alkemyst

Hi, all, first post here...I have decided I am buying a 951 of some type 1987-1989, not sure yet...everyone wants a 1988/89 'S', but I mod my cars and the only thing I wonder about is the 'S' being wider in the back (not an easy mod).

I buy and sell alot and whenever someone agrees to pay X dollars, don't now use that as a base and if someone beats it go with them, especially when outside the auction. Tell the original offering party you have someone that will beat the price and let them counter-offer.

Sure, it takes more work and you may tick off both parties if they assume you are lying about counter-offers, but it's the 'nice' thing to do.

Ebay doesn't allow you to sell outside of ebay IF the parties contacted you through Ebay.

I have many times agreed to the seller's price only to be told they had sold it to a person offering more money, when I would have met or beat that offer easily (and was already expecting the item).

Good luck

JOVIC

Watching ebay for along time. There must be a good reason for the same item coming up often and under dif. dealers and most times i've seen private parties. Buy a Porsche this way??? NOT ON YOUR LIFE! <img border="0" alt="[ouch]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

Dan Gallagher

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by UDPride:
<strong>I still cant understand how some people can write a check for thousands of dollars on a major piece of machinery with thousands of intricate parts and potential bugaboos without every seeing the car, driving the car, kicking the tires, or even going one step further and getting a PPI. I dont know. Just boggles my mind. I dont blame anyone for trying to sell a car on EBay, but I cannot fathom purchasing a car on there thats not within a short enough drive that I can actually see and drive the car first. My policy when I read anything is to read every last letter of it but dont believe any of it until I can verify it with my own two eyes.

Maybe Im just not as cavelier with my money but buying a car online sight unseen would scare the living daylights out of me. Now, selling one online would be a completely different story.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">i never saw my 951 until it pulled into my shop on the back of a flat bed 3 days after i sent a very large check to another state!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by JDeitz951:
<strong>If the guy asked you how much you'd take and you told him a figure, and then he offered you less, HE'S A DICK! End of conversation. At that point he basically tried to screw you for being an honest guy. Happens all the time, I know, but that's when us good guys have to say somwthing witty like, uhm, let me think... oh, I know: "F*ck off!" You have my permission to use that, if you like.
<img border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" title="" src="graemlins/cussing.gif" />
Deitz
86 951 (bought on ebay)
85.5 NA (gone, but bought on ebay)</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">thats part of buying a car isnt it? the seller wants to make as much as he can and the buyer wants the best deal he can. its a business transaction... unless you sell to family or a close friend.

Dan Gallagher

also let me add that i am sick of people who threaten you on ebay with feedback or similar i have non paying bidders for things and i dont want to leave them negatives because im sure they will just come back and rip me apart in my feedback which will effect my future transactions

UDPride

Dan, youve got more guts with your money than I. I salute you!

Tom R.

BTW,
Ebay now offers an escrow service. They hold the $$ until the purchaser gives the OK or a certain date. That means the buyer can put the $$ in escrow, fly up to inspect the car, and release the $$ when the car goes up on a flatbed.

The seller gets the money say 10 days after it goes into escrow whether the buyer looks at it or not. kinda puts everyone on level ground.

Dan for the record, the car was up to 68 when the out of town guy asked how much to end early. i said 72 which was 4 bids and 5 days away from the end of the auction. im confident i would have gotten at least 4 bids. he asked if 70 would do it which was 2 bids away. his bid of 69 while the loca guy was buying the car made his offer one bid ....

Lets not forget that 99% of the activity happens in the last 5 minutes. I set up a low reserve, which screwed up the lowballers that were just playing.

odie

Money talks, BS walks. The guy standing in front of you with the cash in hand is the only guy that counts.

If this whiner really wanted your car, why didn't he bid the amounts he was stating.

Guys, email me sometimes with offers for my Ebay stuff but they haven't even bothered to enter a bid. I don't pay them much mind unless they can deliver payment before the auction closes or goes higher. If they want to buy it straight out, they need to have enough motivation to deliver payment BEFORE the auction price exceeds their offer. Then I'll cancel the auction and send them the goods. Other wise, you cancel the auction, never get payed, and loose a legitimate Ebay sale.

Tom R.

you summed it up perfectly odie!

MachSchnell

Yup, I sell cars for a living. Bottom line (particularly for whoever mentioned wanting a seller to post the info for a PPI)...if you don't have a PPI done yourself you're an idiot. However, I'd also say that if you rule out any car that isn't within 1000 miles of you, you're also an idiot. If all you want to see is a PPI produced by the seller, you need to readjust your thought process...I wouldn't trust that for the world! Pay the mechanic yourself, remove any possible conflict of interest, and verify the condition. However, trying to only find local cars will likely limit your options, and is just silly...I know there are a lot of DIY guys here, but heck, for $150 to have a pro put his name on the line, put in on a rack, and check it out, I do that regardless of whether I'm buying a $250k car or a $25k car and I've never been burned such that I couldn't go back to the inspector and make sure I got compensation.

As for the guy who bitches about getting 'sold out', as Odie so eloquently put it, money talks, BS walks. Anybody who WANTS a car would be happy to slap down a grand or two deposit to make sure it doesnt' go anywhere...heck, even it it's $500 it's an indication that they're serious...anyone not willing to do that is either a stroker or a bs-er and not worth worrying about.

As for the ebay charges thing, don't worry about it. I use ebay 'cause it's the cheapest way to advertise a car nationwide you can imagine. My reserves are always high, as are my asking prices, but anyone who's serious about buying a car will take the time to find you, ask the right questions, then you can put your deal together there...if you don't feel like taking the time to hit "buy it now" then boo hoo if I end it early to sell to a strong bidder who may or may not have seen it on ebay. I think I've probably sold over 20 cars as a result of ebay...personally I even re-post and pay the auction fees to have the guy hit "buy it now" and give me some feedback, but heck, that's my business. Of the 20 cars I've sold, I'd bet that less than 5 of them actually 'sold' through bidding on ebay, so believe me, there are really not any significant ramifications.

UDPride

In most cases its not financially prudent, at least in my case, to travel 500 miles to take a look at a vehicle. Lets say the vehicle is in great shape like many local cars, but the car is 10-15% less expensive (in this case maybe $1500).

It will cost me more to travel and take a look at that car than it would to just buy the local car that is 10 miles from me thats 10-15% higher and in the exact same shape. First of all, if you have to get on a plane and fly, you are talking at least $200 for a round trip ticket because whos to say you will even buy the car to begin with. Second, if you have to take a day off of work, thats easily worth $500 to most professional people because you arent at work making money. So you are already up to $750 conservatively. Assuming you like the car and get a PPI you drive it home, but its likely you wont schedule a PPI in the visiting city on your initial trip because you wont even be sure youll need the PPI if the car turns out to be a total fraud, so why pay $200 for a PPI on a car you now think sucks a mean one. So in many cases it will require a couple trips to handle all the transactions to ink the car if its the real deal. So add in potential lodging, food, more trip expenses, potentially another day away from the office, and in no time that car that was such a great deal really isnt. Its not just about how much the car costs, its how much that car is costing you to invest time in looking at it. I cant speak for anyone else, but time away from the office for me is just burning money down the toilet. Most shops arent open on weekends. What Im getting at is, anything outside a 4-5hr drive for me is a pure waste of my time unless the car is as a downright firesale price (many thousands cheaper).

Now if you are a student and on summer vacation and have all the time in the world to mess around with it, thats another story. In my own business though I frequently eat small expenses like this example because it would cost me more time (time = money) to track and recoup it, than it would be to eat it and move on with life. Too many people jump over a dollar to save a dime I think.

Im just saying, for someone like myself, buying local saves me money in most cases because I can keep my daily routine and make money while Im spending money. At a conservative $50-60/hr, if you take two business days to find a far away car, thats $800 right there in business cost alone youve thrown away, nevermind actually the expense of going to look at the car.

I took a three day trip from Ohio to Spokane, WA in March and it cost me $750 and thats getting Priceline tickets and staying at the Roach Motel and eating McDonalds. If that was a pleasure trip, it would have cost me thousands b/c I wouldnt have been making money along the way.

I guess Im alone on this one.