I was looking at ebay recently and saw tons of cheap buy it nows on excellent cars. 65,66,67 vettes with low miles for a buy it now of 16 grand? There was also a 66 chevelle ss 396 convertible for 9 grand, whats with this? There must be something Im not picking up on..... Greg
When you buy a car in person, do you verify the mileage when considering a purchase with "low miles"? Yup. Same goes with online. No Scam about it at all. Used car salesmen been pulling that bit for ages. My car has "24,306" original miles -Dane
Never had a bad experience with Ebay, but I never have purchased a car from there. I did however place an ad for a 55 Desoto on the internet that I was parting out. Some guy wanted to send me $3000 more than I wanted for the car, sight unseen! All I had to do was cash the check and send the rest of the money to some address for the car transit. The guy would never tell me where he was from. And when I said all I would do is cash a check for the car written out to me, but would be glad to hand a check written out to the transit company he got mad and quit bothering me. I didn't fall for it, but in the local paper others around the state had, and lost $3000. Bummer Geno
The key is in your ability to destinguish a low mile car that is original from a 'low mile' car that has been "refubished". I got a steal on a car on e-bay, the clinker was that it wasn't a high-dollar car, and the pictures spoke volumes. Big, clear shots that were taken in bright sunlight. It was clear that the seller wasn't trying to hide anything. It was claimed to be all original, and it sure is. I could tell from the pics that the car hadn't been molested, and it was even nicer in person. Certain things that normally wear with time, weren't. Like the plastic lens covers over the gauges in the dash. They are crystal clear. Ask yourself questions noby else notices like: Do all the odometer numbers line up well? How is the chrome on the INTERIOR? Do the door bottoms have a visible seam? Ask for shots of the undercarrige. A lot of sellers never bother to take pictures of this area. Ask for close up shots of stuff. Ask for pictures first before you bid. If the seller takes a while to respond, then maybe they aren;t that serious about selling...or are hiding something. A good seller will be dilligent in his/her replies. You can still spot shoddy bodywork thru them if you look close. Ask for a side shot. Also, some key tip-offs to a car that has more mileage that what shows (I.E. an odometer that only goes to 99,999 but shows 24,000) is the wear on the seats and pedals. Obviously, a car showing 40,000 "original" miles shouldn't have a brake pedal pad that is worn down to the metal on only the right side... Bottom line is, you can't polish a turd.
they are scams!!! there are hundreds of them on ebay now,just check out the discusion board for ebay motors. these scammers hi-jack someones ebay acccount and list all sorts of high end cars at cheap prices...usually with a request the bidder is pre-approved ...when you email them ,you will get a respone like: the car is in belgium,it belonged to his brother who was killed on a motorcyle,you can buy it cheap. but you need to send a $3000 deposit via western union. don't fall for it..it's a scam. for a laff,email them and see what response you get....i'm sure it will be close to what i said warning for all hambers who use ebay.....if you get an email looking like it came from ebay asking you to verify your account info by clicking on a link...DON'T !! i repeat....DON'T!!! they are scammers trying to get your info so they can hi-jack your acount ..... ebay will never do this!! delete the email or forward it to: spoof@ebay.com if you think you have found a scam auction , email it to: ewan@ebay.com P.S...another way of telling if it is a scam email is that ebay will always address you by your REAL name.....not your screen name
here is a thread from ebay motors discusion board about this scam problem and ebay's inabillity to do anything about it....and an article in NY times about it...the full story is in it http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jsp?forum=20&thread=410069421&start=0&msRange=17
The Jalopy Journal
