bamavettes

I have heard so much talk about ebay for so long about how good it is. I registered up a couple months ago. Started monitoring Corvettes for sale. I thought I might find a good steel bumper Vette for sale.

I have placed a few bids. There is usually over 325 Vettes for sale on any given day but have not seen a single vette go for a good price. They were all bid much more than they were worth or did not sell because reserve was not met. Basically, all I have done is just waste alot of time, and have not even seen one good buy.

Personally I have been disappointed.

What is your experience.

vcole@metrocast.net

I use E-bay fairly frequently myself. I sell a lot of things on there and once in a great while buy something. You are correct things don't often go for a good price especially something with a big market like vettes and Harley. But I have made some good money selling on E-bay. It is definately a sellers market. I don't know what your looking for but if your looking for deals you should scour the news paper classifieds that you can find online. I recently picked up a 69 427 4spd coupe in a paper in Indiana for 7000. It needs work but I think I got a good deal. I spent three weeks brousing the papers I knew about, I tried to look once a day or so through them and there were at least 4 or 5 that I missed. The only reason I say you have to look religiously is that others are doing the same especially the big Corvette dealers and they will buy the cars on the spot. The trick is to be the first caller.

good luck

VC
:cheers:

1Bad69

i have used ebay to buy a lot of hockey cards and trading cards...i dont think the price of a vette will be that much better than other methods of finding one..seems like they all have reserves on them..benifits the seller more i think..a few people get into a bidding war and the seller gets a lot more than it is worth..i have done that with cards..payed more than i wanted to just because i said no way are you getting this card..rebid...rebid..rebid......


[Modified by 1bad69, 9:09 PM 12/27/2001]

bamavettes

VC,
Good tip.

EDT,
I planned if I was ever the high bidder on a Corvette. I would not send any money to the seller. I would get in my truck with car trailer in tow and cash money in my pocket. Would arrive in two days after auction closed. If Vette was as advertised, I would have loaded on trailer in 5 minutes and back on the road to Alabama.

If Vette was misrepresented. I would say sorry. Its a no deal.

Woody

FERL 73

I'm no expert by any definition of the term, but you have to be very cautious of any ebay purchase. I would never buy anything from ebay that I couldn't write off as a lesson learned if the seller bones me. Any time I see the "Buy it now" banner, I refuse to even look at the item any further. It is an indication that the minimum acceptable bid is more than the item is worth. For Corvettes and auto related items, ebay is no longer an auction where the seller accepts the highest bid, it is a marketplace in search of an idiot willing to pay more than something is worth.

bamavettes

FERL 73

I could not have said it any better.

Warp70

We all have our opinions, and I have to agree with most on this thread. I have been a very active ebayer for the past 3 years. I have bought and sold, and I think that ebay is the greatest thing since the Web came into existence. I know many will disagree, but for my purposes, Ebay will allow me to retire early, even though that time is a long way off. I have purchased a few Auto related items, but I would never think about purchasing a car off of there unless it was within driving distance and I had a chance to inspect the car. If your patient, the right car at a price you can live with will come along eventually. Good Luck!!!!

Binnie77

My Vette is an ebay Vette. I bought it from the original owner. I wanted a southern California Vette. Since I was 4000 miles away I had the car professionally appraised before I agreed to purchase the car. I agree that ebay is a sellers market. I have sold thousands of dollars of merchandise on ebay. I have made some great friends off of ebay as well.

Nomad78SA

A guy I work with bought a car off of E-bay. As he was bidding on it I often wondered how it would come out. It was or is a 1967 Camaro with electric convertible top and it is super. It is a number matching car and perfect in every aspect. Yea, I was amazed and everytime I see it all I can say is beautiful. He gave $15,000 for it and is very happy. He was upset because it did not have the spare tire in it and the guy sent him $200 to buy one. Every code is right on this car and he is proud of what he has. Seeing is believing, this time E-bay worked out..for him anyway.
Neil in Tenn

bamavettes

Warp 70,
I want to retire early. I have a special place picked out. Big Pine Key, mile marker 27. Please give me your early retirement tip. You can send personal email. I will keep it down home cuz.

Binnie,
Looks like you have a '77. Hope you got a good deal and are happy.

71coupe

Ebay is the best place to sell stuff online, rather than a garage sale.
Last year I sold an old set of Halibrand mag wheels for 2100.00. The winning bidder was from Japan. The auction stagnated around $1100 for the entire week. during the last 5 minutes it shot up $1000! :D
The trick to selling is to open it low with no reserve and have good photos. Don't even bother listing if you have no pics. You also need to consider what time it will be when the auction closes. You don't want it to close at 4am or when everyone is watching Friends.
As far as buying, make a bid on the item, then contact the seller and give him a fair offer and ask to end the auction early. Some of the sellers including myself will accept a fair offer and end the auction.

lbell101

I'm in 100% agreement with 71Coupe.
In 1999 I made more on eBay than my real job - and it aint a bad job.
Things don't seem to be selling as well in the past year as they used to but it's still a much better place to sell than any other venue without overhead.
I've also purchased quite a bit on eBay including my Cadillac. I have been burned a couple of times but for the most part the sellers are honest. I follow the feedback when bidding. Some think the feedback program is a crock and they are entitled to their opinion but they are wrong. If someone has 1000 positives with 2 or less negs then they are pretty damned honest!
If eBay hadn't come along I'd still be wallowing in debt!

Blkblt

I have been buying and selling various items on eBay literally since its inception when there were no photos, no bells and whistles; just mainly beany babies, and the item numbers were in the 4 figures, not over a billion as at present. I have had great success both buying and selling. It has opened an entire world to both buyers and sellers for everything but guns and body parts (both of which were legal when it started!).

That said, one has to be very, very careful on big ticket items such as autos, and particularly the best.....Corvettes. A lot of dealers have gotten involved, and many of these bids simply are shilled until the individual or dealer has their "hidden" reserve met. It is illegal, but it is a common practice and just about undetectable unless one takes a great deal of time to research past bidding practices of the names (I have done this). If one wants to buy an item such as a 'vette on eBay, place the best bid you are willing to make and walk away....do not look back or second guess....or you can get caught up and :smash: :smash: big time!!! You might win; more often you will not.

Caveat emptor.......simple. :yesnod:

Happy New Year to all!! :cheers:
***************

***************
Jeff
Ô66. Modified L72
ÒThe Silver BeastÓ
Keep on :cheers: :cheers: :seeya :flag

ScubaJKD

I have used Ebay frequently over the past year. I have bought and sold alot of different stuff from lawn mowers to corvette parts. Ebay is a great way to have a garage sale and get rid of a bunch of crapola as one mans junk is another mans treasure. More buyers looking for exactly what you are selling equals a higher price than you could get from less buyers. Its all about access to markets and free market economy. Personally I am a huge fan of Ebay however I have not seen to many cars that I would consider owning. I prefer to use it as a trash removal service

:lol:

bamavettes

Thanks for the good input.

I guess I will stop looking at Vettes for sale, and clean out my garage of old parts I have been collecting for over 20 yrs. and list them on ebay.

Sure will make the wife happy.

Shark79

I bought my 79 on Ebay. The seller had lots of pictures and his feedback was good. His feedback was what really sealed the deal, and I got the car for a really good price. I just assumed that for what I was willing to pay whatever car I found would need some work. I had a lowball figure for each car that I would not exceed and just kept at it until the right one came along. It is a sellers market but if you keep looking there are bargins to be found.

69Roadster

What a good buy is or what a car is worth is a personal opinion I guess. I think Ebay has some great prices on cars. I know compared to online and local dealers as well as individual ads on traderonline.com and local newspapers Ebays prices are lower... a lot lower in some cases. A case in point a '98 convertible C5 w/ 40K miles just sold for $24900 a day or two ago. I know my local dealers wouldn't be near that price for the same car.

noskillz

I found my 69 in Autotrader. Lots of vettes listed and I prefer face-to-face negotiations over Ebay auction. I notice that the trend on Ebay is to wait until the very last second before the auction ends and then jump in with your bid. Auctions shouldn't be so timed based IMHO. They should stay open until all bidded has died down - good for sellers and buyers.

Like you, I also monitor Ebay for vette parts. Unfortunately, most of the parts I am seeing are junk, Ricer ( those $#*$&*# Xenon bulbs listed 1100 times), or cheap repos. Seems like all they list lately is carpet, weatherstripping, and headlights.

As far as the prices ... they do get rediculous at times. I always check vendors prices before making a bid. If the Ebay price gets up to around 75% of retail, I bail out. Would rather go to a trusted vendor at that point.

RedLandRocket

I have had mixed results on eBay.
Couldn't sell my 99 GMC Z71 but I wanted a set of Cobra wheels for my 1998 Mustang. I bid on just about every auction that had Cobra wheels. Most of the time they were going for $700 to $1,200 a set (17X8Fronts and 17X10.5Rears). I would usually bid around $600 and then drop out if the price went over $650. Right before Christmas I was able to get the set I wanted for around $700 including shipping.
I also have bought some C5 parts at good prices.
The secret is to be patient.

Tim H

E-bay is a den of thieves!
A guy I know sells and buys stuff and told me all the tricks on how to screw a buyer, bid up at the last second have your friends up the bid for a few more $$$$$,Buy in one catagory then put it in another with different decription.
I hate auctions when Im ready to buy I not competing for what I want or I really didn't want it in the first place.