What's eBay's buyer protection like for car sales?

[Rick Lee]

I know the seller is always at a disadvantage for smaller stuff on eBay, at least stuff that can be easily shipped and paid for via PayPal. But what about cars? What happens if a buyer gets remorse or his wife tells him to return it after a few days? I'm getting my 993 ready for sale and am wondering about putting her on eBay for maximum exposure.

[ossiblue]

No personal experience, but from a little research I found that deadbeat buyers of cars are quite a problem. For the seller, you have to file a claim for unpaid item after 2 days have passed from the end of the "sale." You have up to 32 days from the end of the auction to file the claim. Then, the buyer has up to 4 days to pay, after you filed your claim. If he doesn't pay, you have to manually close the case and you will receive your Final Value Fee credit. If you don't manually close your case, after 36 days pass from the end of auction, the case is automatically closed and you lose your Final Value Fee.

The kicker to all this, from complaints I've seen on line, is that while the case is in dispute, you cannot re-list the car nor contact 2nd in line bidders and sell to them. Your money and vehicle is tied up for the duration until ebay closes the claim. Add to this any time it takes for the "buyer" to challenge the claim or give false information about the sale, and you have a real headache.

A little Googling shows a lot of seller dissatisfaction with the system and the inability to avoid deadbeat buyers.

[Rick Lee]

Sounds like a good incentive to list with an unrealistic BIN or reserve price just to get the exposure, and then do the deal outside of eBay.

[Christien]

I've tried to sell a few cars through eBay. Never again. All were non-paying bidders and, as stated above, it takes forever to go through the hassle of resisting. Though I think rick's idea is a good one.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Sounds like a good incentive to list with an unrealistic BIN or reserve price just to get the exposure, and then do the deal outside of eBay.

The auctions tend to attract a lot of flakes, but if you list with an unrealistic BIN you will scare off real buyers who think you are, well, unrealistic. List with your asking price as the BIN, set up the "auto reject offers" to filter the low balling morons, and make sure you have a great description with lots of pictures. I probably average four listings per month on EBay and I've only had one with a flaky buyer who couldn't get financing. I just cancelled the sale and ate the fee to relist. I have only actually sold one car through EBay, but I have sold countless cars outside of EBay that were advertised there. In my opinion it is the best of the online auto sale sites.

[1990C4S]

If you have a realistic asking price and want to sell it, then a good description and a few pictures posted here should lead to a sale.

If you want to got through the hassle of dealing with morons to get the absolute top dollar list it on eBay.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Don't kid yourself, there's plenty of people on the forums that will waste your time pretty effectively too.

[Mark Henry]

I like Rick's idea of a unrealistic BIN price, make sure your general location is known then list it on CL with the real asking price.
Most serious buyers will find it.

[Rick Lee]

I did this for a guitar in the early days of eBay, before they had BIN. I put a reserve of about $4k on it and figured it was worth about half that, but wanted to see what the market was doing. I got tons of messages from folks asking what my reserve was and trying to disguise their email addresses to get around eBay's filters and letting me know how to reach them outside of eBay. I ended up making a trade for what has since become my number one guitar and is probably worth almost $4k now. But I'll never sell it.

I have also done some deals outside of eBay when the listing said "I reserve the right to end the auction early, as item is also listed locally." That usually means it's on the local CL too.

[onewhippedpuppy]

There is zero reason why you have to actually sell it through EBay. If you get a local buyer just end the auction early. A super high BIN just makes you blend in the the other unrealistic 993 speculators out there right now.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

There is zero reason why you have to actually sell it through EBay. If you get a local buyer just end the auction early. A super high BIN just makes you blend in the the other unrealistic 993 speculators out there right now.

Honestly, I'm seeing some pretty insane prices on Pelican too and not just on 993s, but also on parts for air-cooled 911s. Is everyone selling for far less than asking price? I just don't know.

I have a buddy who used to be a tech at a local Porsche dealership, who just sold a 993 cab for $37k to a dealer who flipped it for $52k days later. My buddy should know the market well, but obviously had it underpriced.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Just remember, asking and getting are two very different things. Look at completed listings on Ebay, you'll notice many of the same cars with optimistic prices being listed over and over again.

[RANDY P]

autotrader.com is what I had good luck with....

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Sounds like a good incentive to list with an unrealistic BIN or reserve price just to get the exposure, and then do the deal outside of eBay.

That's what I had planned to do.

[Rick Lee]

I think the local CL is pretty strong. There's only one 993 coupe on there and even a WTB ad for 993s. The rest are all cabs. Lots of people do nationwide CL searches and AZ is a pretty good area for searching for rust-free cars. I'm in no rush, so I'll start out on CL and Pelican before I pay for Autotrader. My experience with paid services is they attract the brokers and I don't really want to deal with them.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Sounds like a good incentive to list with an unrealistic BIN or reserve price just to get the exposure, and then do the deal outside of eBay.

this is the way to do it

You use them to advertise it for free, then sell it outside their system.

[Rick Lee]

Looks like $0 insertion fees for low volume sellers and some negligible fees for add-ons like BIN, reserve price and extra photos. Even the final fees aren't that bad, but I can't have the car tied up in a dispute caused by a deadbeat, so it will be a silly reserve price, not even a BIN and not taking offers.

[biosurfer1]

What does a silly reserve price have to do with it? A deadbeat bidder isn't going to pay no matter what.

I say list it no reserve and see where it goes. Then it's guaranteed to stay up until the end of the auction and get lots of exposure. Just add something like "the car is listed locally and I reserve the right end the auction early." If its not where you want it, end the auction...but who knows, maybe you'll get a legit bid and actually sell the car.

[Rick Lee]

That's not a bad plan. But a high reserve also always gives me an out in case I forget to end auction early, though I wouldn't do that.

[black_falcon]

According to eBay, vehicle sales are a non-binding contract. The buyer has no obligation to fulfill the sale at auction close thus I would assume he also has no legal ground if the item is not as disclosed. Once you send the money, it's yours, so exercise plenty of due diligence.

I'm 2/3 on eBay motors. First time around was with my Boxster, we negotiated a deal outside of the site. Everything went smoothly and he was a great guy. Just sold the car back to me actually. Second time was a Jag XK8, sold with no reserve for a very fair price. Buyer was a PITA. Took forever to send payment and arrange shipping. *****ed about the petty little issues on a 17 year old car that were disclosed and no big deal frankly. Wanted money back. Threatened me. Third time, got a bunch of low ball offers and the car ended up selling locally.

Overall, it's great exposure. My ads were getting something like 1000+ views per week. Most buyers seem to be bargain hunting, but you do see top cars bring top money when the ad is done right (penny start, no reserve, phenomenal pictures and description = bidding war).