I need to vent...E-bay is B.S.

As a certified car nut (with a little too much time on his hands sometimes), I surf eBay looking at what is available, not just Ferraris, but other cars that I have been interested in. A good portion of them are misrepresented (no rust when you can clearly see it in the pics, etc...).

The good cars are out there, they just aren't on ebay. FML asking prices may be out of line with the actual market, but you're dealing with a more serious seller (or a professional flake).

 

Mario: didn't know you sold the car. If you're looking for a car, best bet is to call up all of the dealerships. They often know of cars you can't find otherwise (people who want to sell, etc). A pain, but worth the effort. If you want some help / shortcuts, let me know.

--Dan

 

I think it all depends. I work at a car dealership a few days a week and put cars on ebay for the dealership. We normally have at least 1 car a week on ebay and have had mixed results. Keep in mind we are selling used/new cars that are less then 6 years old and most are still under factory warranty. But, there are guys on ever auction that try and steal the cars for below book value and others are legit guys just trying to know exactly how much they are going to pay for the car and they like not having a salesperson to deal with. I would buy a few year old "daily driver" from ebay besides that though I wouldn't touch a car.
Erik

 

Jeff,

This is the same Steve. He mentioned he raced in that series. SHI! Well knowing that you had already seen it and it was as good as you say makes me more upset on losing a good car.

I still can't believe he put that car on E-bay !!!

I hope this buyer bails out on him... for my sake I still will only buy it if I PPI it.

Thanks again.

 

I find that he put it on ebay funny also, but maybe he is not calling all the shots now, like I said it was perfect but I only saw it at night, he drove his 360 earlier that day, he has got bux though and was talikng about the Sultan of Brunai bumping him from a car and was entertaining buying an Enzo but was unsure with his parkinsons whether or not to buy it, as I said this was last early summer, one thing I did notice was the rear lights were not lighting fully and acted weird when he hit his brakes and the brake lights were not fully lit up either, could have been just bulbs or connections though.

Good luck on it though, hopefully the other guy will fall through.

Jeff

 

I'm sorry-you saw the car on ebay, contacted the owner directly to sell it to you outside of ebay, he sold it to the winner of the auction, and he is sleezy? As someone who has sold a car on ebay, I can say that the experience of selling sucks too, when you have numerous people pressuring you to find out the reserve, end it early for their offer, and then attempting to re-negotiate the price after the inspection (as you would have done post PPI). Can you really blame someone who just wants the car gone for going with the high bidder? I got 7K more for my car on ebay than carmax would pay-certainly worth it for me, and the buyer re-sold it on ebay 4 months later for 5K more (so he did OK too).
There are lots of dogs on ebay, but the occasional great car too-more likely the unusual color or model that might have trouble finding a local buyer.

 

Tony,

with all due respect... I never called this owner or his representative sleazy. Furthermore, I don't bellieve you read my chain of events.

As a refresher:

the car was posted on e-bay 2 days ago and was a 7 day auction.

At approximately 11:00 a.m. there was 5 days left in the auction and the bid was at $60,000.

I contacted the seller (his representative) to ask questions about service, condition, etc.

There was no "Buy it Now" price.

There was a reserve but at $60,000 the reserve had not been hit.

After speaking with the representative I asked if he wanted me to bid solely on the car through e-bay or would he accept an offer. He said I will accept an offer outside of E-bay.

I went back on e-bay and saw that bidding on the car was $75,000 with reserve met.

I bid on the car to become the high bidder consitent with my offer to the seller.

I spoke with the owner this morning who said the car was going to be minie..don't worry about a bid on E-bay.

I check E-bay and see that I was out bid and the AUCTION ENDED ... (Remember there was 5 days left in the auction. The owner had 5 days to make more money.)

Tony, I understand your point but your commets are misguided..you did not read the facts.

 

Mario (and Jeff) - I just started reading this thread, and after the first post started wondering the same thing Jeff subsequently posted. There is no doubt that Steve is who Jeff thinks he is.

Steve does in fact have Parkinson's, and in fact is undergoing some experimental treatments. I've gotten to know him a bit in the last several months, and in fact have seen him three times in the past ten days (once at my house) for club events. From everything I have seen, I would vouch for his honesty. I don't know anything about his friend in SFO.

The only thing that surprises me is that not once recently has he mentioned that he was trying to sell his 355.

There's a possibility I will see him again this Saturday. Is there anything you'd like me to say to him?

 

Lawdog, I also talked to Steve, he told me the first 72,900 owned the car. I told him it was mine and I would overnite a check. I have a buddy at the Lexus dealer on Sahara, he was going to be my eyes for me. Steve said the car was mine. I then could not reach him for almost a day. He called me today to tell me it was sold. I am not use to this, I did not make him tell me 72,900, I just took him up on it.

 

Bobled,

My conversation with Steve was not hostile...although he could hear my frustration. I spoke with him for well over 20 - 25 minutes this morning and another 10 minutes today after I was unwilling to let go of the ebay debacle.

The conversation was more than casual. We even talked about my recent trip to Maranello and my factory tour with my wife. he talked about his racing and joy of Ferrari ownership.

My guess is because of his health his San Francisco buddy may have been piloting the ship...San Francisco buddy was shrewed and lacked 0 candor.
If you see him and you want to..express to him that I was the real deal eventhough the opportunity was closed on me.

Dave that is odd... I offered him $75,000. If you check the E-bay bidding record I hit it 2 times and still was outbid at $75,500. It took him 24hours to return my calls. He gave me his home number and cell number which got me right to him.

The winning bidder according to e-bay when Steve/San Francisco buddy closed the auction high bid was $75,600.

Steve told me he sold the car for $75,000. I told him I would still pay him more but "the guy buying the car is here in my backyard".

 

Move on. Plenty of ferraris out there.

You wouldn't marry a flake or a ***** so why would you want to do business with flaky people. It's all part of life.

 

Lawdog, I called his contact monday morning. He put me in contact with Steve. I told him I had been looking for six months for a red coupe with low miles. I asked him if he would take the car to the Lexus dealer and drop it off. I would have my buddy Vince check it out and do the paperwork. I never bid on the car on ebay, I just talked to Steve. I knew it was to good to be true for 72,900. The contact(Mike) said he had a 430 coming and he wanted to sell his 360 and 355. I was told I owned the car subject to my friend checking it out. I felt no need to bid on it because I had already owned it.... I thought.

 

Dave,

take this as consulation...I see you are a car dealer. He talked about you having intrest in the car because he specifically said "I have a car dealer who wants the car too" That must be you. At least he knew you were there too.

Well it's a new day !!!!


Mario

 

My first clue of this fellow's lack of integrity would have been when he offered to sell it to you outside of ebay, when there were bidders on ebay making a good faith effort to buy the car "by the rules". That in and of itself is dishonest and should have been a major flag.

Anytime a person is openly willing to screw other people, even if it may be appear to be for my personal benefit, I run.

 

Man, he sold it THREE times..........unreal......


Lawdogg are you talking with Martin at Cavallino Motors? I know he's on the wronmg coast for you but he seems to be able to find the cars.

We spent time with he and his wife at the FFQC...might as well deal with folks ya know, I say....

Watching eBay is unreal...I watched an IVECO sniped out from under my friend and he eventually bought off the high bidder....don't think I'd swim with those sharks, man!

 

If (and I emphasize IF) that were the case, then unfortunately I would have to say it applies to Mario too. In fact, if I followed the story correctly, it was he who brought up the suggestion of going outside EBay, not the seller.

Mario, note my emphasis on the IF. I am absolutely NOT saying you are to blame. I apologize in advance if this offends you.

 

huskerntexas, I did not know it was dishonest to end a auction early. Our ebay auctions say clearly seller has the right to end the auction early, maybe his did not.

 

Bigtex,

I have to admit I talk with Martin almost daily. He is on the wrong coast but after spending 4 -5 days with him and Marion at Monterey this year.. I can't help but continue to talk with him

In fact Martin has been great at rubbing it in that I no longer have a Ferrari...he called me yesterday and said "hey Mario wait a second..." He then fired up a 360 Challenge car, reved it up, and giggled like a kid !!!!!!

Thanks you for the referral though.

 

Sounds like he has a cruel streak in him I had not noticed!!! LOL!

He gave Valeria a great track ride in Car #13......

 

The whole issue here is this car was a great deal, I have seen it and like I said it was definately the nicest 355 I have seen, it looked brand new and he also had a nice exhaust on it, people were stepping over themselves trying to buy it so Steve just took the best real offer in his opinion, no PPI or inspection with potential price haggling from it just here's the $$ and it's gone, great deals you need to move fast and be ready or they are gone it's that simple, the guy that was selling my Boxer was in a similar situation we were working on a deal and a attorney thought he secured it for a great price even wired the money to his account when the seller told him to wait, I sweetened my offer more and got the car, it cut throat on good deals with these cars but thats the way it is.

 

Bobled,

No offense taken....


When I spoke with the seller and his rep I was upfront and asked them what are your intentions....meaning are you letting E-bay run it's course or are you going to sell outside of E-bay?

I wanted to go to whatever avenue they wanted. I wanted the car !!! They were in control. No need to go there but if you check the bidding record I jumped and placed 2 bids to enure I was high bidder.

I was bidding on E-bay but I received assurances from the seller that Ebay was a means of adverstiement. I didn't believe it 100% so I bid to ensure I was going to get the car egardless.

The seller suggested that he would sell the car outside of E-bay. Although he never put the disclaimer on his E-bay ad that said "this car is available for sale and may be sold before end of auction etc....."

This was my argument with the seller and his friend... They were unclear and had me by the testicles.... I asked them 4 times what is your intention... are you letting E-bay run it's course and selling to the highest bidder or are you getting a qualified buyer outside of E-bay. I

 

Jeff,

good summation... you are right.

I still would have paid more

Mario

 

I have in the past purchased 3 vehicles on eBay from dealers.

Each stated in the auction that the vehicle is for sale locally and they have the option to end the auction early.

I would never purchase a vehicle from an individual on eBay. There are too many scam artists that misuse ebay for this reason. You only have their integrity to rely on and relying on a stranger's integrity is a minomer. Not saying all are dishonest but why take the risk?

Ebay is used by alot of dealers as a cheap means of advertising and getting national exposure, hoping that the vehicle would sell there but not really relying on it to sell.

eBay is a great place to shop but you have to be careful. I have purchased over 1100 items there and have only been snagged on a handful of items, so I guess I should consider myself lucky.

Your bad experience is just that. Just be thankful it did not involve a lot of money lost.

There are plenty of ferrari's out there. You will find what you want eventually and will be happy for it.

Lawwdog, just out of curiosity, are you a member of the LawDogs Motorcycle Club?

 

Just because your auction says you have that right doesn't mean that you do: Ebay's rules are quite clear on sales outside of ebay, ending auctions early (and the rationale for doing so, etc.). Taking a car off of auction early because someone has offered you a satisfactory price outside the auction is unethical. Try doing that at Barrett Jackson and see what happens.

People's lack of ethics just amaze me.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Circumventing fees by soliciting sales outside of eBay
The following activities are not permitted: · Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay · Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to offer to sell an item outside of eBay to any of your bidders in a Reserve Not Met listing.
Sales Outside of eBay


Listings that attempt to make sales outside of eBay are not permitted and will be ended. The Insertion Fee will be automatically credited for that listing.
Examples:

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to offer to sell an item outside of eBay to any of your bidders in a Reserve Not Met listing.

Ending Your Listing Early

Sometimes something goes wrong and you can't complete your listing as planned. If needed, you can choose to end your listing before the scheduled date. If there are bids on your item, you can cancel them.
Reasons for ending listings early include:
Note: Your account will still be charged listing fees (such as the Insertion Fee) if you end your listing early. Consider revising your listing first if there are aspects of it you want to change or improve.
· The item is no longer available for sale.
· There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
· There was an error in the listing.
· The item was lost or broken.
Timing Matters
When there are 12 hours or fewer remaining and the item has a winning bid, including a reserve met bid, sellers may not make any changes to the listing, including:
· ending the item early. Sellers may cancel bids, but not end the item
· adding to or changing the item description
· converting the item to pre-approved bidder
Canceling bids or making changes to a listing with bids when there are 12 hours or fewer remaining damages the buyer experience and can undermine trust in the marketplace.

 

I agree completely -- especially the ethics part of it !!