Date:         Mon, 23 Jun 2003 22:09:42 -0500
Reply-To:     Mel Miller <nourmahal@ATT.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mel Miller <nourmahal@ATT.NET>
Subject:      Re: Buying on E-bay
Comments: To: Douglas L Urner <dlu@CANISHE.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <200306232305.h5NN53N01639@patrosa.canishe.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Howdy Doug, and All,

A year ago I bought a 1972 BMW 3.0CSi on Ebay. I live in Corpus Christi, TX
and the car was in Ukiah, CA. Here is what I did, YMMV.

First I emailed the seller and asked him to send me his telephone number or
call me and I included my number. I then called him and we had a long talk
about the pictures on Ebay and about the car in DETAIL. I detected no
evasiveness on his part and the story he told about why he was selling the
car was plausible. Finally, I asked him, "If I come to Ukiah within five
days of the end of the auction and the car is not MATERIALLY the way we have
discussed it, will you let me out of the deal with out posting negative
feedback? He agreed. In short, I got comfortable with the seller as a
man(and he with me), I asked all my questions (some so detailed about rust
that I know is there on these cars) and had enough ammo to get out of the
deal if he had mislead me. Lastly I promised to get there FAST after the
auction and he agreed.

I came, I saw, I bought, We were both happy campers. For me, it is all about
trust. If I had detected evasion or if he had not agreed to my
end-of-auction proposal, I would not have bid.

Hope this helps,
Mel Miller
Corpus Christi, TX
2 X 72 3.0 CSi
86 Transporter Pickup

> I've been trying to figure out how buying a car on e-bay works.  I can't
> quite get my head around the notion of buying a car, evan a Vanagon,
> sight unseen.  Has anybody done this?  How did you manage getting the
> car inspected?