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This is spot on. They offered me $6500 for my car, which was way below blue book. I sold it on Craigslist for $9700 a few days later.

You will always be able to get more money on a private party sale than trading into a dealer. Did any other dealership offer you more than $6,500?

Yes, another dealership offered me $7500. CarMax was by far the low ball offer.

The difference of 800 for a car in that price range is far from significant.

What? It's 10%, and definitely non-trivial.

Of course they won't give you private sale value; they're buying it to resell.