buying classics unseen from ebay........
Discussion
a customer of mine has just bought this 'peach' of a mini unseen from ebay.
he bought it, collected it and it was only when he got it home (in mainland europe) and had a 'proper' look at it that he discovered the true horror of what he bought!
the car was 'fully restored' and had, the seller claimed, a lot of new parts and money spent.
it had a new shiney coat of paint and in the photo of the complete car looks very presentable
check out the home made brake pipe! (this should be a one piece copper pipe with a tube nut at each end!)
same pipe attached to the stub of the original copper pipe.....
one of the lumps of filler (26kg in all) that was easily removed from the car.....
as if the above isnt bad enough, the car was also a cat c, with a VIC test required (none of this was mentioned on the ebay advert) so he would have to bring the car back to the UK, mot it, get a VIC test to be able to get it correctly registered and exported.
he has just broken the whole car for spares - an expensive lesson learned.
the previous owner? - not bothered
ebay? - not bothered
the new owner? - accepts that he should have had a better look at the car when he collected it, but as he had driven over to collect it, and had already paid for it was already on the back foot.
he bought it, collected it and it was only when he got it home (in mainland europe) and had a 'proper' look at it that he discovered the true horror of what he bought!
the car was 'fully restored' and had, the seller claimed, a lot of new parts and money spent.
it had a new shiney coat of paint and in the photo of the complete car looks very presentable
check out the home made brake pipe! (this should be a one piece copper pipe with a tube nut at each end!)
same pipe attached to the stub of the original copper pipe.....
one of the lumps of filler (26kg in all) that was easily removed from the car.....
as if the above isnt bad enough, the car was also a cat c, with a VIC test required (none of this was mentioned on the ebay advert) so he would have to bring the car back to the UK, mot it, get a VIC test to be able to get it correctly registered and exported.
he has just broken the whole car for spares - an expensive lesson learned.
the previous owner? - not bothered
ebay? - not bothered
the new owner? - accepts that he should have had a better look at the car when he collected it, but as he had driven over to collect it, and had already paid for it was already on the back foot.
It would have been cheaper to buy a piece of metal than the amount of filler to produce THAT!
Some people must go to such extreme lengths to 'cover up' rather than fix... It said that the car had been recently re-sprayed too!? Why the hell would you waste that money on a huge filler infested big of s
t?
Some you win, some you lose I guess with the ebay and distance buying thing.
Some people must go to such extreme lengths to 'cover up' rather than fix... It said that the car had been recently re-sprayed too!? Why the hell would you waste that money on a huge filler infested big of s
t? Some you win, some you lose I guess with the ebay and distance buying thing.
I think that brake pipe is the most shocking and frightening thing I've seen in a long time, I simply cant understand why anyone would even contemplate to do such a thing. As for the filler/crisp bag/cardboard that takes me back to the 70's. Completely and utterly gobsmacked at the audacity of some people and the lengths they will go to for a fast buck at the expense and safety of others.
I buy lots of stuff off eBay, what I consider to be 'safe' items and have never had a bad experience, but would never, ever, buy a vehicle of any type unseen.
I buy lots of stuff off eBay, what I consider to be 'safe' items and have never had a bad experience, but would never, ever, buy a vehicle of any type unseen.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff