ebay advise

[widebody911]

Ebay seems popular for unloading cars (and other stuff) that wouldn't bear scrutiny in person.

[RickM]

I agree....as I mentioned other times, it's a great place for the unscrupulous to unload broken equipment of any kind. Caveat Emptor to the max.

When you see, just needs a cleaning or tune-up or whatever run away.

[techweenie]

I passed on a 915 mainshaft & first gear yesterday that was only bid at $75, and I need it. But the photo was just too small...

Photos usually tell more than the seller hopes. I've gotten good at spotting rust bubbles in paint. Although, with PhotoShop, you can never be sure, anyway.

The biggest hit I took was on a '73 911 with a sunroof out of TN. The sunroof turned out to be one of those hinged glass aftermarket pieces. Didn't show in the photos at all. If I hadn't bought the car $1500 under market value, that would have really stung.

[techweenie]

Just for fun, I put the eBay sellers shot alongside the shot I took the day the car arrived...



Thanks to KevinP73, it has an original all-steel roof skin on it.

[juanbenae]

it seems as if i will have a bit of a heads up on the info and should help. i tend to have to learn the hard way with things.. i will let you guys know how i do on something i am watching.

[LeeH]

My favorite sniping method is to open the same auciton in two browswers. I can hit reload on one browser while the other has my bid loaded and ready to go.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by LeeH
My favorite sniping method is to open the same auciton in two browswers. I can hit reload on one browser while the other has my bid loaded and ready to go.

That's the method I used last night to get the winning bid on a Ford Expedition. First vehicle I've ever purchased from Ebay, submitted my first and only bid 35 seconds before auction close. Someone attempted to outbid by $300 w/10 seconds left but my proxy was still higher. Overall hopeful since I got it for $3K less than I was prepared to pay.

[89911]

Another tip is if you have a serious interest in an item with a "buy it now" that you think is not in the ballpark, throw a low bid on the item to remove that option. Also, be patient. I recently bought a cd changer that usually had 6-12 in auctions. I watched all of them until I found one that had little action and put in a last second bid.

[ubiquity0]

I bought my 7x16" fuchs from an auction w/ no pics for $75. Turned out to be perfect- basically 0 mile take-offs.
Feeling lucky?