Ebay is ok if vehicle purchased is in reasonable distance to treat it like you would a forum/craigslist purchase (i.e. 1 hour).

Yeah. Next car I buy is preowned from a dealer or brand new. I miss not fixing my DD lol

I bought a couple cars from E bay but went to look at 'em first. Even then one turned into a nightmare. Lol

Yeah. Worst comes to worst I swap trans out, fix tires/brakes/exhaust and ive got a solid car. I remember Harry's having 06+ Subarus with the transmission laying on the ground lol people pull motors and leave transmission

Yeah man if you're stuck with a lemon make some Mike's hard lemonade and party on!

What's the status of your Cobalt? That's my kinda daily.

I'm selling it. 287/route 1/202 traffic with stick is killing me everyday. It's fun when theres an open road, but I feel like it's sucking firebird money. :bertstare:

wanna buy it? 23-24PSI is fun!

I wish I could, but I'm broke as a joke and have to rock my Cavalier for a while longer.

price???

https://cnj.craigslist.org/cto/6005533943.html

$6500 for you pal <3

wow

go on :-?

Sorry to disappoint but just sold it tonight lol. He's picking it up Saturday left me a deposit. :bertstare:

What's the latest from eBay, the seller, and the titled owner?

eBay said they can't do anything because it is 10 years old. They sent me some advice (local police, IC3, internet crime complaint center which is an FBI thing apparently)

Seller ignores all my phone calls, tried different area codes, no workie. Didn't respond to my e-mail saying I was filing a Police Report. I filed an IC3 case which eBay recommended. I texted him while I was driving the car about the issues. I said " we can work out a fair price or I can dispute charges, etc. " No response. His last text was "gotta go to work bye".

I haven't really talked to the titled owner. In reality his car was a piece but it wasn't "his car" that sold. It sold originally for $1700, which is way better than $2300. the $600 would pay for new tires and new brakes, so I wouldn't be that pissed off.

I know I can get a trans for it out of the junkyard, and I have spare wheels for it. So I could fix it sorta easily. I just don't wanna touch it till the dust settles. I'll make it work either way. I just now know even if you see a big symbol on ebay that says YOU'RE PROTECTED... read the fine print at the end, because 10 years or older and you're beat on eBay

Yeah, don't touch it & follow through with the legal process.

Thankfully, you have the means & ability to make this work either way, but I'd wager there are a ****-load of people that have been screwed by this guy (and others like him), that don't end up as fortunately. Hopefully you can weed out one of the bad ones.

I've bought dozens of cars on eBay and craigslist. Many sight unseen. You just have to assume the worst. I look at a car online and then determine if it turns out to be junk, could I make my money back in parts at least. actually, if I can't make 3x the purchase price parting it out, its not worth the risk.

Remember all cars are sold for a reason, and the most common reason is a mechanical problem or similar that sellers would rather not disclose. People are not trustworthy. That's life. Also eBay has a lot of unknown loopholes both for sellers and buyers, over the past 16 years I've seen a lot.

Either fix the car with used parts, even used tires and sell it. Don't bother registering it. Or cut it up and look for something else, or even find another one with a bad motor or such and use the first one as a donor.

My greatest victory would be for him to lose his ebay account and paypal, so he doesn't try to flip cars sight unseen anymore.

CL I will always go look. eBay I thought hey im protected! look at that big shield there! Wel, I messed up bigtime lol.
Yeah people sell cars for mechanical issues but some sell to get a new ride, you never know. It's a fun experience buying a private sale car.

I found those loopholes out real quick lol. Fun fun.

I definitely wont cut it up. I will fix it with cheap parts, and I am going to fully inspect it more when the dust settles. Trans is cake in these. Just worried about engine.

So, after talking to some scubaru buddies, I think I am just going to cut my losses and fix the car. After being able to source the parts I need, I should be able to make SOME money off of the car after I drive it. I'll have it in great shape when selling it, so I should be able to get close to BB for it. I think if I paid what the original ad said ($1700), I wouldn't have been pissed at all.

Lesson learned!

You're a calmer man than I. By now, I'd have attempted to file a complaint with the local PD in PA, Florida, & NJ plus asked for a federal phone number as well.


disclaimer: I don't know if it would have gotten anywhere, but who knows what a visit/questioning from law enforcement would have inspired upon the guy.

I did the IC3 complaint, but who knows what will happen with that. eBay's fine print will probably stop it.

He's a scammer, he won't give a **** unless the PD show up at his house or all of the sudden his PayPal account goes negative.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bd...=w1027-h770-no

Got some "hawk eye" wheels for it with studded snows on it. Drove through the blizzard on Monday Ezpz.

WTF? Are you trying to keep this car now? Why would you buy more **** for it? This sounds so backwards.

wheels/tires can go on my 98 legacy (same bolt pattern, etc). I can also easily flip them, and spend $0 overall on them.

I am going to keep it because if the car sits for 3 months while this dispute takes its ****ing sweet time, I could have already fixed it and had it gone. Also avoids any headache during the dispute process.

Well, after a few months of fun... car is fully fixed. I also got $500 back from PayPal, so he is out of that money.

What're you into it, total then? i.e. how much of a "loss"