Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
ONLINE AUCTIONS: Would You (Have You)?
Mr_Shiftright
Member Posts: 64,481
in General
I'd like to know how many of you would actually
buy a classic car in an online auction, or if you
have actually done so.
Please let me know your concerns or experiences
with this!
Host
buy a classic car in an online auction, or if you
have actually done so.
Please let me know your concerns or experiences
with this!
Host
Tagged:
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Of course, I've seen nice cars, too, but I can't say I ever saw a car that was BETTER than the ad!
Dumb, I guess, but I had one at a young age and maintain a mis guided soft spot for them.
If you've ever owned one or driven a nice one, you might understand.
I called the guy, and was impressed both by him and his graphic discription of the car.
Since he was 100 miles away, I asked a lot of intense questions that he was happy to answer.
Well, I guess the condition of the car to be a seven on a scale of ten. I went to the bank, got green cash, and headed north.
The car turned out to be a TOTAL P.O.S.!!!
In fact, when I pulled up to his house, I saw the thing and figured that this was a parts car for the one advertised!
It was all I could do to bite my tongue and remain polite...
But here is the real problem...He HONESTLY thought it was a nice car! The "minor surface rust" was so bad the car was probably unrepairable. The interior that had been redone "As close to original as possible" looked like garbage! The engine was incorrect for the car, and the "new wiring harness" looked like it had been installed by The Three Stooges!
I left slowly shaking my head..." Make an offer" He yelled at me as I drove away!
Still, I was nice to him as he truly thought he had "almost" a show car!
I like 544s A LOT! Great car, tough as nails and really fun to drive, too. Semi-collectible these days, you can usually find a beauty for $4k-$5K.
When we are talking about a major purchase however it is a different ballgame. Would I buy a car online - no, but I would (and do) use the internet as a valuable resource to reduce costs of research.
If I want to view a car in California then I don't really want to fly from Ontario on the off chance that it might be worth it, what I can do is get lots and lots of photographs, etc before I ever think about viewing in person. This really is the only option unless there is someone who you know to be reputable who can view the car for you.
I also love the word "restored". That word has a lot of different meanings to diffeent people!
Another thing.... I never found public auctions to be a very good deal. People start bidding and bidding and often pay over retail for just about everything. I'm not so sure there are that many "good deals" online when it comes to cars at least. You remember our discussion in Sportscars about the guy who offered a 1993 I think it was Mazda RX7 with very low miles. Well, somebody bid it up to $25,000, which shocked me, and THEN HE TURNED IT DOWN! I almost fell off my chair.
It's hard for the average amateur to keep track of numbers and connect them with other key numbers, like their gross annual salary for example.
I look at so many ads, but I don't really grasp anything till I make a chart, to compare apples and apples. Every time I do it, I find some things that surprise me.
And yet when I finally make a purchase (or a sale), what do you wanna bet it'll be an impulse; not something I've studied?
I should have majored in psych and minored in business, or the other way around.
With cars it isn't so easy though, so I always make sure wife has the credit cards !!!
I don't like to rush a car purchase. You have to remember the old saying "every car at auction has been abandoned by its owner".
Thse people might even be bidding on their own cars!
The BEST thing that can happen (for the seller) is when a couple of egos get involved!
The bidders aren't about to lose the car and give the other bidder the satisfaction of the win!
Lots of cars sell for more than their worth that way!
I have bought a couple of cars at auction (bank repos)where you get to see the cars, and got good deals on both cars, one which turned out to be a great car (an XR4TI--kept it 4 years-a record for me) and one (an XJ6) which was a lemon. I was able to look at both cars in the flesh and start them, though a drive was not allowed. I bid low on both cars (thousands below low book), factoring in the "risk factor" of buying a car at auction without being able to do a detailed mechanical inspection. Overall, I came out OK with my auction experiences, though I do not know if the same would be true with an online auction. Unless you were able to get a car for a total bargain, and inspect it or have it inspected, it may not be worth it.
Here's a related story about looking before you buy. I saw a Triumph Stag (yes,I am a glutton for punishment but I really like these cars) for sale at a collector car dealer in San Diego. Found it on their web site--lots of nice pictures of it. It looked to be in great shape, had low miles. Called the dealer. He said the car was owned by a local Navy officer, and that it was in perfect shape and had documentation of the low miles. Sounds good so far. Paid for them to video the car and it looked and sounded fantastic in the tape. The price was fair so I thought that this might be the one. Paid to have a local shop do a pre-purchase inspection (they recommended the shop). The report came back good and the mechanic said it was in great shape, it had good compression and in great mechanical shape, yet he was a little evasive on some questions I asked about it which I found odd. I decided to go look at the car myself, though the dealer was trying to get me to buy it and he would ship it to me.
Boy, that would have been a mistake! I knew within a minute of seeing the car in person that it was a piece of junk. The paint was shiny, but pretty thick and sloppy and not the original color either--could not tell this from the video. The door gaps were poor, there was rust in the rockers that they conveniently did not show in the video, and my magnet indicated that there was likely more bondo in the body now than metal! The car was owned by a Navy officer (he showed me papers), but the guy was stationed on the East Coast until a recent move to San Diego. They misrepresented the car. What a disappointment, and I drove quite a ways to get there to see the car. Needless to say, the dealer is scum and I walked out of his showroom.
Sorry for the long story, but thought it would illustrate what you are up against in dealing with internet car dealers, let alone an online auction!
http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/show/2797
Auctions can bring good prices but really these days people who attend classic car auctions are pretty savvy and won't overpay; however your car looks nice and seems worth the money. It has good options such an o/d and a/c and the color, while not great, is pretty neutral to a buyer, so that shouldn't hurt too much.
Sure, I'd give Ebay a try, especially if you have plenty of photos and info, which it seems you do.
Mitch Silver is a great guy and if you call him, he will give you good advise. I don't have the number but they are listed.
And, he doesn't charge as much as the big guys do.
Your Merc looks good. Enjoyed the photos!
Since my very first car was a '52 Chevy (35.00 in 1965) I've always had a soft spot for old Chevys.
And, I've been on a causal lookout for a 49-54.
Well, right here in my hometown, there is one advertised... A "black beauty" 1950 Chevy!
Only 2500.00!
The nice lady did her best to accurately describe it to me and, excited, I headed over to see it!
She wasn't home when I got there but the Chevy was!
From 50 feet away, it looked pretty good...but alas...It was a TOTAL P.O.S.!
It was badly rusted, had an incorrect engine, a Rube Goldberg 12 volt conversion...the interior stank of mildew...Even as an organ donor, there wasn't much left.
Oh, I know...it's 50 years old!
Guess I'll keep looking...anybody wanna trade one for a BMW?
And, the lady REALLY thinks it's in nice shape and would have described it that way.
That's why I would neve buy a car sight unseen unless I had a pro like yourself who lived locally inspect it for me. that would be money very well spent!
At any rate, you have to make sure the inspector is IMPARTIAL, not someone sitting in the seller's back pocket.
Or...they might buy it out from under you!
You can learn a lot from club members (I do) but I myself never rely on their word regarding value or potential collectibility, etc. It's often distorted info, as befits human nature.
Probably better than nothing anyway?
At the present time, I'm considering selling my 1977 Trans Am. I'm trying to figure out what a fair price is, but wherever I look, the prices are all over the map.
You get the people that are mentioned in postings above, who feel that their car is a real "beauty", and want top dollar for something that's really rough. On the other hand, you get cars that people inherit, lose interest in, where money isn't the issue, and just want a few bucks to unload themselves of it.
If you have a car that's decent, what can you do? I've spoken to a few people in my town, and they swear by the Internet auctions. I'm just afraid that somehow I'd be the 1 out of 10,000 who ran into some sort of money glitch, and wound up losing my car to a dishonest buyer.
On the other hand, if I advertise it locally, I run the risk of wasting a lot of time with a bunch of "tire kickers" and "test drivers", who might actually damage the car. I don't see it as being easy on either side of the coin.
If you live in a rust-free area, or the car is from that kind of area, you'll draw from a national market, generally of higher caliber than the local gearheads and dreamers.
You might also think about advertising in a club publication, but the ones I used usually required that you join the club first. I never had any luck with them but it's worth a try, especially if you already belong to the club.
ONLINE AUCTIONS---oh, I think the risk for the SELLER is much less than for the BUYER.
I'm the original owner, and although I live in the "rust belt", the car has never been driven in the winter. It has 44,000 miles on the clock, and the interior and mechanicals are excellent. Over the years, I've added some aftermarket parts to the car but I've kept all of the OE parts.
Keeping in mind that the car will be 25 years old in October, and the paint is original, it still looks pretty good. In all honesty, there is a little surface rust in a couple of spots, but overall the body is solid.
Once again, thanks for your help, and I'm anxiously awaiting your reply.