How To Sell A Stolen Car on Craigslist

Disclaimer:
The following is a work of humor and in no way is it suggested to try this in any shape or form. The following is an extraction compiled to generate a method based upon experience and should be looked at as nothing more.


Step #1: Locating the target vehicle
What you should be looking for is any car / truck that is fairly popular, affordable, and what is considered to be in desirable condition. Good examples of this would be sporty but affordable cars: Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, etc.

Preferably the car should be a few years old. 95-98 somewhere in there, with some cosmetic damage, dents or small scrapes nothing to extreme.

The car needs to be in working order, this could be a tricky process because you will need to keep in mind the following:
- Keys
o 2 sets are required.
- Locks
o No damage and working with keys
- Cosmetics
o Small amounts of dings, dents, paint damage, nothing extreme.

The three listed items need to be intact 100% to get this to work. Regardless of how one obtains the vehicle these three items need to be 100%.

Step #2: Getting Car Ready to Sell
The vehicle should have some draws and some flags, and what this means is, you want the vehicle to have features that are desired, but something that isn’t. A good example of this would be to install a high-end stolen stereo, and put bald tires on the car… that way the car can’t be stolen from you. This also gives the buyer a reason to negotiate price with you.

You need to be able to allow buyers to test drive the vehicle. This can be achieved by going to your nearest grocery store, with a Phillips head screw driver. Pick out a similar car, and remove the license plates. Now you have plates for your car, and will be able to take it on the road.

The final part of step#2 is getting the title in order. You will need to contact a graphic artist for this. Once this person is contacted, have them mock up a title for the car, but have the title be from a different state. For example, if in Colorado, have the title made for New York. This is very important when it comes to selling the car. Fill out the title in a fake name

Step #3: The Ad
Composition of the craigslist ad is a very important step and must be done correctly. The ad must be written in broken English, stating the following: Year of the car, Milage, Cosmetic damage, and a phone number. Example: 1997 Mazda 626. 104,000 miles, stick, new muffler, new radiater, 30-35 miles mpg, no machanical problems, small dent on door. Please call 505-555-xxxx.
Include 3 photos of the car a frontal shot, side shot and shot of the engine. Have your graphic artist friend remove the license plates from the photos. Place the car for sale at a price that is reasonable, and will move quickly. An ideal range would be $2000 –3000. Publish the ad and wait for a call.

Step #4: The Buyer
When you receive a call from an individual interested in the car, go and meet them where they live or where ever they would like to meet. Upon meeting them tell them the car is great, and that you are selling it for a friend who got a new car. While they are test driving the car, go with them for the ride, point out how great the stereo is and be sure to mention all the work that you had done on the engine. In this speech you should mention that the car has an out of state title. Answer all of the buyer’s questions with the following answer: “I don’t know, it is my friend’s car.”
The less information provided will save you in the long run.

Allow the buyer to make an offer to you. Reject the first offer, allow them to go back up in price, insist on receiving payment in cash that day. Sell the car to them “as is”.

Conclusion:
Congratulations! You have just sold your first stolen car to what we in the industry like to call a “Sucker.” Apparently there is one born every minute!

The beauty of this method of selling a stolen car is the out of state title, and the stolen plates. The stolen plates, if in the event the buyer had some foresight and or some intelligence enough to copy down your plate number available on the car, it can not be traced to you.

The fake out of state title cannot be traced to you either, based on the fake name on the title. What is truly brilliant about the fake title is that it is out of state and there for gives you a 2week – one-month window for a clean getaway. What occurs is the DMV will take the title, and process it. The title then needs to be sent to the State that issued it, which could take up to 2 weeks. When the title actually reaches the DMV in what ever State the fake title was made to look like… they will have to validate the title, which will not pass. The title will then be sent back to the State where the car was sold, another two-week process. The DMV will get the non-valid title and call the owner of the stolen car, and let them know that the title is invalid.

Which leaves this individual out a few thousand dollars, and with a car that cannot be registered which all happened a month ago, which means that you are long gone with your new hard earned cash.

FYI:
If you have been a victim of something similar to this, you can “bond” the car, which means that you will have to get the car’s worth assessed and you put up twice the amount the car is worth to the bank who will issue a “bond-title” for the car. It makes the car able to be registered, also legal, but good luck reselling the vehicle.