eBay motors question

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marrymeflyfree · #1 Post by **marrymeflyfree** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:30 pm

We bought a car on eBay a few nights ago! Yay! It was pretty exciting...we waited until the last 5 minutes to put in a bid - but nothing happened! It didn't explicitely say anything about our bid being rejected, so it took us a bit to realize that we weren't 'verified' users and therefore weren't authorized to place such a large bid.

After a lot of furious clicking and typing, we finally got ourselves squared away just in time to place a bid with 3 minutes remaining. Then we saw the thing about entering in a confidential max bid - and good thing, because we had a small bidding war going in the last minute of the auction. Even with the competition, we saved about $6,000 from any other price we'd seen on the same car. YAY!

We were able to talk to the seller by phone before bidding, and feel very good about it (plus it still has a factory warranty and another 2 years of free scheduled maintenance) - but just in case....what's the procedure if we go pick up the car and find that it isn't as advertised?

Greyhound Dude · #2 Post by **Greyhound Dude** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:35 pm

Have you looked in putting the money into an escrow account? That way the money will not be given to the seller until you and the seller are satisfied.

Also, did you do a vehicle history report (something like carfax)? I hope so. I think eBay has a service that will do that for a small fee (not quite sure of the name). I seem to remember them offering some form of "Buy Back" protection.

Hope this helps and Happy Motoring!!!!

marrymeflyfree · #3 Post by **marrymeflyfree** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:03 pm

We did the carfax report, and it was clean and matched up perfectly to the seller's history. I've never heard of doing an escrow account for a car purchase...is that a common thing?

We're really not worried about it...just a bit of a leap of faith to buy a car sight unseen!

TheCalvinator24 · #4 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:31 pm

tubadave bought his latest car via ebay. If he's around, he might have some tips.

dodgersteve182 · #5 Post by **dodgersteve182** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:44 pm

It's risky to buy a Used Car sight unseen unless you get a Warranty. I bought Mrs. DS's car from acura while she was visiting her Mama 4 yrs ago. We went to the dealer and paid for it before the salesperson asked her "Do you want to see your new car now"?
Yes we have a lot of faith these days. Given her height challenges she usually has to see if she can fit on the front seat and still have her feet reach the pedals.

marrymeflyfree · #6 Post by **marrymeflyfree** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:41 am

dodgersteve182 wrote: Given her height challenges she usually has to see if she can fit on the front seat and still have her feet reach the pedals.

I'm not quite that short, but short enough that we went to test drive the same model here just to be sure....hehe!

dodgersteve182 · #7 Post by **dodgersteve182** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:10 am

marrymeflyfree said:
"I'm not quite that short, but short enough that we went to test drive the same model here just to be sure....hehe!"

On one of our first dates, we went to a Lakers game at the Forum. I spotted a celebrity as he walked by our balcony seats. I turned to the future Ms. DS and yelled "that's Randy Newman"! Her response was "I hate Randy Newman"! I immediately realized my faux pas. LOL!

marrymeflyfree · #8 Post by **marrymeflyfree** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:33 am

dodgersteve182 wrote: On one of our first dates, we went to a Lakers game at the Forum. I spotted a celebrity as he walked by our balcony seats. I turned to the future Ms. DS and yelled "that's Randy Newman"! Her response was "I hate Randy Newman"! I immediately realized my faux pas. LOL!

hahaha! Funny how short people either love or hate that song. No in between! It was sort of my theme growing up, as I was the odd chic out among a group of very tall friends. Randy Newman does kind of annoy me, but for other reasons.

Appa23 · #9 Post by **Appa23** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:51 am

dodgersteve182 wrote:It's risky to buy a Used Car sight unseen unless you get a Warranty. I bought Mrs. DS's car from acura while she was visiting her Mama 4 yrs ago. We went to the dealer and paid for it before the salesperson asked her "Do you want to see your new car now"?
Yes we have a lot of faith these days. Given her height challenges she usually has to see if she can fit on the front seat and still have her feet reach the pedals.

Just how vertically challenged is she?

dodgersteve182 · #10 Post by **dodgersteve182** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:01 pm

"Just how vertically challenged is she?"

She was 5'2" when we met, but now she's shrunk to 5'1".

marrymeflyfree · #11 Post by **marrymeflyfree** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:04 pm

Update:

The Naughty Norwegian went down to FL this morning to pick up the car. Everything was perfect, and the car actually had more extras in it than we'd thought!

Yay eBay!