E30 Marketplace

[defaultName]

I wanted to let everyone know about a site I created recently called E30 Marketplace.

Each day I search for all of the newly listed E30's for sale in Canada and the USA and post them to my site. It's nothing fancy but I hope it will be of help to anyone looking to buy an E30.

This forum and the E30 community have been a huge help to me and so I thought this would be a good way of giving back a little.

If you read my first post it explains a little more about why I started the site, but basically I search about 10 sites every day for E30's for sale and I figured I should share what I find with other enthusiasts because it could be helpful.

The way the site works is pretty simple. Every day there will be a post called "The List" where I list every newly listed E30 with a link to the for sale thread, ad, or auction. They are separated by country and there is a title (including year, model, location, price, and anything else important) and picture so you can just skim through it and click on the links if you are interested.

Whenever there is a car for sale that is really nice then I will do a feature on it with a write up and talk about it a little.

Sites

These are the sites I search daily. If there are any other ones I should be checking please let me know!

- r3vlimited
- e30tech
- bimmerforums
- m42club
- norcale30
- maxbimmer
- west coast bimmers
- ebay.com
- ebay.ca
- kijiji.ca
- autotrader.com
- autotrader.ca

Craigslist

I have a few issues with Craigslist currently.

To search nationwide I need to use a site like Ad Huntr or Search All Of Craigslist etc. The issue is that if I search for "BMW E30" then I get a manageable amount of ads to go through but I'm missing any E30 ads that don't say E30 on them. For example if someone lists their car simply as a 1991 318is and doesn't mention E30 then it won't show. It also returns ads that are expired.

I have tried searching "bmw 1983|1984|1985|1986|1987|1988|1989|1990|1991|1992| 1993|1994" which shows any ad including BMW and either of the included years but that shows a few hundred ads and of all series'. It also returns ads that are expired.

If anyone has a solution or options please let me know!

Submissions

As I said I search all over to find E30's so if you have one for sale on a known site then I probably know about it. However if you have one for sale or found one for sale that is not on my site you can definitely tell me about it.

I have an "Information" page with a contact form and a submission form that you can use. You can also e-mail me at mail@e30marketplace.com or PM me.

Links

If you ever find a link that is broken or links to wrong car please let me know. Occasionally ads are taken down and then re-listed but I always try to update the post with the correct link.

Comments

You can comment on any post as well so if you have looked at a car and have something to say about it then please do.

Feedback and Suggestions

Please let me know if you ever have any feedback or suggestions! You can e-mail or PM or even post in this thread.


Thanks for looking! :up:

[frankenbeemer]

They are separated by country and there is a title (including year, model, location, price, and anything else important) and picture so you can just skim through it and click on the links if you are interested.

So this information will be obvious? I don't see it.

[decay]

the word "marketplace" made me think of a searchable site like AutoTrader, and not a blog like BaT/GCFS.

if you like that format, cool, but to read it i'd expect to see uniquely-modified/bubble-preserved/etc cars. throw in all the bone-stock/bolt-on&respray specials out there and i'd like to see some way to filter (distance would be a start).

[nebulous123]

So this information will be obvious? I don't see it.

I don't know how much easier he could have made it. At the top of "The List" it says clear as day USA. Then he lists the cars with the details. Might want to get your vision checked.

[Mr. Burns]

Default, is it you that's running this?

awesome effort!

[defaultName]

So this information will be obvious? I don't see it.

If you look at any post called "The List" then you should see something similar to the attached image.

USA is at the top and Canada is towards the bottom. The line above each photo has info about the car and is also a link to more information.

[Pl3wA]

found this,
why 9k?

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3383820530.html

[defaultName]

the word "marketplace" made me think of a searchable site like AutoTrader, and not a blog like BaT/GCFS.

if you like that format, cool, but to read it i'd expect to see uniquely-modified/bubble-preserved/etc cars. throw in all the bone-stock/bolt-on&respray specials out there and i'd like to see some way to filter (distance would be a start).

I actually went through a few versions of the site before settling on this one.

The first was a classifieds site exactly like you described. An ad for each car, searchable, etc. The issue was that the site was bland and boring and not really user friendly. It was difficult to just "browse" through the new cars for that day.

The second was still a blog but I would create a separate post for each car I found rather then combining them into one post. This was good because through tagging a user could search very specifically (even right down to the colour) for the exact car they wanted. The issue was that there were so many new E30's listed each day that cars would get buried easily and you had to go through pages of posts to see them all.

I feel that this version works the best overall for a few reasons. If you visit the site daily then you can see all of the newly listed cars in one post (and maybe one feature). You can also quickly see important info about them and one picture to get an idea of how it looks. Then you can click on the ones you really like. Also if you are looking for a car in a specific state then it should only take a few seconds to skim through to see if there are any available.

Regarding uniquely-modified/bubble-preserved/etc when I do find those cars then I will likely do a feature on them.

If there is enough interest or demand for a different format however then I can work on it.

Default, is it you that's running this?

awesome effort!

Yessir! Thanks!

[defaultName]

found this,
why 9k?

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3383820530.html

It does seem to be in above average condition. :)

[decay]

I actually went through a few versions of the site before settling on this one.

The first was a classifieds site exactly like you described. An ad for each car, searchable, etc. The issue was that the site was bland and boring and not really user friendly. It was difficult to just "browse" through the new cars for that day.

The second was still a blog but I would create a separate post for each car I found rather then combining them into one post. This was good because through tagging a user could search very specifically (even right down to the colour) for the exact car they wanted. The issue was that there were so many new E30's listed each day that cars would get buried easily and you had to go through pages of posts to see them all.

...

If there is enough interest or demand for a different format however then I can work on it.

a db-driven site like your first iteration could still support the "blog" format you wound up with here-

default view: X most recently posted vehicles, by timestamp
"featured" view: X most recently posted "feature/bubble/unique" cars, by timestamp

then have a search feature in a sidebar that lets people filter by whatever flags you choose to support (featured/color/transmission/etc), and that solves the issues you found in your 2nd iteration.

that way your scalability is only limited by how many cars a day you're willing to submit in that format (or you can let sellers enter their own cars, with ads submitted for your moderation before they're displayed).

just sharing thoughts- i'm between web gigs right now and my brain needs a little of this kind of exercise.

[defaultName]

just sharing thoughts- i'm between web gigs right now and my brain needs a little of this kind of exercise.

No problem I do appreciate the feedback. I will keep it in mind!

[nando]

found this,
why 9k?

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3383820530.html

a clean, stock, non fucked up ix with decently low miles.

there were 857 1991 model year ix's, not 454. :p

[K1CKBAC]

Love the site, I'll be using it alot.

[Dj Buttchug]

this is a really cool idea OP. props to you

[illest318i]

Just checked it out and wow the site is awesome!