Thread: A great tool!!

Tweet

I've used this tool for the last few years, and I know Al and Mike P are users. It's called ebay. I know you've all heard of it, and I'd bet a lot of you have used it.

Admittedly it's not for everyone. It takes a certain amount of faith to buy something that you can't feel and see first hand. And that you're expected to pay for, and then wait to have it shipped. That's why the smarter sellers put in good photos, allow the enlargement feature, and give a thorough description. And of course you can email for clarification or expansion of the description. You learn to ask the right questions, and ask them the right way to "test" the seller. Both for his knowledge and honesty. And then there's the rating system where previous buyers or sellers leave a critque of the person's performance in prior auctions. I've bought and sold quite a few things over the years and only had one fraudulant experience. I almost always buy with credit card so I have the protection of being able to dispute the sale and have the CC company charge it back.

One of the great things about ebay is it draws stuff out of the rafters from across the country. I'm also an inveterate swap meet goer. I see a lot of "stuff" but still, ebay holds some surprises. Either stuff you've only ever heard of, or haven't seen in eons. To items that are pretty common. It sometimes amazes me how much folks will bid up the price on things I think are pretty common and not worth that much. But then, in the buyer's part of the country they may not be that common. That's the wonderment of ebay. Quite honestly, on real popular stuff that's not real plentiful, for example, Cal Custom valve covers, you're not going to get a bargain, unless you're willing to gamble on an auction that doesn't have pictures. There's a key for bargain hunters. No picture means few people will risk bidding. If you can get a good, honest description from the seller via email, you might get a deal. Other wise, you're going to pay "market price".


This is where I think ebay is real usefull. Even if you don't think that buying the ebay way is for you, it's a great information resource. With some regularity we have people come on here and ask if something is worth some price they throw out. Or they want to know what a fair deal would be on such and so. Go to ebay! There's nothing more equitable than an auction. Sure, pricing can sometimes get distorted by "bid fever", wherein a buyer will bid any amount just to "WIN". But more often reality prevails. By checking the completed auctions for an item you're interested in, you can see what people are willing to pay. This is usefull to you whether you're a buyer or a seller. And it will tell you if your idea of a fair price is real or not. Many businesses have chosen to sell items on ebay with a "buy it now" price. Sometimes that price is below what they advertise in their catalogs for the same item. They've learned that ebay is yet another avenue of sales, one that's relatively low overhead, and expands their normal market range. For that they'll discount.

As a seller, I've quit having a booth at swap meets. I've found that on most items I get a better price. Think about it. You've got people bidding the price up, rather than trying to talk you down. The most exciting item I had was a porcelain sign a few months ago. About 5 minutes before the auction closed it was already quite a few dollars above the highest price I had hoped for, and well past my reserve. But wait............there's more. In the last 3 seconds, three guys bid hot and heavy, pushing the price up another $269.00!!!!!!! Hoooooowwweeeeeeee!!! I never had that much fun at a swap meet!! Some folks I've talked to balk at the thought of mailing out the parts, thinking it's a hassle to box them up and pack them down to USPS or UPS. Personally, I think it's a lot less hassle than the rigamorole of chugging into the swap meet to your space, unloading, arranging, pricing, sitting there for two or three days solid, haggling with the few clowns that think you should pay them to take the stuff off your hands, and then chugging back in the long line at closing to pack up whatever's left and taking it home. Only to have to unload it yet again and find cubby holes to stash it in. The one thing I do miss is the chance to BS with folks that stop by the swap meet booth. But not a problem. I still have some buddies who just can't get into "that computer crap" who have a booth. They usually have a spare chair or two to sit and shoot. And they make a handy holding area for the treasures I find. Some of which end up on ebay to help fund the current project!

I agree to a point with what you say about E-bay. I have been a buyer and seller since 2000 on ebay. There are deals out there if you know how to search and know what you're looking for and being smart about how you bid. There are also alot of bad deals and bad sellers to boot. I've hit my fair share and my old man has hit his fair share and then some.
I am also an avid swap meeter as well. I've been going to swapers with the old man since as far as I could remember. Because I've been involved with swap meets since before e-bay was even an idea and I can honestly say that E-Bay has distroyed the swap meet itself. The famed catch phrase "Well i can get blah, blah, blah for it on e-bay." and I ususally tell them to pack up their shit and leave because if I wanted to sit infront of my computer and fight with 100,000 other clowns over a part I wouldn't be wasting my time at a swapper. I really enjoy swap meets, the best overall of all the events involved in the car hobby. Unaffortunately the swap meet is a dying breed as well, another victim claimed by technology. In the local area we use to have one or two every month from Feb till November. Each taking at least 2 hours to pass through and do a little haggling. Lately the swap meets have shrunk to almost nothing some now taking a pitaful 30 minutes to cover. And haggling....riiiight not with the bad word "E-Bay" around... Haggling is almost a thing of the past.
I do admit, I do use E-Gay to find stuff that I can't seem to locate at a reasonable price. But I always still try to support the local swap meets, as they were and still are one of the roots of hot rodding.

I buy stuff on eBay and mostly have been happy with it.

You do need to read the ads carefully to be sure you're seeing the actually item for sale. eBay sellers are like any other small business people. Most are honest, but some aren't.

I've not sold much, but recently put a car on eBay that had not sold locally. I still had it advertised locally and said so in my listing, reserving the right to end the auction if it sold. I quickly had bids approaching what I hoped to get. And then they went higher.

Meanwhile several local guys inquired about buying it 'offline' since it was for sale locally. One of them was serious enough to offer more than the highest bid.

He came and got it. I happily paid for the eBay listing, since that was where the sale really came from.

I really enjoy swap meets as an activity, but don't seem to buy much at them. The one time I bought a space I sold exactly enough stuff to pay for my space. It had cost me more in gas to get there and back... I probably won't repeat that experience.

I buy and sell on ebay all the time. The wost problem I've had is with some jerk in Puerto Rico who bid $10 on one of my son's hot wheels and didn't send the money.

I try to give good descriptions on anything I sell and post as many large clear pictures as I need. I had 17 pictures when I sold my Packard last month.

I don't like ebay's picture service. Their pictures are too small and not very clear. And they charge extra for them.That's why I got my own website. Just to have a place to put my pictures. I'm not listed on any search engines. I downloaded a free FTP program from CNET and I learned some basic HTML code so I can link my pictures to the ads. It also gives me the option of changing a picture or two in my ad while it's running.

I don't take personal checks. Just money orders and cashiers checks. That way I can ship as soon as I get paid. If I had to wait for a check to clear I may not get it out for a couple of weeks. Other than complete cars I don't sell anything that's too big for UPS or USPS. The big bulky heavy stuff I take to swap meets or sell through the classified ad magazines.

I stripped a rusty $500 73 Mustang convertible last fall and got almost $3000 for some of the parts and I still have the good 351C engine and tranny and about $500 worth of extra parts. If I tried to sell it whole I'd be lucky to get $1000. It was loaded with rare options.

When selling parts the heading is important. always list the year and make of car it fits. I looked at a 40 Ford grille that was listed for $40. It was a really nice 41 Ford grill. I emailed the owner and told him it was a 41. He wrote back and said he knew that but he thought more people would see it if he said it was for a 40. I bid on it the last day and got it for $40. He did get a big hit count though. There's a couple of guy's around here running 41s and they're both trying to trade whole cars for it. They'll have to buy my 41 coupe project to get it.

I don't think I would buy a car on ebay myself unless it was a cheap parts car. There's just too many questions to ask if you only have pictures to go by.

If you need a piece of chrome trim or obsolete brake parts or carburetor kit there's no easier way to find it. I never had the "bait and switch" experience like Streets. Maybe the guy sold two sets of covers and mixed up on shipping.
If you have three transactions where you don't pay or don't ship what's been paid for you get booted off ebay. Registered users have a number next to their name. It's the positive feedback number. Mine is 108. Ive done more than that but not everyone gives feedback after a deal is done. If you read about a seller before you bid you'll know how honest he is. Negative feedback is sometimes from someone who expected more than he was buying or realized he bid more than he should. It's not always a reflection of a bad seller. The response to the bad feedback will give you a better idea of what kind of person the seller is.

I got a complaint on some MG repair panels that I sold. The buyer wanted to know if the edge went under the chrome trim so it wouldn't need bondo. I thought they did but I was wrong. When he got them they didn't reach that far. I gave him a 50% ($20) refund and got great feedback.

It's too bad that ebay is ruining the swap meets. There aren't many bargains there anymore. I still set up sometimes if I can find someone to sell my stuff while I wander around looking at what's for sale and I like to talk to other gearheads and find out what else they have that they left home. If I don't find something I need I'll buy something I can resell on ebay.

If you're not using ebay you're missing out on a great resource.
AL

Al's a great example of someone maximizing ebay. While he's letting out "secrets" I'll share a similar one to his grille story. There are lots of folks who either don't know how to spell, or don't know how a word was originally spelled. A couple years ago I bought a new set of Torq Thrust II wheels. At the end of a 7 day auction I ended up the only bidder. I got them for about a third of typical list. The seller had listed them as Tork Thrusters. Been searching that listing name since but haven't found another guy that off base. And now I've exposed myself to new competitors.

As for the swap meet thing, I've heard that stuff before too. You offer a guy a reasonable price for an item and he pipes back "well I can get XXX for it on ebay all day!". I feel like screaming "THEN WHAT THE HECK ARE YA DOIN' HERE DUMMY!!!!!". Instead I just make a mental note to go back to his booth on Sunday about mid day and see if he still has it. Then I go up and offer again. If he still pitches the same line I just remind him that he "thinks" he can get it there, but that I'm cash money, ready for him to take NOW. About half the time they drop the bluff and we both win. But the general sentiment here is true. Ebay is reducing the swap meet availability of a lot of parts because it offers what many feel is a better alternative.

There are some problems associated with E-Bay at times.

The worst problem I had was having my account highjacked. I started getting all kinds of high bidder notices for things I did not bid on. I had to go in and retract all those bids. E-bay support is of no help whatsoever in these situations. All that I got accomplished was an endless line of e-mails back and forth with canned responses from e-bay. Actually contacting a person at e-bay is impossible, they have themselves insulated very well. It took 3 months for me to just get my account closed.

Before my account was compromised, I did have good results generally, buying and selling. There was only really one buy that I made on a studebaker windshield that was completely misrepresented. It was listed as "no cracks, ships or scratchs". It arrived packaged in what appeared to be a weeks worth of the guys garbage and was covered with crud and bird shit from setting for years. After a good cleaning, numerous rock stars and chips appeared. The seller agreed to a refund upon it's return, which I did. Of course, no refund ever did appear in my mail. Looking back, I should have just kept it for a template rather than spend the extra shipping on it as I ended up buying a damaged one at a local salvage for that purpose. Turned out to be a very expensive template in the long run.

This is the bad side of E-Bay when sellers misrepresent their items.

Dean

Bob I first heard your trick for finding the real bargins on eBay from a friend who was making his living on eBay at one time. He was using wild cards to search for miss-spellings.

He also suggested when you find something like that the first thing you do is bid on it, so the seller can no longer change the listing to correct it. I've never gone quite that far to secure a bargin, but a few little tricks can help you get what you need at a good price.

For one day back in the 80's I was a used car salesman. One trick we were taught was to devalue a customer's trade by saying 'I saw one like it last week on 82nd for $xxx.' 82nd was the local used car row. I couldn't lie enough to make it selling used cars, but I do watch price on stuff on eBay so I can say with integrity that I saw such-and-such 'on eBay last week for $x' and so your's cann't be worth any more.

Items are eBay sell for various amounts, and both sides can use sale amounts to their advantage.

that I don't seem to find as much cool stuff at the swap meets any more... I hate to come home from a swap meet empty handed but that has been the case the last few outings...

Dave Brisco

I'll admit I've made a buck or two in E-bay. I too parted a '71 Mustang Coupe Grande. No frills 302/c4 with Factory Air. I ended up making about $800 out of the car counting the $140 price tag. and still ended up with a complete PDB setup, running engine/trans, new Edelbrock intake and carb and hi-back bucket seats. The day I drug the bare body onto the car trailer (no susp) I had a guy that wanted the body alone in a bad way for the $100 asking price! I delivered it to his place in Portland for another $20! I need more of those cars!

You mentioned buying cars on E-bay. I've bought 2 and My old man has bought his Harley and his '48 Ford coupe on E-gay. The '48 Coupe was a disaster. He pays $1600 to get it shipped out enclosed from ...Massechusetts (i think) on top of the $11k price tag last January. Well it gets here in abuot 3 weeks just as planned but it was about 20x worse that any of his pictures showed or to what the guy called in great condition. There were dings and dents all over it, the pint job look like it was done with a damn roller, the fenferlacing was crap, the hood and trunk hinges/springs were non-existant, the radiatior leaked everywhere, the crap exhaust caught on the car hauler and fell off at the muffler, had a symphony of header leaks, the bucket seats leaned inward to each other, the steering column was jerry rigged in as with the brake pedal (out of what looked like an 80's caprice) The car sat soooo low it rubbed on everything and rode like a buckboard. And waht topped it off, clown-boy installed the engine SOLID with a friggen motorplate! YUCK! And he installs it with the oil pan SITTING right on the MII suspension x-member! And the MII suspension kit.... on man... I don't crap about streetrods but i know I could have at leats set the kit in 10x better that he did. There's gaps all over all the brackets fused with cobble and birdshit welds. I wouldn't DARE hit the brakes hard on this car above 50mph.... might just pass up the front suspension! Oh the old man was pissed.... his $12,600 was gone and here was the car... what could he do? Well, he still like the car but we'll have to do some major teardown and rebuild this winter. HE usually would have built one but because of his terrible health and just plain being old and tired, we coaxed him into just buying a "done" one to just enjoy....appearantly that backfired. Guess I'll be getting my streetrodding 101 this winter.

Just be careful with buying cars on E-bay. I've been lucky so far.

i'VE BEEN BUYING AND SELLING FOR SEVERAL YEARS ON E-BAY AND ONLY HAD ONE PROBLEM. SOME DEALER SELLING THOSE BLUE LIGHT XENON BULBS FOR CARS. SENT MONEY NEVER HEARD FROM HER AGAIN. I TRIED TO TRACK HER DOWN BUT HAD NO LUCK. REALLY WASNT WORTH TRYING BUT IT JUST P___ED ME OFF.



BY THE WAY HI BOB P HAVENT HEARD FROM YOU IN AWHILE!

JOHN G

Hey John, I posted a "Personal Message" for you on Clubcobra last week.

Here's a link to a recent thread we did that coincided with our correspondence. http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...hlight=vietnam

haven't used E-bay for car stuff. Don't have much to sell in that area, and would be EXTREMELY wary of used parts boght from there. Have a friend htat bought a car form ebay, paid $1000 and drove 6 hours to Jersey to get it...a rusty piece of s**t, barley any floor, lots of other issues (body and mecahnical).

Unless i cant see it in person, i'd no way buy a car on EBay. Have asked a few bus sellers questions, and the answers i get are slow in coming and more vague than i want. I ask for more pics, and i get more pics...just not anything useful.

having looked at parts at swap meets, and kowing what people think things are sometimes, i'd be very leery of getting used parts on ebay.

swap meets here are still thriving. Haven't been to carlisle in a few years, perhaps next month. Without a specific project, or enough money, what is the point? What my Lincoln needs is SOO rare at swap meets, or anywhere for that matter, there is no point. Been looking for CAMARO parts - and coming up empty too!

oh well, the internet in general has been great for the hobby though.

Chris.
What's the rare part you need for the Lincoln? I have a 79 MkV out back that I might part out. It ran great when I Parked it in 94 because it needed tires and was only getting 10 mpg. It's a Florida car so the bottom edges aren't rusty like most Maine cars but it rusted through over the windshield and through the hood since it's been sitting so I'll probably never use it again. I'll save the white leather interior and the aluminum wheels will go on the Ranchero. The rest is available. It's hard to sell Lincoln parts on ebay.
AL

I went through a lot of em on that car. I bought a case of em for spares. I think they're still in the trunk. They cost me $800 each but cause I like you Streets I'll sell em to you for half price if you'll take all twelve. NOS thing-a-muh-bobs are hard to find.
AL

There must be a lot of that special cutting-oil brew being sniffed in the northeast. Nothing else would explain you guys. Aren't you afraid that storm about to hit the south might clear your air?