Buying a car from Ebay, am I stupid? Options

[thomasotten]

Going against my gut instincts, I am actually considering buying a car off of Ebay. Particularly, I am looking at Audi Avants - they are not that common in the local paper. Is this a bad idea? Has anyone ever bought a car, say between 12k-20k over ebay, and having it shipped?

It's funny, I would feel more confident buying a teener than a modern car.

Any advice? Are there any safeguards that help one not to get screwed? Don't do it? Am I (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/screwy.gif) ?

[kart54]

I've bought four items recently off of ebay.
One was a G prod 914 race car. It was a great buy and is still the best deal I've heard of on a 914. It's what caused me to join this group. I bought it from a seller who knew nothing about the car. I received more in spare parts than I paid for the car.
The other three items were all returned, with a lot of work, to the seller because they were junk. In all three cases, when I looked at the comments regarding the seller after the fact I found that the items had been purchased a short time earlier by the sellers and the description of the items in those sales basically pointed out that they were junk. In all three cases the sellers were power sellers who claimed in their ads that these items were items of theirs they were already personally using (BS).
I refused to pay for the 914 until I saw it. I drove up to Hayward, CA with a trailer and cash. I would never buy a car sight unseen. Ask yourself if you would buy an item from a classified ad in the newspaper without seeing it. If not, then why would you buy it on ebay that way?
ebay is just another medium but remember, if something does go wrong, lawsuits are much more difficult and expensive across state lines or even in different counties within the same state. How do I know that? I'm a lawyer and a lemon law arbitrator and mediator.
You are always better off buying from a reputable dealer or somebody close to home when possible. There is a reason why every state has a lemon law of some kind. But, that lemon law does not apply to used vehicles or cars purchased in other states for the most part.
I still read and follow the race ads on ebay and I'm starting to see the same cars over and over again. Really makes you think. Why is it the same cars keep showing up time amd time again? I doubt it's because they are truly wonderful..
Randy
Kart54
G prod porsche 914
2 Jensen healeys (the red sleds)