Car selling - ebay?

On Sunday 26 January 2014 17:48 SteveH wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance:

Most people *I* know would assume a car on ebay would be dodgy.

That's the problem with anecdotal stats! ;->

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study...

It's just a shop window - nothing to lose really. Sellers have no recourse to leave -ve feedback if you turn up and it's a shed[1] and then walk. They're not going to want paying via PayPal anyway so they can't take the money and run.

I "won" a four year old ex-fleet S-Type via ebay auction from a trader 6 or 7 years ago now (BuyItNow hadn't been invented then!) and the process was turn up, be shown it and if I didn't like it, I was under no obligation to buy it. Bought it happily even though I was narked after finding a fault in the HVAC half way home - but could have been the same if I'd bought it through Autotrader etc.

1985 here;) BT system 4 that was, aerial around 4 foot long, control console around foot long six inches high box in the boot around 18x12x4 inches quite a palaver..

Petrol.

I'm not so sure, seeing Trader ads for saloon versions at £500, maybe they are not in good condition, but they look OK in the pics.

Which was the view on a similar query on another forum yesterday

- the opinion was that £400 - 700 cars sell easily, and they generally go for more than expected on ebay. On a fixed price Autotrader ad, the buyer tries to knock the price down, on ebay, there is always someone (hopefully), that will pay £20+ more,

Thanks for all the replies, it'll be MOT'd next week, probably taxed too, just so that I can use it, then put on ebay in Mid-Feb.

From what little I know of Ebay car selling, many appear to sell then are re-listed. Suggesting a lot of people bid on them - then fail to complete. (This applies to a one make classic car I follow on Ebay) Relisted due to timewaster seems to be a common phrase.

Sadly, 'relisted due to inaccurate description' is usually more truthful!

Oh indeed. One side seems to deserve the other. ;-)

It's all really quite different from most of Ebay - or rather for the sort of things I buy (and sell) on it.

Although I did once have a chancer when I sold some Matchbox models for a friend. Car, of course.