Buying a truck from ebay?

I am just wondering what you guys think about buying a car/truck sight unseen from ebay. The Tacoma I want is in North Carolina and has been for sale on ebay forever. It's a decent price, but I am very picky about my cars and I don't know if it's a bad idea to bid on the truck and not look at it first. Anyone ever done this? Or know about it?

On a side note, if anyone lives in NC and would go inspect it, I'll throw a couple bucks your way. Thanks.

 

Mines from ebay

 

Purchased my last 3 vehicles from Ebay, still have them all: 07 Mustang GT Vert, 67 Impala 396, 07 Charger SRT8. All were well under Blue book and came in great condition. I always run the Carfax, ask alot of questions and request more pictures. If you have reservations, a cheap flight is better than buyers regret. So far its been good to me.

 

I bought mine from craigslist... not ebay but pretty much the same situation i had never seen the truck, but got plenty of pictures and spoke to the guy a million times on the phone. Everything was legit so i went ahead with the sale, I couldn't be happier i got a killer deal on my Taco and a sweet truck.

 

...Just bought a Mercedes off of ebay a few days ago... Very happy with it so far..

Only things i would recommend is dont go alone (you never know what kinda person it is), thoroughly check out the car/truck, check the carfax history reports. and make its just like its described in the listing.

Being a used truck, just keep in mind that have little things wrong with it that the seller forget to mention.

 

I purchased my 1993 Celica on eBay several years ago. I did not have any issues with it and the car was as described. (Except the cigarette butts still in the ashtray. Haha.) I did not see it until it was shipped to my driveway. Definitely do a Carfax though.

 

Bought mine off CL, but I would only meet at the guys house, we talked for a bit like work, kids, etc. I knew where he worked, etc. Made me feel more comfortable to build a cursory relationship. Then the truck was inspected and a carfax. I didn't catch him in a lie, been a great truck so far!

What's the ebay link, where in NC?

 

So, several years ago I bought my daughter a car on eBay. The deal went great. Got an excellent car/price. That said here are a few tips if you haven't ever done this before.

• Check the seller ratings. If he/she has low or recent negative ratings it is something to watch for.
• If your serious about purchasing a particular vehicle either from a private party or even dealer, you may wish to contact them and discuss having a third party inspection. I did this and it helped me in my decision. There are many accredited places, use one. In doing this I offered to pay half for the inspection and report. That's always negotiable. If they don't wish to do this then you again may want to chose going somewhere else.
• You may also wish to negotiate the down payment to hold the vehicle at the end of the auction. They may or may not do this.
• I contacted the other party at the end of my auction and sent them my plane reservations within about 24 hours of the winning bid.
• Get a round trip ticket. Again, if the vehicle is not as described you can get out of the auction in many cases. Read the fine print. At least with a round trip ticket you can feel better about getting back on a plane. I purchased my vehicle in Minnesota and drove it back to Washington State. But I had the round trip ticket just in case.
• If you know someone close, consider contacting and asking them to look for you.
• Lastly, unless you like bidding wars -- DON'T-- keep bidding. Wait till the end of the auction and put a price in you really think will win the auction. This prevents all the speculators from bidding up the price. If you get beat out because you didn't bid high enough- oh well- lesson learned. Or if you are doing your bid say in the last 5 minutes you will have another chance to make another bid -- if you really must have the vehicle.

In the end. Good luck. Good bidding. Ken

 

where bout's in NC

I have bought 2 honda civics a toyota camry and a buick lesabre on all ebay. I have bid on many others that I didn't win.Watch out for flood vehicles. My experiences have all been positive. There should be a carfax you can run on the vin# that will tell the history. You should also be able to call the person on the phone and ask questions. You should have cash to make the purchase because the banks usually don't give loans for an out of state title. Usually a good idea to ask for a particular photo shot so then you know the person actually selling is the owner and has posession. If you do win the bid there is usually a 500.00 deposit required with the rest due at pick up. I always figured the most I would be out is the 500 hundred.

 

very good advice about the bidding.Be prepared how much you wanna go then just lie in wait for the last minute and put in your bid. Bidding wars only benefit the seller.

 

You should be fine purchasing off of eBay. But you must be cautious and I would recommend paying with PayPal. My brother had a very negative experience once. He purchased a 4WD 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe with low miles for under 20k. He got what seemed to be a screaming deal as it had been advertised as a recovered stolen vehicle.

Long story short: He is USN and stationed in San Diego. The vehicle originated out of Florida and transport was arranged to Arizona. My brother had the vehicle inspected at MVD and titled/registered here in Arizona. This Tahoe looked cherry and needed minor repair to the 4WD system. My brother invested in wheels and tires. About 6-months after owning it San Diego PD shows up at his home.

Turns out the Tahoe was a stolen vehicle out of Miami, FL and the LoJack was still operable and transmitting. The known VIN plates were professionally replaced/altered. The true VIN was located in a hidden part of the frame. I couldn't believe the MVD inspector missed detecting it as a stolen vehicle.

Ultimately my brother got all the purchase price money back through PayPal. He was out the money spent for the repairs to the 4WD and wheels/tires, roughly $2k.

 

Wow, thanks for all the info., I appreciate it. If I do fly up before bidding/buying, I would most likely still have it shipped back, it's almost 2000 miles away and I prefer not to drive. I didn't realize they would do a third partyt inspection, I like that idea a lot. It is at a dealer, not I private party, I'm not sure if that makes a difference. Thanks for the information everyone. Here's the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyo...8945104QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks#ht_37691wt_958
I emailed them to find out what the reserve is, but they haven't got back to me yet. I'm sure it's near the 20k mark, but if it's 17 or so....I'll bid today.

 

That sounds like something out of a movie, crazy. And I'm thinking/hoping that's a rare case.

 

that looks like a hella nice truck.

 

Most ebay reserves I watched when I was shopping was only a couple of hundred under the buy it now price.

 

Did you try Craigslist? Got mine there and as I said above, if you're careful, you can get a decent deal. All near you?

Did you see this: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/1947909908.html

Or this http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/1950297151.html although I think the one in the front should be a two, done on purpose?

Or this: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/1950212327.html

This? http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/1947617139.html

One more: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/cto/1940747876.html

 

The first craigslist link is my friend Alexs truck,he lives in Granada hills,not far from Burbank,his truck has like 57k miles and I'm sure he will take 15k for it,it's clean and already has a few mods on it

 

They may go down in price but being 2000.00 miles away it'll probably cost 800 to a grand to have it shipped. You can just about get you a brand new automatic 4 cylinder for that price with zero miles. Also I would say if you are paitent another truck you like will show up on ebay closer to your home.

 

is there a link to the vehicle? Maybe someone on here can check it out for you. With shipping and all hat fun stuff, is the vehicle still a good deal?

 

He has a nice truck. I saw it near last, but linked it first because it looked pretty good. Seems like you're giving it a positive reference. I'd be going after that locally before going to the bestcoast for something else.