Comments on: Daily Podcast Lieberman Edition: eBay Motors is Like Crack

By: vj

vj — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:05:09 +0000

@David Holzman
I looked up the Peugeots, however i ended up at a 1969 LandRover. Window shopping on ebay is addictive

By: Justin Berkowitz

Justin Berkowitz — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:41:40 +0000

@David Holzman:

You might enjoy CrazedList.com, as well.

UGH!

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:33:04 +0000

@ VJ

There are 3 Peugeots in the US on findyourauto.net on Ebay, all 505s. No 404s.

By: billc83

billc83 — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:31:46 +0000

I’ll check in on eBay every once and a while, but Craigslist is where I waste my time searching for “the deal.” It’s how I found my current summertime car.

Maybe it was a fluke, but I had the easiest time buying from Craigslist. Saw the ad, called him up, set up a meeting time, went and looked, fell in love and bought. Didn’t hurt that the guy turned out to be extremely cool and knowledgeable about it (helped to ease my concerns).

Ironically, around the same time a set of its original rims were floating around Craigslist. The guy kept dropping the price until I decided to buy them too!

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:28:45 +0000

The first thing I ever bought on Ebay were some Porsche valves. I love Peugeot 404s, it was the most interesting car my parents had during my childhood, and I took my first legal drive in it. Last winter, I looked for 404s on Ebay. I think there were 3: one in terrible shape somewhere in New England for ~$800; one in half decent shape, for $1200 in the middle of New York State, about 350-400 miles from Boston (where I am) and one, a station wagon, like we had, in Germany, in very good shape, for 2000 euros. I really wanted it. If I had had a little more extra time… I didn’t follow up with any of them. I’ve looked a couple of times on Ebay since, and no 404s. Nonetheless, if I get serious, I’d do better to contact a repair shop in Cambridge that specializes in Peugeots.

By: vj

vj — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:31:16 +0000

Here’s a better and faster way to satisfy that eBay addiction.

http://FindYourAuto.net

I did get my car on eBay 6 years ago. It was a CPO and has lasted me well.

By: blindfaith

blindfaith — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:02:12 +0000

srclontz :
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:31 pm

“I don’t care that everything electric in the car will break, and dissimilar metals used in the product will corrode beyond recognition.”

I had a 1996 cadillac concourse $42,000 a lot of money back then. They bragged about their stainless brake lines. Then did not brag about attaching stainless brake lines with cheap metal clips that ruined the rust resistance of stainless steel causing the brake lines to fail. Many of my friends had other types of GM trucks/cars like chevy trucks that within 8 years brake lines failed.

I do expect a truck/car to last 10 years and what fails should not be because one component violates the integrity of another expecially when we are talking about brakes.

By: blindfaith

blindfaith — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:38:24 +0000

I have purchases a car through EBAY and it was fine. I am happy you provided opposite side since with my experience I had a total misconception that my experience was absolutely normal for EBAY.

By: JEC

JEC — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:02:08 +0000

If I can’t view it in person or test drive it, I will not even contemplate buying it. Ebay perpetrates the worst kind of sight-unseen habits that are permeating the car market, making it easier for sellers to pass along junk to unsuspecting starry-eyed buyers. Hell, why is it so hard to arrange a damn test drive nowadays? If I want to buy a car, you’d better be prepared to let me drive it. Any wavering and I walk without any further discussion.

By: srclontz

srclontz — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:31:59 +0000

I had put the idea out of my mind for a long time. I had put eBay motors out of my mind for hours, days even. This post caused me to fall of the wagon, I am again dreaming of a Triumph. I don’t care that British Leyland built them with less care than went into regulating naked short sales before the crash. I don’t care that the Lucas electrical system will leave me stranded and cursing. I don’t care that everything electric in the car will break, and dissimilar metals used in the product will corrode beyond recognition. On warm, summer days, the car and I will be inseparable, at least when it runs. It will be perfect, the ultimate dream, a true drivers car. I will even sell my house with the one car garage, just to have a place to park the car. Until then, my nearly new Subaru can set outside, after all, it’s reliable, it can handle the snow, ice and hail it will encounter.

Wait a minute. I WAS doing better. KAHN!!! er uh JUSTIN!!!

By: Prado

Prado — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:18:27 +0000

I like traderonline’s classic car section when I need a good fixn of car porn.

By: UnclePete

UnclePete — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:39:09 +0000

eBay and craigslist are crack for car junkies. I bought a car through ebay, a 528 wagon. I had it checked out by a local service and got a good price for it. After it got to the North East and with some tweaking (90% of which was found by the car check service btw) it was an excellent car. Looks-wise, it was a good 20-foot car! Unfortunately an inattentive twit on a cell phone totalled it.

Speaking of which, I just bought a low-miles Grand Cherokee for low money; I found that one out from a friend of a friend email. The person I bought it from said that they had used Craigslist, but the freak to normal person ratio of the calls and emails they were getting was too high!

By: DearS

DearS — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:34:28 +0000

I’m glad I’ve learned to let Ebay go quite so much. Life is hard, Ebay will not make life go away, so better to show up for life. Serenity prayer goes….

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (life, Ebay and others)
The willingness and courage to change the things I can (myself, my perspectives and my behaviors)
and the wisdom and clarity to know the different (discernment and vision).

I’m glad I got some discernment over what I can and cannot do, and some vision to have faith in life without that which I dream of. I do appreciate Ebay, but I appreciate living my life quite a bit more. Also it does not make me happy to crave owning an M5 or 525i and get excited for nothing. It hurts, it feels empty. I need to take responsibility and set up my expectations accordingly.

By: Areitu

Areitu — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:07:04 +0000

It certainly is like crack. I spent half a day looking at F355s on ebay the other day, in fact. Right now A Renventon is also up on ebay for a cool 2.5mil, Buy-it-now!

B.C. : The softcore porn analogy is spot on. It’s nice to know the car exists outside of glamor shots and Youtube videos.

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:34:12 +0000

Yeah I’d have two dozen cars with a big bank account and eBay to drain it…

Craiglist is even worse (in a better kind of way) when you figure out how to use “Crazed List” instead where you can create RSS feeds on anything and see nationwide (worldwide) results.

Another good one is http://www.vast.com

I try not to start my surfing with visits to sites like that.

Okay, gotta go home and tinker with my cars now…

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:42:37 +0000

I knew Ebay rocked when I sold an old pair of Levis for $15. After that, I was hooked.

Was just on it last night thinkin’ about a 2005 330i with the ZPH(?) package.

By: salhany

salhany — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:11:21 +0000

Ooh, there’s a Sterling 827 hatch on the Bay as well. Haven’t seen one of those in years.

And a beautiful maroon Alfa 164. And an Olds Vista Cruiser. This place really is like crack.

By: B.C.

B.C. — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:58:51 +0000

The good thing is you don’t get glamor shots with eBay motors. You get the car, unplugged. Usually. It’s like softcore porn: instead watching someone else thrashing the ride around, you have to imagine yourself in the driver’s seat.

I’ve also found myself hitting using autos.msn.com as a database for more obscure car specs, particularly weight and interior space.

By: AJ

AJ — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:50:17 +0000

I was recently shopping used XJ’s (Cherokees) and I kept running across random cars that I wish I had a larger garage (or even a barn!). I could see building a car collection would be easy… LOL

It was fun shopping…!

By: Justin Berkowitz

Justin Berkowitz — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:45:43 +0000

ALWAYS a Citroen. 2CV, SM, DS, and even the very unusual to see XM. It’s all good.

By: eh_political

eh_political — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:38:06 +0000

………or a Citroen?