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Anyone who bids several £k on anything (car, bike, you name it) that they have not seen in daylight really does need their head testing. I've bought and sold £300 bangers quite happily, but I wouldn't bid sensible money without sizing up the item and the seller in the flesh.
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170090585386 - a set of rear lights for a three series. Trouble is the advertiser has the letters BMW in the wrong order - how could you possibly get that wrong ? !
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Not just eBay but local papers, Autotrader etc....
'First to see will buy'
What? You see the car and throw your money at them??
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Thousands of car buyers (mainly trade) spend £500,000+ on cars in a day sometimes which they have barely laid eyes on at car auctions including many readers of this forum. I can't see there is a lot of difference with ebay in that respect. OK, so in an auction you get to see the car, but at least on ebay you have a reasonably chance of spending some time inspecting and hopefully driving a car before handing over any actual readies. If you are buying from a dealer on ebay you also have some degree of consumer proetction (and you are much, much safer buying on ebay from a declared dealer rather than private or pretend private).
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>>... the advertiser has the letters BMW in the wrong order - how could you possibly get that wrong ? !
>>
Easy. Judged by another example.There are usually Expelair items for sale. There will often be photos of the box included, with the makers name Xpelair on it. Doh!
(Ebay does not link the two names up so they are probably missing potential buyers).
"Hi, you are bidding on......so you could be in for a bargain.........There is a starting bid of £xx.00 which i think is fair so don`t be shy. Happy Bidding."
This item WILL be a significant bargain judged by recent sales. I suggest the potential buyers will know or can check on the MRP. Save the prattle and include more facts?
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I sold a Mazda6 Estate on ebay, and just got over my reserve.
I had only had the car 3months, but found it underpowered, so wanted rid-of quick before it lost too much.
The bidder didn't come and view, BUT I did have a years warranty that I had bought through Cargiant (where I got the car), and placed many photos of the car, including clear bonnet, boot and interior shots.
The bidder turned up with £6500 cash, we went for a test drive and he did an HPI check, and went away seemingly satisfied.
Strangely they never left feedback, although I know the car didn't have any faults and was in A1 condition.... and at that price was a bargain for an Auto-estate - bit weird really.
I've never bought cars on ebay but do put them on my "watched items " list to see what they bid up to, to get an idea what people think a particular model is roughly worth, if I've seen one on a dealer forecourt. Of course one has to remeber dealer is much safer, and you get a decent test-drive and (hopefully) some kind of warranty/backup if things go wrong.
I have noticed that newer 3yr old, higher than average ex-fleet-cars eg Toyota avensis seem to get re-listed quite often - is this people aren't prepared to pay or are sellers to greedy with their reserves ?
They are also more expensive than I think they should be when they sell - comparing the prices on autotrader.
I thik if I was buying I would want to view first, and wouldn't buy anything more than £1k as there is too much risk.
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Can't say I'd agree on the £1k cars - the cheap cars from private or iffy sellers are exactly what I think should be avoided on ebay and where most of the problems seem to occur. These are the sort of cars you should never buy at any auction unless you really know what you're doing as they are there for a reason. I've bought 3 cars on ebay and have found the newer ex-fleet and px stuff from established trade (where you DO have some comeback if it blows up down the road) and decent private sellers the best. As long as it is described well I have no problem bidding unseen and if it turns out to be a heap then walk away.
You can get decent stuff for car auction or just over price with some consumer protection and an opportunity to drive the car on ebay and reckon that's where it is best value.
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Selling for a friend is my classic pet hate as well as general lack of detail. I once viewed a Punto on ebay it was described as being in great condition. i got there to find rust on the sills and the water dripping out of the exhaust. The car apparantly had 77k on the clock even though the steering wheel was warn through. The log book was all crossed out and the seller's answer was a bit of tip ex to hide it.
I politely told him his head gasket had gone and walked away.
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i dont wont and never will buy cars off ebay.
too many men in shorts for my liking selling rogue motors
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too many men in shorts for my liking selling rogue motors
Quite agree om... I too prefer to buy my dodgy motors from chaps in full-length trousers... :o)
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Strangely they never left feedback
Did you leave feedback for them?
I never leave feedback first as a buyer, as I once left neutral feedback on a Taiwanese R3 DVD sold as UK R2 I had to send back just before Christmas. Got negative because of this.
I have only bought one car on eBay - an Escort donor, which I didn't go and see but wished the owner had described it slighlty better, as it did have its little querks!
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Mike Farrow
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My dad once paid £5000 for a Punto privately :) it was out of warranty too. Engine wise it was fine, and it did last us 6 years until he wrote it off, but we were not impressed when it cost £300 to get it through its first MOT.
We then paid £1600 for an Escort which passed its MOT first time. That car is now stuck in a garage getting damper and damper.
I bought my car sold as seen from a garage for £400, stupidly never saw it start in the cold, I rushed into it, it was mty first car and fell every trick in the book :). It wasn't until the next morning I discovered the camshaft rattle.
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Are you actually legally obliged to buy something you bid on ebay? there are lots of phrases on listings like 'if you fail to complete the transaction, I will take you to small claims court etc etc... I wonder if its a legally binding contract?
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I've just thought of another one.
"Relisted due to timewaster"
Which I always read as "relisted due to buyer turning up and finding out the car is a clapped-out old heap".
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I may be wrong but I don't see any legally binding contract in buying anything off Ebay. Morally and in the spirit of Ebay it is wrong not to buy when you have bid and won, because of the inconvenience of relisting and listing costs to the seller. You would also get a non-paying bidder strike against you from Ebay. As for small claims court threats, what are they going to claim for a few £ relisting fees ?.
What puts me off in a listing is the phrase, "£XXX Deposit required by Paypal within 24 hrs (or at) close of auction", what happens if it's a shed when you get there, you have to go through all the rigmarole of waiting 2 weeks then claiming your money back off Paypal for wromgly described goods. Another thing that puts me off are blurry photos for whatever reason and some even take photos at night !, what's that all about ?.
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> Anyone who bids several £k on anything (car, bike, you name it) that they have not seen in daylight really
> does need their head testing. I've bought and sold £300 bangers quite happily, but I wouldn't bid sensible
> money without sizing up the item and the seller in the flesh.
I don't see the problem. If there's a decent description I might ask a few questions but I'm happy to bid for the car as described. If it matches the description then I pay. If its not as decribed I won't pay. If there's no meaningful description then I won't bid.
I don't agree with the 'binding contract' type of seller who gives almost no description but expects me to keep my end of the deal. I haven't got the time to go waltzing all over the country looking at cars which people can't be bothered to describe fully - if people can't be bothered to spend a little of there time describing something, why should they expect me to spend my time coming to look?
And its not just eBay. A few weekends ago I went to see a car from Autotrader being sold by a trader. I had the money ready - and was ready to do a deal. I'd asked some detailed questions before travelling, but could see within 2 mins of arriving that it wasn't as he'd described it. And he knew I was going 70 miles. I wasn't amused. But it only takes 30 mins of his time to show a punter around the car, whereas I've had to pay fuel and travel time.
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I've just seen a classic one on eBay. The seller claims the car is an official UK import, but I can see from the photos that it isn't. And having a look through his feedback, I see he bought the car no less than 2 weeks ago, and the previous seller described clearly it as an import! I hope the other potential buyers spot it too.
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"I hope the other potential buyers spot it too."
You could always help them by putting that discovery into a question !
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Are you actually legally obliged to buy something you bid on ebay? there are lots of phrases on listings like 'if you fail to complete the transaction, I will take you to small claims court etc etc... I wonder if its a legally binding contract?
Its lived in a slightly strange environment for some time. There are a few tales of people taking others to small claims court and winning, but that doesn't set a legal precedence. Its not even clear that its an auction - it may look like one, but an auction has a specific legal meaning which eBay sales don't match.
It may be slightly clearer when people use 'buy-it-now'. That might be a contract. But even then, the law is clear about inducements to contract - ie. if you bid based on a description then the goods must be materially as described.
Note that one of the reasons a paypal payment can be reversed is "Goods Significantly as Described"
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Note that one of the reasons a paypal payment can be reversed is "Goods Significantly as Described"
I meant "Goods Significantly NOT as Described" of course!
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When they have members of their family posing in the pictures, how distracting!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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"Grab yourself a bargain"
It wouldn't stop be from bidding on something, but it would certainly cause me to have doubts about the seller.
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For me the phrase that makes me click off the page immediately is...
"Offered elsewhere so may be withdrawn before close of auction".
I'm selling my own Discovery on EBay soon. That will go for top money due to a detailed honest description, pin sharp photos from every angle and a buying/selling history that shows we buy/sell normal family stuff not loads of mobiles, pirate DVDs or "How to make cash" e-books. And that is exactly the sort of seller I look for when buying.
EBay is no better or worse than any other buying source.
DW
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"Offered elsewhere so may be withdrawn before close of auction".
Agree with that - how are bidders supposed to get into a bidding frenzy about a potential purchase when it could be withdrawn at any moment?
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These pet hates are only cliches, and most people talk in cliches all the time. Very few people have the education and breadth of language versatility to be able to say original and meaningful things all the time. Mostly we simply copy phrases we have heard other people using.
If you start pruning cliche-users out of your life, you end up with no human contact at all, and no life.
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"Grab yourself a bargain" It wouldn't stop be from bidding on something, but it would certainly cause me to have doubts about the seller.
I'd have to agree with that one wholeheartedly, because it gets used in auction style listings.
How can the seller say its a bargain? Can they see into the future and tell what the final bid will be?
Several items I have sold on eBay have definitely not been bargains, people bid way too high, eg an immobiliser that went for 40% more than retail (and I started it with a buy it now lower than retail.)
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