Ebay Motors

[shy little mouse]

First off, I am not an ebayer, so forgive me if my questions sound dumb to those of you who are experienced with ebay. I am thinking about trying to bid on a car on ebay, but I am a bit nervous about bidding on something online, sight unseen. Yes, there are pictures of the car, and it is very attractive, but the particular car I am interested in is 11 hours away, so I can't just go see it. If I won the auction, I would fly out there and pick it up. I did contact the seller (an auto broker) to ask a few questions.

My biggest concern is that this car has been listed and sold twice already in the past month. I asked why the transaction has not been completed, and the seller told me that 80% of the time the highest bidder does not follow through because of financing, etc. He said that he does not like to leave negative feedback. Does all of this sound right to you? The seller's feedback is 97.1% positive on 239 transactions. Is that acceptable? Can I bid on this car with confidence, or am I better paying a little extra (I could save $2-$4k) for a car that I can go see locally?

Ebayers, please help me out.

 

[Shmily1]

I live in GA and bought DS19 his dream car from Ebay and had it shipped in from Indiana. I had checked the VIN on it as well as calling previoua owners. It is perfect and just what he wanted. I would say if you've done your homework on the car and the seller, go for it! I would do it again!

 

[tinatark]

Does the current owner have the carfax report for the car? Really, the reputation of the seller is the thing you need to look at the most when you're buying a car on ebay. We've bought 2, and are looking at one now - the first 2 were both within manufacturer warranty, and from dealerships.

The one we're looking at now will be out of warranty, so we are looking at it more carefully than the others.