- ↑ $1,500Raised to $29,490 · 28 Jun
- ↓ $2,500Dropped to $26,990 · 19 Jul
- ↓ $1,000Dropped to $25,990 · 22 Aug
What the price story shows
A small icon next to the asking price opens the listing price history: what it was advertised at when it went live, every change since, and how long it has been sitting at the current number. The chart steps rather than slopes, because a price holds until the day it changes — drawing a diagonal between two points would invent prices the car was never advertised at.
Underneath the chart, each change is written out in words with its date and the size of the move, so the story reads even if the chart does not.
Rises are shown too, and that is the point
It would be easy to show only the drops. A page that did that would be at its least truthful in exactly the situation a buyer most needs the truth: a car listed high, quietly raised, then cut back to a number that looks like a bargain against a price it never really sold at.
So the history shows every change in both directions. A seller who has raised their price has a reason, and you can ask about it. Half a price history is worse than none, because it looks complete.
It only counts what was actually advertised
The history is built from what the listing looked like to the public. Prices set while the car was still a draft, or while it was withdrawn from sale, are left out — including them would date the listing to a day nobody could see it, and imply an asking price that was never asked.
Repeated saves that did not move the price collapse into one entry, so the history is a list of changes rather than a list of edits.
What to do with it
A car that has come down twice in six weeks is telling you something about how the seller feels. A car listed yesterday at a price it has never moved from is telling you something different. Neither is an instruction, but both are better than guessing, and both are visible before you pick up the phone.
Common questions
- How far back does the history go?
- To the day the listing first became visible to the public. A car listed last week has a short story; one that has been for sale for months has a longer one.
- Does the seller know I can see this?
- Yes. The history shows on the listing for everyone, the seller included, and it is built from the changes they made themselves.