Lancia Beta Forum

I know we moan about Ebay a lot from a  buyers perspective, but being in a sellers position for once, its no better there!

I am trying to move on one of my Volvo road burners, for little money. But what is it with people who bombard you with offers( all below reserve), invariably unpunctuated (old fart moan I know), who ask for a phone number and then don't phone, who are coming to view tomorrow......... the list goes on. All this and no bids- I do wonder sometimes. Its is just me?Certainly the concept of 'auction' seems lost on some people.

I have tried to write an honest and detailed ad- but then its 'what size engine is it?' Is it an auto? , is it an ex-police car? - will the engine fit xxx car/gearbox? . Also, and I must be really dumb here but here goes- there is 'how many keys are there? Is that something to do with spotting stolen /repossessed cars?

Lol. I just had pretty much the same rant o the 406 forum about eBay idiots. I feel your pain. Although I did eventually get a sensible buyer.

I particularly 'liked' the buyer who when given a second chance offer said he'd now read the advert and needed a reliable car and anyway 'he wouldn't pay more than £800 for that car'. The car was listed with head gasket failure and he'd bid £1500. Stupid boy....

It has been a while since ai sold a car on EBay, but I just used the classified section and only had the odd person get in touch, but they bought it. The auction route for cars appears to attract a large amount of time wasters and I for one do not have time for them.

Peter

There are too many hobby bidders on eBay so I prefer the classified route, however there is MASSIVE listing fraud on eBay now so I don't think it's a trusted place to advertise cars any more.

I was just thinking about how I regretted selling my Father in Law's Leica on ebay.

Clearly noted that there was a dent in the casing, sold for a reasonable price then the idiot who bought it demanded £250 back because of the dent. I said no, but offered him a full refund on return, which of course he didn't take up. He did leave ranting negative feedback however, what can you do!

Six years later my son wanted a wet film camera. It would have been ideal.

"but here goes- there is 'how many keys are there? Is that something to do with spotting stolen /repossessed cars? "

This is quite a simple basic 1st check of which I ask (usually a matter of course ) all the time.
Why ?
Usually 9 times out of 10 cars supplied with one key are more often than not cat listed (V car)
Cat C & S are on the log book,Cat D and N are not,and whilst a vehicle check will highlight that,such a check will cost to find out.
If I ask the question on the key front and told only one key with some general excuse along the lines "Lost the spare in house move along with the service history" ~ I run for the hills
In addition with modern cars the cost of coded replacement keys either of the remote or non remote variety are still not cheap,which is an added cost.
With all car ads its not so much what's in the listing ,but what,s not.

I knew someone on here would be able to educate me!

I was on the right lines at least.

Re “how many keys”.......I must admit to always asking that question - particularly if the car is an older Fiat (Coupé) or Alfa (GTV, Spider 147 etc etc) as it is desirable to have the master brown key, in addition to the main and service ones.