I've sold several vehicles on eBay. All were to out-of-state buyers.
Although I offered to have the cars or motorcycle taken to a mechanic for
inspection, none of the buyers ever took me up on this offer. I really does
boggle my mind that people will pay a lot of money to buy something sight
unseen.

One motorcycle I sold was a really nice Harley. The guy that bid on the bike
didn't so much as send an e-mail asking any questions before bidding. He
just submitted his bid. $20,000 later he came to pick up the bike. Amazing!

At the other end of the scale, I had an '80 parts Vanagon that I sold on
eBay. It was clearly labeled "FOR PARTS ONLY" (and there weren't that many
parts left on it). It was labeled in caps in at least three places that way.
I had cut the rear frame crossmember as I was using this in my Porsche
engine/tranny conversion and I figured I'd rather do the test cuts on the
parts van than on the final van. A guy from Canada was seriously considering
bidding on the van and having it shipped to Buffalo (can you say rust?).
Another woman from somewhere in the south wanted to buy my POS van and
install all of their good stuff from their perfectly nice, running van. What
a position I was in. I  was a seller, so I wanted to sell. I was brutally
honest at times. I sent pictures showing how completely ugly and dismembered
the van was. I all but jumped up and down yelling, "Are You Crazy? This Is A
Parts Van!" Finally a kid from Louisiana bid on the van. I got my starting
bid, $37.50. Hey, at least I didn't have to pay to have it towed away! When
he came to get the van, by the time he left I had $80.00 of his money
because he kept buying stuff from me that I had stripped from the van.

By the way, I am getting ready to offer a really nice turbo charged Ford
Focus ZX3 on eBay. This car is Corky Bell's (the king of turbocharging)
personal car. It is 2000 model with only 17,000 miles on it. Of that, only
about 1,000 are with the turbo set-up. This is a really good car. If you are
interested, let me know. You can check my eBay feedback (user id:
motor_bruce, be sure to use the underscore).

Anyhow, even as a seller, I'm amazed at the way folks will buy vehicles on
eBay. I know that there are a lot of success stories out there, but still...

Bruce

>From: "Ware, David (EM, PTL, Contractor, ARC)" <David.Ware@PENSKE.COM>
>Reply-To: "Ware, David (EM, PTL, Contractor, ARC)" <David.Ware@PENSKE.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Be careful what you buy on eBay
>Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 14:42:13 -0400
>
>I have a friend who has bought a couple of ATVs on eBay.   However he only
>bids on machines that are within driving distance, so he can check them out
>before actually going through with the payment.  All he really risks is
>some
>time and gas money, and the possiblity of bad feedback on eBay.
>
>On the other hand, his brother bought a ATV that was a thousand miles away
>and paid hundreds in shipping alone...
>
>Dave
>'86 Westy FS

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