Date:         Tue, 9 Mar 2004 08:45:56 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: E-bay protest (Do not buy from vanagon killers)
In-Reply-To:  <404DBB95.4080008@fyi.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

>  He clearly said to me,  "Vanagons are worth a ton
>  more in parts than they will ever be worth in running
>  condition.

This is true of virtually any make or model of car. The parts are worth
far more if sold individually than the whole vehicle is. Of course this
does not take into account the fairly significant labor involved in
stripping the car and selling/shipping it piece by piece.

>  E-bay has done the Vanagon world a great injustice.

Yes and no, in my opinion. Ebay provides a national (even international)
market for parts that might otherwise simply be destroyed. Many
junkyards send a Bus or Vanagon right to the crusher as soon as it comes
in; it's too old, and local demand too limited, for them to waste their
time trying to part it out to local walk-ins. Ebay and other national
mediums (including web-based used parts vendors) make these vehicles
viable candidates for parting out. For every parted-out Vanagon on Ebay
that might have been restorable, I'll bet there's another that would
have been crushed, along with all of its parts, had it not been for
Ebay.

Of course, increased demand raises prices, so for the buyer who happens
to be local, it's not a good thing if the seller is using Ebay to
increase his market to a national level.  Thanks to this increased
demand, prices can be laughably high on Ebay. It never ceases to amaze
me how many people overpay on Ebay - that "auction frenzy."  Often VW
parts sell on Ebay for MORE than I sell them for every day. In fact in
some cases people pay more for a USED part than I charge for a NEW one!
(My favorite story, although not Vanagon related, is that I once put a
CD burner on Ebay and said right in the description that it sold for
$100 new. Would you believe it bid up to $120!)  And descriptions are
often misleading or just plain wrong - things like calling a new
aftermarket part (or even a used one), "N.O.S." (new old stock),
resulting in a perceived rarity (and a high bid price), when in fact
that part is still readily available new at a reasonable cost.  While
there are bargains to be had on Ebay, there are also plenty of rip-offs.
It's definitely a case of caveat emptor.  I for one would never buy
anything off of Ebay without comparing prices elsewhere first, no matter
how good it looked at first glance.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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