Sold cars and old prices on Marketplace: a daily cleanup routine
A listing for a car you already sold, or at a price you’ve since raised, is the fastest way to an angry buyer. Here’s a short daily routine that keeps every salesperson’s listings current.
The short answer
- The salesperson who listed a car takes it down the same day it sells.
- When a price changes, every live listing of that car gets the new price and description. Increases first.
- Colorado makes you honor an advertised price for 3 days after the ad last runs unless it has an end date. A listing that’s still up is still running. (Rule 3)
- A manager checks once a day for anything still up that shouldn’t be.
When salespeople post from their own profiles, a store can easily have a hundred listings live across fifteen accounts, and nobody in the building can see all of them. Cars sell, prices move, and the listings stay exactly as they were. Every one of those is a buyer who might drive in for something that isn’t there or isn’t that price.
What a stale listing costs
Picture the buyer who drives forty minutes for the truck that sold Tuesday, or who shows up with a screenshot of last week’s price. You can be as nice as you want about it; you’ve still started the visit by disappointing them. Some of those turn into bad reviews. A few turn into complaints.
Colorado’s rules give that complaint something to stand on:
- Rule 3 makes a dealer sell an advertised car at the advertised price for three days after the ad last runs, unless the ad states a time limit that has passed. It also says a car that isn’t immediately available has to be labeled as in transit, on order or at another location.
- Rule 9 treats statements that aren’t true, or can’t or won’t be honored, as misleading advertising.
- Rule 19 bars bait advertising as defined in C.R.S. 18-5-303: advertising as part of a plan not to sell what’s advertised, or not at the advertised price. That law is about intent, so one forgotten listing isn’t bait. A pattern of listings for cars that are long gone is what a complaint would describe, though, and you don’t want to be explaining your intent.
A good-through date on every price helps with the three-day rule. It doesn’t help with a listing for a car you no longer have.
The routine
Ten minutes a day, split across the people who posted the cars.
- Morning: sold cars come down. Compare what sold since yesterday against who has it listed. The salesperson who posted it marks it sold or deletes it. Only they can; it’s on their profile.
- Morning: price changes. For every live listing of a car whose price changed, update the price box and the description: the breakdown, the total and the good-through date. Do increases first, because those listings advertise less than the car now costs.
- Afternoon: a second look. Anything still waiting from the morning gets done before people leave for the day.
- Evening: the manager checks. One list of anything still up for a sold car, or still showing an old price, with the name of who posted it. Tomorrow it’s the first thing on that person’s list.
Update price drops too
It’s tempting to leave a listing alone when the price went down. The buyer would only be pleasantly surprised, right? But the description still shows the old breakdown and the old total, so the listing contradicts itself, and the price box is what Marketplace shows in search. A lower price showing in the results is also the best reason a buyer has to click on a listing they scrolled past last week.
When someone leaves
Listings on a former salesperson’s profile stay up until they take them down. Make it part of their last day, and keep the list of what each person has posted so you know what to ask for. More on that in posting from your own profile.
How KeyTurn Logic handles it
KeyTurn Logic reads your inventory feed, so it knows when a car is gone or its price changed. The salesperson who posted that car sees it in their morning list and afternoon check-in, and at their desk the KeyTurn helper can fill in the new price and description for them. Anything still up after that is on the managers’ evening email, with the salesperson’s name next to it.
Sources
- Colorado Motor Vehicle Dealer Board, Regulation 44-20-121(3)(i), Rules 3, 9 and 19 As published, current through the June 10, 2025 Colorado Register.
- C.R.S. 18-5-303, Bait advertising