My eBay Motors Pet Peeves

Sporin · Jan 21, 2003

I'm a guy always on "the prowl" for a great used car or truck at a ridiculous price. It's how I found my Trooper ($789). So I regularly hit the eBay motors boards looking at Trooper, Discovery, etc. listings.
I've developed a few pet peeves...
• People who Say "No reserve" in the subject, but do in fact apply a reserve.
• People who completely misrepresent there car -- ie: the word "restored" means everything from a true frame-off to an oil change.

• People who don't post any (or just 1) pictures. How can you expect to sell a $5000 car with 1 blurry Polaroid?
• People who have no idea what they are talking about.
• The phrase ". . . but they all do that." in regards to broken stuff.
• People who put no reserve, then make their opening bid higher then anyone will ever pay for the car. You can tell the ones by their bid history... 1.
• People who don't take the time to find out what their used vehicle is actually worth in the open market. -- ie: A '95 Discovery with a reserve of $15k when it's a $5-$7k truck tops.
• People who think the Kelly blue Book is still relavent.

AKADriver · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

Whenever I find a decent deal on a car on eBay that isn't thousands of miles away, it's always from some wholesaler in Maryland that by law can't sell to Maryland residents without a dealer license, so I can't buy the car.
Before I picked up my 240SX there was one that was selling a lot of something like 100 cars. Mostly useless to me... '80s American sedans... but also a good amount of neat '80s fun cars like a Mk1 Jetta GLI, a couple Mk2 GTI 8v's, a turbo Dodge or two.. Cheesed me off.

Sporin · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (AKADriver)

quote:[HR][/HR]Whenever I find a decent deal on a car on eBay that isn't thousands of miles away, it's always from some wholesaler in Maryland that by law can't sell to Maryland residents without a dealer license, so I can't buy the car.[HR][/HR]

I've seen this a lot. I can see where that would be annoying to MD residents.

Gus Polinski · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

I remember browsing Rodeos on eBay before I bought mine and some chick was selling hers, essentially brand new, but used (had like 10,000 miles already) for the MSRP you'd see at the dealer. That was the starting bid.

Not to mention the fact there was no photos and the description was basically from the brochure.

Sporin · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

Here's another one...
• People who use the term "rare" about positively not-rare automobiles.

Peter · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

People who specify aftermarket wheels or suspension but do not list any relevant information as to the mods. Wheel size? Type? What kind of suspension?!

Egz · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

People that pre-fix or sub-title a car as "Fast N Furious".
But then again, those cars are crap anyways...
And ugh, I hate reserves. They serve no purpose to me. Everything I have sold was without a reserve, and they do just fine.

Seni0rl0c0 · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Egz)

quote:[HR][/HR]People that pre-fix or sub-title a car as "Fast N Furious".[HR][/HR]

[Modified by Seni0rl0c0, 1:57 PM 1-21-2003]

SuperGroove · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Seni0rl0c0)

Pfft, sporin. You haven't even touched on my pet peeve.
NO PORCUPINES! All you get is the car...and no porcupines. Why?

Slackmeister · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

quote:[HR][/HR]• People who don't post any (or just 1) pictures. How can you expect to sell a $5000 car with 1 blurry Polaroid?
• People who put no reserve, then make their opening bid higher then anyone will ever pay for the car. You can tell the ones by their bid history... 1.
• People who don't take the time to find out what their used vehicle is actually worth in the open market. -- ie: A '95 Discovery with a reserve of $15k when it's a $5-$7k truck tops.[HR][/HR]

I'm convinced that people that do any of these three things don't really want to sell the car. What other logical reason do they have?

MartijnGizmo · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

I love this one, it's allready on the Dutch Autotrader for like a half year:
BMW 3-serie 320i
Bouwjaar: 1987-07
Brandstof: Benzine
Prijs: € 999,00
Zwart 236.000 km getint glas, mistlampen, bumpers en spiegels in carrosseriekleur, onderhoudsboekje aanwezig. dubbele uitlaat, spoilers rondom, motor 325i, supersnel !! (kijk naar rokende banden) geschikt voor cursus. bgg 0653950468 (A)

I'll translate it for ya:
BMW 3-series 320i
Build: 1987-07
Fuel: Gasoline
Price: €999.00 ($ = 1:1)
Black 236,000km (=147,000miles) tinted windows, foglights, bumpers and mirrors colourcoded, maintenancerecord present. double exhaust, spoilers all round, engine 325i, very fast !! (look at smoking tires) suitable for training. if no answer 0653950468 (that would be +49653950468 from the US

)
I'm wondering if he seriously thinks that anyone will buy his car.....

VadGTI · Jan 21, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (MartijnGizmo)

haha, Martijn, that's great http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

. A sure-fire way to sell a car is to show it getting abused by the current owner, dontchaknow

.

My pet peeve is when sellers do not reply to emails. I was set on purchasing a Skyline (no not a GT-R

, but its very cool predecessor from the 60's, the Prince Skyline S54B) in the L.A. area. It was right-hand-drive, semi-complete, and I was totally set on buying it. The pics weren't too clear, and I wanted to check out the car in person before I bid... 3 email attempts later, and no reply from the seller. So, I didn't bid of course, as I'd never buy a car without looking at it.

[Modified by VadGTI, 3:40 PM 1-21-2003]

CorradoFANATIC · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (MartijnGizmo)

quote:[HR][/HR]

very fast !! (look at smoking tires) [HR][/HR]

hahaha!!! at least hte seller has got a sense of humor.

99GTI2.0 · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Sporin)

quote:[HR][/HR]
• People who think the Kelly blue Book is still relavent.

[HR][/HR]

Now, Sporin, I might seem a tad naive with this comment, but what are the best ways to judge the market values of autos? I don't peruse the used listings near enough to have a grasp of values for myself, so a service like KBB seemed to be helpful. Why is it not relevant? Any other avenues you might suggest?

PoorBoyMatt · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (99GTI2.0)

http://www.nadaguides.com

MartijnGizmo · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (VadGTI)

quote:[HR][/HR]haha, Martijn, that's great http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

. A sure-fire way to sell a car is to show it getting abused by the current owner, dontchaknow

.[HR][/HR]

Yeah, I'm wondering why it still isn't sold.....

Oh, and +49653950468 is wrong off course, +49 is for Germany, so it should be +31653950468 .

Sporin · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (99GTI2.0)

Take the value from http://www.nadaguides.com. KBB is so inflated and slow to react to trends that it is nearly useless. Maybe average out the NADA, KBB and Edmunds values. Take a quick gander in the Autotrader.
Seriously, it doesn't take more then 15 or 20 minutes to figure out what YOUR car is actually selling for.
Sometimes KBB get's it close, but in my experience, they really overstate the numbers.

Silly_me · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (PoorBoyMatt)

quote:[HR][/HR]http://www.nadaguides.com[HR][/HR]

Damn, my cars are worth a helluva lot more than I thought

13minutes · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (Silly_me)

quote:[HR][/HR]Damn, my cars are worth a helluva lot more than I thought

[HR][/HR]

So is mine...geez... I ought to go hug my salesman, or send a card or something.
And other ebaymotors (or ebay in general) pet peeves...
-putting words in the listing or description of things that don't exist on the car or are barely relevant just to get more search hits.
-some "buy-it-now" prices on reserve auction, because sometimes, that is the reserve price..
I hate reserves, people even put them on used clothing

.

[Modified by 13minutes, 3:57 PM 1-22-2003]

Sporin · Jan 22, 2003

Re: My eBay Motors Pet Peeves (13minutes)

quote:[HR][/HR]And other ebaymotors (or ebay in general) pet peeves...
-putting words in the listing or description of things that don't exist on the car or are barely relevant just to get more search hits.[HR][/HR]

I see that a lot since I'm usually surfing 4x4's.
I've seen ... "better than Land Rover, Unimog, Pinz, G-Wagon" in an ad for a, say, a 4cyl Jeep Wrangler on street tires. Crap like that is just ridiculous.

My eBay Motors Pet Peeves

Sporin

AKADriver

Sporin

Gus Polinski

Sporin

Peter

Egz

Seni0rl0c0

SuperGroove

Slackmeister

MartijnGizmo

VadGTI

CorradoFANATIC

99GTI2.0

PoorBoyMatt

MartijnGizmo

Sporin

Silly_me

13minutes

Sporin

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