I bought a Toyota Solara off EBAY through a second chance offer.  I
talked with the seller prior the bidding ending about the car's
condition, and said I wouldn't be raising my bid.  After the bidding was
over he came back with an offer and we negotiated a price that saved me
$1500 from anything I could find within 500 miles of here.

Florian's description is exactly what I did.  The seller and I agreed on
a price.  He went into EBAY and adjusted the second chance offer.  I
accepted it.  I live in South Dakota and picked the car up in Portland
Oregon.  The key piece is checking out the seller's feedback.  This guy
had sold 8 or 9 cars for relatives/friends, all positive experience for
buyers.

Jeffrey Olson
Martin, SD
85 Vanagon with a 2.5 Subaru engine ready to go in...

Florian Speier wrote:
> Hi,
>
> in respect to buying vans off ebay, I have a couple of recommendations:
>
> -when a new van is listed, always ask the seller if he offers you a
> buy it
> now or cash price if you come around/fly in to check it out. Yes, many
> sellers say no, and it is not following ebay policy, but many of ebays
> best
> deals go this way. For a prime example, check out this link, the 1991
> westy
> was sold for 5000 cash: http://tinyurl.com/p7uyg
>
> -when you bid on a vehicle at ebay, you will get second-chance offers
> afterwards. 99% of these are spoof. However, I bought my van last year
> through a legitimate second chance offer and got a decent deal that
> way. So
> how can you tell? A legitimate second chance offer will have your full
> REAL
> name in the headline (not only your ebay name) and will have a link to an
> ebay site setup for this transaction. In other words,  it links you
> back to
> the auction, but its a specially made site that has a buy it now
> button at
> the second-chance price. check that the browser adress is
> motors.ebay.comnot
> ebay.sendmemoneytonigeria.com. Also, any second chance offer that
> tells you
> to close the deal by emailing the seller is SPOOF.
>
> hope this helps. I also post most good california craigslist offers to
> the
> list
>
> flo
>