage of the sales price. There are also a lot of dealers who will advertise on Trade-A-Plane and similar with some version of "Want to buy!", which presumably allows them to maintain stock. As far as a fast-money auction with dealers bidding against each other, I'm not aware of any site similar to what you describe.
 
Who do you want to buy it? There are brokers who also purchase aircraft in their own names and then resell them, but you'd have to find which ones. In some cases, there are type-specific dealers who may be doing that, but it's not going to be a quick transaction unless it were very deeply discounted. Even in U.S. market, aviation sales are a small enough niche that there isn't, for example, the equivalent of a CarMax or Carvana or a huge auction market where defects are mitigated by volume.

If you don't want to sell to a go through one of those and you're just looking for a buyer, there are plenty of sites for self-sales in the United States. Including Trade A Plane.
 
Social Media pretty much does this function. In the US it is Facebook Marketplace. Auctions on eBay were a thing for a while.

I've bid against dealers in car auctions. Their goal is to pay wholesale book value or below. When it goes a dime above, they're out.
 
I bought my Seneca on a Facebook auction so the market exists. That said, it was a project plane and I paid about 18-20% of what a fully running airworthy plane would go for. I have seen planes there (and Craigslist and eBay) advertised as airworthy, don’t know if they sold and at what price, but there is a path.
 
I bought my current airplane without a broker ,it’s a project airplane. Previously I purchased a plane from a dealer who buys planes and flips them. Price was fair and aircraft was as advertised.
 
The market volume for cars, new and used, is immense compared to the market for new and used GenAv piston planes. Used car dealers turn over cars in day or weeks. Aircraft can take months or years, especially if they need maintenance to make them marketable (or, heaven forbid, airworthy). That strikes me as the biggest obstacle to a service like the one your describe taking hold for GenAv -- or any aircraft category, really.

Aside -- do UK GenAv pilots have more or less affinity to fly from the left or right seat? Here in the US, given a side-by-side dual control cockpit, most PIC is done from the left seat, as our cars are left-side drive. Most CFI instructing work is done from the right seat, placing the student pilot in the left seat, where they usually stay after the CFI is no longer needed.
 
I'll occasionally buy to flip. I won't buy anything I wouldn't fly around a bit myself first.. which is how I got stuck with my current plane :D

Any broker will do the math and will go out of pocket for a price that reduces their risk significantly. I'd seek the broker who specializes in that type so they can give a fair value commensurate with their confidence in ability-to-flip

Old friend Tarron Bhomas used to run ads like this in trade a plane didn't he? about buying any plane? Not the 20% return guaranteed one that landed him in the pokey. :D
 
schmookeeg said:
Any broker will do the math and will go out of pocket for a price that reduces their risk significantly. I'd seek the broker who specializes in that type so they can give a fair value commensurate with their confidence in ability-to-flip
Click to expand...
The guy who started out selling only 172s comes to mind…he eventually expanded. Who was that, and is he still around?
 
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