If you were buying a house, it is likely you’d locate one in a nice section of town and you then would want to know how much the owner is offering—in this scenario this is referred to as the home’s listing price.

Next you talk to your realtor and state you’d like their help in arriving at what the house is worth – in other words a fair asking price for the house you like. You’d then ask your agent to perform some research with regard to houses similar to it in the same general community that have sold within the last month.

Let’s say your agent comes to you and says “Here is a listing of houses comparable to the house you like as well as their listing prices.” “This is not what I wanted,” you state. “I want to know the selling price.” This is because probably none of the individuals who sold their homes received what they asked for it. The only way you will know a fair price for the house you are interested is to know the actual sales price of the comparable houses.

The idea here may seem reasonable enough however another thing happens when consumers look into purchasing used cars.

Many times you’ll visit a dealer and find an automobile of which you are interested sitting on the lot and you sit down and think about what you are willing to pay. You want to do this because naturally you’d like to have the car at the most reasonable price possible.

However, more often than not the automobile dealer will refer to a price guide to come to the car’s value. This guide is known as the Kelley Blue Book. The Kelley publishers make available several price guides for pre-owned automobiles however the one the automobile dealer is more than likely to have in his or her possession is the book titled “Kelley Blue Book Auto Market Report – Official Guide”. This is the Kelley Blue Book normally sold to car dealers.

Your car dealers will then look up the automobile of which you are interested referring to the Kelley Blue Book and direct your attention to the retail price. He or she normally states that since the price he is asking is less than the Kelley Price his price is fairer. However is it the true retail price? Basically the price shown in Kelley is merely a listing price being asked by automobile dealers. Kelley makes it clear in their book that the prices shown are “suggested retail values”

When you thing of the preceding scenario: What is the Kelley Blue Book value the dealer is showing his client? Is it the true retail price which cars similar to yours have actually sold or is it possibly a projection of the selling price?

The book makes it clear that the Kelley Blue Book is an estimate of the dealer asking price. It also states your actual sales price may vary significantly.

And as the version of the Kelley Blue Book that Kelley offers to consumers states:
The consumer version of the book varies somewhat – it states:
The retail value is representative of what a car dealer may ask for an automobile once an inspection has been made, the car has been reconditioned and warranted (dependent on automobile dealer). (Paraphrased ) The asking price is what is listed in the consumer’s version of the book. (However if you were going to buy the automobile you may expect to pay less than the asking price as everything is up to negotiation.)

Summation: The Kelley Blue Book is what an auto dealer refers to when negotiating a car’s price and it is also what an auto title loan lender refers when coming to a relative value for a car offered as collateral for a vehicle title loan. Therefore, with many car title loan lenders, the Kelley Blue Book plays a significant role in determining how much a borrower can obtain.