Selling a car

Hello Josin,

I'm from The Netherlands as well, and I've driven to Tajikistan two years ago with two friends.
We also wanted to sell our car in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), and therefore I also browsed the internet, just like you. I made contact with "card.green", a Dushanbe local banker after finding him on a forum. He helped us out selling our car. He asked me to help you out by sending you our experience.

In short I will tell you how it went.
- We drove to Tajikistan (this part took some time hehe)
- At the border we got asked by customs what our intentions were. I was afraid to lie, so I told them we were planning to sell the car in Dushanbe. They held us for 24 hours, while a government "official" (I seriously doubt he was official) came over to the north border to Uzbekistan to pick us up. After picking us up he left us 5 minutes after joining us saying "I will see you in Dushanbe". Somehow he knew where we were going.
- We met up with card.green (he has a real name too, but you should ask him). We expected a hard-ass Russian, but card.green was probably the most gentle man in Tajikistan. He fixed us up with a nice apartment, while he helped us selling the car.
- This is not in any way like it goes in Holland. Selling a car in Tajikistan takes days. You have to present your car at the auto market. It's a lot of fun, but it's boring as well. card.green helped us set it up, and talked to the interested locals. We brought a Ford Explorer '00 with a 4 liter engine. These SUV's are worth loads in a country like Tajikistan. But, obviously buyers understand that we don't have months to find the highest bidder.
- Some persons had interest in our car, and card.green set up some meetings. People tend to make a big deal out of these things, and invite you into their home to have a nice chat. It's a great experience, but expect that this takes time (like a few days).
- Eventually some teacher wanted to buy the car from us, and card.green set up a meeting at the government office. We sold the car for $2.700 i believe, while we bought it for EUR 1.700 in Holland. We did pay EUR 1.000 in repairs all the way there though.
- We wanted to give card.green a couple of hundred for his troubles, seeing as we couldn't have done it so easily without him. He's a young father of two, so after he said no to the money, we told him he should use it for the kids!

Anyway, if you want to have some more information about driving to Tajikistan look me up on facebook or linkedin or whatever. Jean Balendonck is the name.

Good luck with your travels, and I strongly suggest you ask card.green to help you, otherwise you'll either get a low price for your car, or won't find a buyer at all.


Gr.
Jean