Randman

Need a link..pm me with it..

Josh

I bought my last car off of ebay. The sellers (sold cars that were lease returns) were located in San Antonio, the car was liscensed in CA, but the car was located in Seattle. Everything was legit though. They even gave me money back for some features that were listed that were not actually part of the car. Car was also at fair market value. Just saying that some odd situations could still be legitimate.

Steve30v

I recently bought my bike off of E-bay...sight unseen. It ended-up being a great deal.

Once I won the bid, I did not pay any deposit or purchase money, but instead told the seller I'd pick-up the bike in a few days and pay cash at that time. That bought me some time to run the VIN through DMV, get insurance and get the purchase money.

When I went to the seller's house to pick up the bike I did thorough inspection. I found several items that were not adequately described in the auction (e.g. worn tires, wiring issues, fork leak, brakes). After discussing these with the seller I made a lower counter-offer that was accepted.

The downside to this system is that there is traveling involved. For me, it was 75 minute trip, so it was no big deal.

The upside is that if the deal is square you get what you bargained for. If the deal isn't so square, you know where the seller lives, you meet the seller, and you get a chance to quash the deal if the vehicle is not what was advertised.

The worse thing that can happen is that you get a "negative" feedback from the seller, but my response would be that the vehicle wasn't "as described."

I hope this helps.

bluevtr

Hmmm. Where is the boat located? It's not a jet-ski is it? There is a fraud alert on E-bay for jet-ski's advertised as free shipping.

I've sold both a motorcycle and a Jeep on e-bay and everything went fine, but I'd be very skeptical on the shipping. Depending on the size of boat and location, it could easily cost more to ship than to purchase.

If everything else is good, DO NOT pay anything until you receive the boat. Use an escrow account for the security of both buyer and seller.

RickB

maybe get the VIN or Hull ID number I believe for boats and run it through the DMV or some other source like the police dept to make sure its not stolen. A friend won a car on ebay and when he went to get it it was far worse than described and pictured and he refused to buy it.

Randman

See PM...

captainchaos

I bought my current superhawk off ebay. Against all my better judgment yes I bought it sight unseen. I did make an agreement over the phone though to meet halfway (about a two hour drive) and pay cash. He said it was perfect, which left no room for interpretation. I told him if it was anything but he'd turn right back around and take it back home and he agreed. Turned out to be a sweet bike BUT I still wouldn't really recommend buying things without getting to see them first. There are certain times where I'd feel okay depending on the seller. Usually if you talk to someone over the phone you can tell if they're full of **** or not. Make sure that you don't get stuck with your credit card company. Are you paying thru ebay with the credit card or are you paying the merchant directly? If it's thru ebay (meaning it shows up on your bill as "ebay") you'll get screwed because they'll tell you your dispute is with ebay. If you're paying the seller directly (shows up on your bill as "billy bobs used boats") you have a better chance of disputing it if something goes wrong. I'm pretty paranoid about my perfect feedback on ebay too but if it's not to your liking and you tell him to **** off who cares about the feedback...If you say you're getting three days to inspect it I'm assuming that means upon delivery they'll take it back if you're not satisfied before you pay for it?

Randman

Damn dude, did you pull the trigger, the listing is gone now...hmmm?
New toy? hmmmm?

Cleveland