my best advice is - Never ignore your instinct!! I have bought both my E30 M3 and my current 911 sight unseen. I did my due dillegence, passed on several previous 'opportunities', and after all the phonecalls, photos, PPI's etc I still made a 'gut' call and could not be more happy.

edit: ps, both of these were not facilitated through eBay. I also see eBay as often a seller's last resort and I don't like the time constraint it imposes, nor the urgency. If I am dealing on a car I want to have a clear and open line of communication with the seller, and eBay can often be a convenient way for a seller to not have enough time to facilitate a PPI etc etc.

I sold a good Porsche sight unseen on Ebay. 84 cab, the car was listed honestly, the end price was low and the buyer was happy. I happen to be driving to his town so I even delivered it.

I would not buy anything over $10K and not look at it personally, off ebay.

I sold cars on ebay. It was NOT last resort. I just wanted to move on, and did not want to list and wait 6 months. With ebay, you post a car, you have no reserve, you know it will be gone after the posting is done.

It is not last resort, it is just a preference.

I inspect cars locally for distant buyers. I call it a P PPI. It's cheap insurance. I broker deals as well. I have bought 5 911s in the past several years sight unseen. Two were "eBay cars." In all cases, I made what I considered to be adequate allowance for unanticipated work. In one case, I was wrong, and the seller (professional flipper) was obviously dumping something he couldn't sell locally. I'll never deal with him again.

For a while, the market was so strong that it was hard to go wrong on a 911. At the moment, that's not the case.

I am not saying it always is, and when read in context I feel my comment is justified.

Have to see it..
 

i have sold lots of cars on ebay,due to the number of people who visit it. Ebay can reach more buyers (and tire kickers) than most automotive web sites. I am in the car business and if i had a dollar for every car i took in trade sight un seen subject to seeing it that came in far worse than the customer stated.... i just drove 200miles to look a older 911. it was so far from what the seller stated.. but i would rather kill most of a day driving to look at a bad car.. and return home with all of my money in my pocket. if you really tell the buyers the truth,good and bad with a car , most can make an informed offer based on what the car may need, or not need. i am always surprised when i contact a Ebay seller with questions on their item, and they never respond to me. i have a salesmen who bid on a ebay car, had the seller send him "100 detailed pictures" he bought the car based on the pictures..when he got the car almost everything that the pictures didn't capture was either dented,scratched, broken... you must look at the car in person

There was a story over on Early S of a guy back east who bought a car from a West Coast flipper... the leather seats were described as having a "nice patina," but the photo angle avoided showing the 4" square hole through the side bolster.

There is some truth to the old adage: you are buying the seller, not the car.

I've sold more Porsches on ebay than not. in most cases in the last few years, they went abroad, and I later saw some of them listed right after that for several more euros. Once, I found one listed over there that I hadn't even sold yet.
On the buying side, if I want to 'score', there is no time for PPI, better pictures or much conversation. Even the local cars I've bought, I don't have time to 'decide' for long, and almost always forgo any kind of PPI. Not having cash in hand cost me $30,000 in late 2007, (won't let that happen again). Things have changed today though.
I think if you are the type to not want to risk too much and don't realy know the market, take your time, get the PPI, and be prepared to pay more. It is peace of mind well worth the extra dough. I paid top dollar for my Lexus LS430 for instance, don't know much about them and wanted a good one without having to become an expert on them.

I agree that while eBay is basically just an advertising forum like any other, and there are lots of good cars there, it is also true that it is a dumping ground for some really bad cars.

I also agree on being willing to move quickly when buying, as far as getting the best deal.

But it's pretty risky, esp. with early 911s. I was recently in the market, and went and looked at a few that were on eBay, some by some fairly "reputable" sellers. Wow. I feel sorry for anyone who buys those "sight unseen," based just on the pictures.

One of them said "no rust," and when the car was on a lift, I could have easily removed the front a-arms - with my bare hands! They were held in place by only a fiberglass patch.

Another one looked pretty nice in the pictures, and was described as having not perfect, but nice, original paint, but in person it was a laugher. The paint was far from original, it looked like whoever repainted it used 180 grit as the final sanding. You could see massive sanding marks everywhere under the paint. And the paint was old, checked and chalky. I think they probably Armor-All'd it up for the pictures.

But it got bid up pretty high on eBay, obviously by people who were not local and did not see it in person.

I've bought 911s without PPI's plenty, to move the deal quickly. And I've made deals to buy one, without seeing them first, but subject to my looking it over (my current one was like that). But sight unseen . . . I've come close, but not had the guts to do that.

I bought several cars unseen on ebay. Ebay is a good plattform, as you reach alot of people.
What I learned so far. Look at the pictures, look what they are not showing.

No pictures of undercariage, know problem areas like door sills.
Ask yourself questions e.g.
why the tarmac is wet (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PORSHE-911-CARRERA) there might be a paint issue.

Or look at this one 911 T Any explenaition why it's got a green engine bay?

If anything doesn't looks right in the first place I even wouldn't consider to do roundtrip or buying a plane ticket.

PPI, the best one is you and someone with knowledge. Cause it's your money.

Cars which I would have bought e.g. 911 SC Because the risk of loosing is not high, you could sell the nice parts which you end up with very low risk.

I bought my 78SC on ebay. description 3 sentences, Seller had 0 Feedback. I send 250 in advance and flew over to Vegas and drove/check it and bought the car. I still need to work for my money, and I'm not earning that much to not take care of my "investments". Evenso buying on ebay u always buy at marketprice, other resources the chance to cut a deal under Marketvalue is higher.

I bought my 87 930 sight unseen and used the PPI that the PO got when he bought the car 8 months earlier. Not only was it a smokin deal but was better than described. He had another guy look at the car after I talked to him and the guy had cash in hand, rich bastard but he was a dick head according to the PO, he could of taken the money then but waited till I got my ducks in line over several days. The PO said he would have sooner sold it to me just because this other guy was just too full of himself. I've had the car for 15 months and have had nothing but a great time with it. Sometimes it does work but then I'm generally lucky.

I bought my 911 sc from 4 crappy pictures. Flew all the way from oregon to north carolina with a buddy of mine. flew with $15,000 cash in my backpack.. bought the car for $12,500, and had the greatest experience of my life driving it home with him. we were also 18.. made things even more fun.
Im just throwing it out that it's not all bad. trust your instinct..

because i got loads of horror storys before flying out but i still did.. and i dont regret it.

Bought my '58 from a dealer sight unseen (with PPI).

Given the pics and description, I was expecting something really nice. It ended up being much nicer than I expected.

Granted the dealer is well regarded, as were the guys who did the PPI.