Just had an interesting ebay experience. Saw an auction yesterday for an 06 Boxster S w/ 24K mi. Marked the auction on my watch list, with it ending at 9pm Sun.
So at 6pm tonight I get the reminder from ebay that the auction is ending soon. The current bid is $17.2 w/ 3 hrs to go. That's a good price AND there's no mention of the reserve not being met, so it's worth watching.
There's a phone # listed in the ad and I want to know if it has 2 keys + manuals, so I call. Leave a msg and 15 min later get a phone call from the guy who says yes to both (upon closer inspection of 1 of the photos, I see 2 keys). He says the tires are good & it's perfect car from Atlanta. He's in Brooklyn, NY. Then he asks me what the auction is at and I say $17.2. He says something about it's on his website at $25K and I wonder if he forgot to put a reserve on his auction and would he sell it for $17?
About 20 min later I get a text from him. He asks if I'm interested in buying it NOW for the $17.2? I responded with don't you have to let the auction finish? Plus I wanted to do a bit of research before the auction finished. His response:
"No, I don't have to let the auction finish. I can end the auction any time. The auction means nothing. I won't make a deal on ebay anyhow, so last bid doesn't matter". Hmmm... LOTS of red flags immediately pop up.
So rather than doing research on the car, I start investigating the seller. He only has 150 transactions (which in itself isn't bad, as I only have 42), but has 0% positive feedback and 12 negative comments in the last 12 mo. Oh, oh. I look at the comments and they all say he's a scam artist and the auction meant nothing. Some commented that he wanted more money than the auction price. OK, that confirms the red flags.
The car finishes at $21.6, which is a good price but more than I was going to bid. Wonder what fun the new "owner" is in for? Glad I'm not going to find out.
Here's a link to the ad. He has other cars 'for sale' on ebay, so be careful.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/123204999423?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l10137
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