Thanks, but I have not secured the funds at this moment and don't want to waste anyone's time. I will definitely take advantage, though, when the time comes (could be tomorrow, could be next month)

 

When I was looking for my Vette, I scoured Ebay. I almost bought one on there, but was to "scared"! I then saw two of them that were on Ebay and were local. They looked MINT in the pictures, absolutely MINT. When I went to see them, they were GARBAGE! Pictures are DECEIVING. VERY Deceiving. My Dad's friend bought a 72 Chevelle SS off of Ebay....he bought it without looking at it. Looked AWESOME in the pictures. He was dissapointed when he got it.

My opinion is I would NEVER buy a car I couldn't see and drive. Just my .02!

-Rick

 

Bought my vette on ebay... and I actually got my sight-unseen... I felt okay about it because it was coming from a Bobby Rahal dealership. I was also in constant contact with them, And the pictures highlighted every flaw the car had... Some have good ebay experiences, some bad... I feel this one was good... I think i got a pretty awesome deal...

 

Bought my 92 vert from GA (8 hrs away) lots of pics from the seller and lots of emails during auction. NOTHING, I mean NOTHING can replace going and looking at a car in person. Period.

I did not get a bad deal, but there is a degree of luck. There is NO way to capture smells, little scratches, squeaks, and overall condition without seeing it in person. Even the most honest person wants to sell their car and will not want to tell you the details. Its human. No one will tell you "oh, if it sits a week or so, it'll smoke when you start it, or yeh it needs plugs and wires (expensive) or brakes are good (but rotors are cut) the list goes on. The guy I bought from happened to have about 300 + feed backs all on big ticket items (he was a fire truck wholesaler). He also had kept the vette for his own liking for the previous year (he only put 700 miles on it since last oil change, per invoice).....Just be careful. Remember, if you lose your deposit and you get a negative feed back, be prepared to cut your losses. It is better than proceeding to make the guy happy and get a good feed back.

 

Bought my 85 in August off e-bay from a fellow forum member(found this out later).Couldn't be happier. Did not see car before taking delivery. As the car was about 2 hrs away I arranged with seller(I Buy Vettes) to meet half way.Figured if it made it that far at least the basic mechanicals must be in decent shape.Car was exactly as described on e-bay.Just keep expectations realistic.Knowing I was buying a twenty year old car tempered my expectations but the car was better than I hoped. Hopefully you will get as lucky as I was and deal with a reputable seller. Just remember it's always a roll of the dice.

 

I just bought a 1986 Corvette from ebay about 2 months ago. I was very lucky in the fact that the car was only about 15 minutes from my house which gave my plenty of opportunities to look at it and drive it. During the week that it was on ebay, I probably went to look at it 3 or 4 times. I was very familiar with the problem areas and what to look for in an early c4 due to the fact that I already owned one for 9 years. It actualy worked out to my advantage that the seller used ebay alone to advertise the car for sale because the pictures on ebay looked like crap, the red looked faded and pink and the pictures were fuzzy. When I saw it in person I fell in love, it looked 100 times better then in the pics. It was a 2 owner 1986 with only 40,256 miles on her.
In the 2 months I have owned it the only thing that it needed was a new starter, 20 minutes and $135 later and back in action. I have of course done some performance mods, I replaced the front y-pipe with one that doesn't have the pre-cats, put on a high-flow cat and muffler eliminators. Put in a preformance chip, k&n filter with opened air lid, air pump eliminator bracket and air foil. Then I de-screened the MAF and also put in Mobil 1 oil. I put on zr1 style polished wheels with 17x11 in the rear with Nitto Drag Radials. I also recarpeted the car in black carpet and installed black seat leather because I wasn't a big fan of the tan interior.
Sorry to rattle on for so long, I just get a little carried away when it comes to my Corvettes!

 

Well, like I said earlier, I had my truck on eBay. I had talked to the guy with the vette linked above and had plans on going over and seeing it. Two things went wrong. 1) My truck didn't sell. The high bid was $2500ish when my POSTED reserve was $6500. I emailed the highest bidder and asked if he would by at the reserve price. He said it was way more than he wanted to spend. This is the reason I don't like most people. 2) I had to use my debit card to make a seller's account on eBay. Someone decided to jack my card number and start spending money on adult personals and computer software. Good thing I check my account balance every other day and an investigation is now pending only 1 day after it happened and the criminal only got to spend $475. The bank has refunded my money until the investigation is finished. Now I can't use my ATM card and have to use checks until a new one comes (I hate writing checks).

So anyway, it looks like I will have to stick with my original plan and buy a vette spring of next year but I want one now

Thanks for all the input
Steve

 

1) it's not the buyers fault you didn't wanna go any lower on your reserve 2) use money orders to set up accounts on ebay

 

I had posted on my listing that the reserve would not be lowered.

 

I purchased my 1996 on the internet. It turned out to be the best decision that I've made in a long time. 20000 miles later I've yet to use the guarantee. BUT, I have seen real junk in vettes on the internet. Good luck.

 

Hi Steve,
Yes, I bought mine, an 86 Coupe from E-Bay, however I did limit the distance to 250 miles or less as I was also concerned about buying unless I could go there that day to see it. So I did and had a friend also look at it, drive it and then I made the deal. Most want to sell them to people in their areas so they won't have to put up with all the Shipping crap. So far I love my first Vette and getting it registered is easy when you don't have to travel far. Good luck.
John