Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Lo all, my most recent hate re Flea bay sellers of Pork is as follows :

A car appears as an auction with no reserve. Always worth a look and a good way of encouraging interest.
The seller either can't be bothered to list the service history or knows he is lying so puts the usual ' folder full of receipts ' . This normally of course means ' I bought the car with a good history 5 years ago but havnt spent a penny on it since i got it '

Anyway , you send them some serious and proper 944 questions re the car and are told
' why dont you just come and view it ' .

Here's the real complaint , the reason is bloomin simple m8ee , your car is 200 to 300 miles away and I'll get there do a viewing and find the ' wallet full of receipts ' are so old that they would sit well on the shelves of a museum
AND if the car doesnt make your reserve
( that you didnt put on to save fees) what do you do ?? close the auction before it ends cancelling all bids even though you havnt sold the car. E-Bay don't give a candy floss because they are making a fortune. Do these peopel know what auction to the highest bidder means ?

There you go , I feel much better now

Mas

Here, here. Well said. I think that if I was going to buy another 944, it would be from someone in the club. I would have bought your turbo if I'd had the money. I didn't have the money at the time, so didn't waste your time. People who bid and say I'll have the money @ the end of the month????? Why did you bid???? I think eBay is becoming a joke for selling cars. The amount of cars re-listed due to timewasters is ever increasing.

There, I feel better too.

I guess I’ve been lucky. I bought my first two 944s through Ebay and had no problems at all.

The third one came from Pistonheads though and worked out even better …

yes its a pain in the proverbial but if sellers cannot be bothered to post decent pictures and a reasonable description of the car then i know that means they are lazy and careless and thats the way they will have treated their car too so i avoid those.

I've bought a 928 and 2x S2's on ebay and sold 1x S2 and a classic BSA without problem but then i know enough about cars to know what I'm buying fortunately.

Mas your points are well made, but in sniffing out typical dodgy ebay descriptions, you underline the fact that with experience it's very easy to spot the more honest and straight cars based on the information the seller provides (or yields on questioning).

As for closing auctions which don't make unstated reserves, this is not possible within 24 hours of an auction scheduled ending so anyone choosing this tactic (I agree it's disreputable) ignores the fact that most seasoned buyers will bid at the last moment.

eBay isn't perfect - for selling cars or other items - but if you go in with your eyes open you can still pick up some great bargains and make some useful cash on unwanted stuff. If eBay didn't exist I would miss it hugely. Not sure whether I'd be poorer as I'm too often tempted to buy stuff on there which I just wouldn't find anywhere else!

I know plenty of people who have travelled a long way to view a car and been disappointed that it was falsely described. This applies whether the seller is advertising the car on eBay or any other channel.

I have purchased two 944 turbos off of e bay and numerous non Porsche.

I too have bought, in the main great cars for the money. It's just the people who abuse the process of an auction that really miff me off , not so much the cars you get

Regards

Mas

Yes I must admit that all the hassle I've had on E Bay have been with motors, most have worked but I have been mucked around in the past.
A few have been scary, once I sold a Lancia HPE & the guy towed it from Kent to Sunderland on an A Frame behind a Citroen BX! The Lancia was lovely just needed a head gasket, but I was told I had too many toys so it had to go!

You have to be careful at times especially when buying on Ebay. Im not say all cars are bad on there, but majority of cars that dont sell on normal Ads, the last resort is to go on Ebay. This can test the water on a bidding war slowly but surely something is worth a price. But also theres a lot of scammers out there using this, because Ive found when buyng something, there was a bidding war again him and his pal

What really ticks me off is when someone puts on the Ad 'mint' or great condition, then when you get there it isn't all that! This is why you have to ask all the questions as much as possible, then this can save the journey and your time.

Norm

I would never use e-bay , its full of scammers , liars,, and crap

There you go

Mike

Hi

My pet hate on Ebay is the so called "Porsche" breakers....on all models, but particularly 928`s...

They buy an old one and break it for parts, knowing they "should" get more for parts than if they put it back on the road....

What they either forget or do not know is that there were only 4000 odd ever sold in the UK and that makes a limited market for those old second hand parts and eventually there will be none left to break....

Also their prices which are always "Reserved" are ridiculous...recently I saw a 928 Fuse board for £150 with most of the relays missing....it was in reality worth around £20 as an emergency spare...I mean how many people NEED a fuse board with no relays lol....we don`t get that many electrical fires that just take out the board lol...

Pointless and sad as well....

All the best Brett

so is the rest of the world Mike