I remember it like it was 18 years and 4 months ago. I was a 4 year old kid who tagged along with my parents to drive 80 miles North to Killeen, TX to pick up their new Honda Odyssey. I only remember two things that day.

One, I was given a very oversized T-Shirt with a picture of an Odyssey on it that was made for me by a sweet lady.

And the second thing was that I was crying… I’ll get to why in a minute. 

For some odd reason, I’ve been obsessed with cars ever since I was a little kid. I remember my mom would sit me down and draw all the logos on a sheet of paper and quiz me on them. I also remember her being constantly weary about Crown Vics when driving. Even to this day, she slows down for any Crown Vic.

I bring this up because for some reason at my age, I knew way too much about cars and knew that an Odyssey with black door handles and black mirror caps meant only one thing. It was the base trim which meant that there were no automatic door handles. 4 year old me felt this was unjust. 4 year old felt “man, why couldn’t we have sprung for the EX trim.” 4 year old me said “one day I will buy an EX trim for my kids when the time comes.” Ok, I didn’t say that last part but you get the gist. Thus the crying.

Let’s talk about selling the Odyssey! Why did you let go of a van after 18 years??? Why didn’t you keep it forever?? Why didn’t you pass it onto future generations?? All great questions that nobody will ask.

For starters, the van was technically replaced in August of 2019. We took a road trip to Atlanta with our 4 family members and our dog and the CX-5 was just simply too small. The dog didn’t enjoy sitting in the back and needed something with a bigger middle row. We replaced the van with a Subaru Ascent which in all honesty, isn’t a great car. There were a bit too many unnecessary dealer visits within the warranty period. I will say, the Subaru dealership experience is top notch especially for servicing. Way better than Ford, Honda or Mazda.

In addition to that, the Odyssey was just not as reliable as it once was. If you are familiar with Honda’s from the early 2000s, you will know that their automatic transmissions are about as durable as vending machine condoms. Around the 130,000 mile marker, I could feel the 1st to 2nd shift slipping and knew that this probably wasn’t the best idea for a long road trip. So with that in mind, the Subaru was purchased. 

So how did selling the Odyssey through a private party go down? About as chaotic as you would imagine. I started off by first cleaning the car the best I could and attempting to mask all the scratches the best I could. I really thought about using my shiny Harbor Freight buffing tool to paint correct the Odyssey but deep down I knew, eh it probably wasn’t going to make a difference in the end. Also, it was quite cold (50F, yes I am Texan) and I didn’t want to really spend all that time outside cleaning a cheap van. After a quick “detail” using whatever TurtleWax 3 in 1 solution I bought from Walmart years ago, I took the pictures at my local library. I follow a lot of car enthusiasts online and while the scene is usually pretty divided, the one thing they all unanimously agree on is how important pictures are to selling a car. The better the pictures, the more money you can theoretically get.  So I went to my local library and took some pictures at sundown and the pictures portion was complete!

I was advised by some of my automotive peers to sell on FB marketplace as so I proceeded to do so. In my head, I knew that I had a hot car. Sub $5k running minivan, one owner, new tires. This should be sold in hours I thought! 

So I listed the Odyssey on December 31st and woke up on Jan 1st expecting 60 DMs all fighting over my beloved minivan. 

This did not happen. Clearly nobody on Facebook had any interest in this fine beige people mover so after 48 hours of no one sliding into my DMs, I proceeded to list the van on everyone’s favorite website. Craigslist!!!!

Immediately off the bat, I got like 15 messages directly quoting my ad and asking if the van was available. This is a scam FYI to anyone selling.

Then I would get a normal looking message asking if the Odyssey was available and I got excited thinking yes! Finally, someone that’s not a scammer. 

But since this is Craigslist, that didn’t happen. The conversation would immediately turn and go into “can you get this obscure looking auto report from a website that looks super sketchy? I won’t consider the car unless I have this report.”

This continued for a couple days until by chance, I checked my email and found a lady who was interested in the van and provided her phone number. How/why she emailed me, I’m not sure but I replied to her email and gave her a call. 

She seemed legit and asked the right questions. “Any lights on in the car? Does it need to get inspected? Can I have my mechanic friend take a look at it?”

Finally, we meet up at her apartment and she test drove the van and offered to pay in money order. Immediately my dad and I were like “nahhhhh, cash please.”

She was planning to go to the banks to exchange the money order but the issue was that the banks were closed (this was the day after New Years.)

I told her “once you get the cash in hand, let’s do the deal” and sure enough, she texts a couple days later saying “hey! I have cash now! I can pay!”

Nah I’m just kidding, this is Craigslist. She texted me, “I got bills to pay, can’t buy the van. Bye.”

Then, I got a phone call from someone new who sounded legit. Sidebar: I am an iPhone user but always use a Google Voice number when dealing with anything online sales related. Every scam account that tried to contact me was a green bubble. But this guy that called me was a blue bubble!

He then called me and said “listen, I’ve got cash right now and can do $3500. Everything run alright? No lights?” I answered, yessir everything is all good. I would’ve taken this offer however, another iPhone user slid into my DMs and said “hey I’m interested in the van. Unfortunately, my bank only lets me withdraw $1000 a day. (Ally bank)”

I was like alright but if you are sure we can meet up on Friday then I’ll hold the van for you. (I only did this because I knew she was a young student and felt bad.

But then I was walking my dog with my dad and something just changed in me. I was like “what if Friday rolls around and she doesn’t pay? I remembered the old saying “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” or something like that.

I texted the guy who called me and said “if you can do $300 under my asking price, the van is yours”

Sure enough he agreed, and we ended up meeting him at his place and the deal went through without a hitch. Nice dude, was going through a rough patch with his marriage.

So after many many dozen phone calls and scam texts, the beloved Odyssey was finally sold and I had cash on hand!

Will I ever sell a car on Craigslist again? God no.