[curtis73]

I've bought two cars from Ebay. Do yourself a favor and look primarily at local cars. It is so much better if its local for several reasons;

1) local cars you can physically go see and maybe drive. Pictures (no matter how accurate) can hide flaws and idealize the car.

2) shipping can add tons of money to the investment. To ship, you're looking at anywhere from $400 to $2000 if you use a bonded commercial carrier. Some sellers will say something like "will ship within 200 miles for $2 per mile" or something but its rare.

3) Unless you know the specific region from which your buying, you can be in for some odd surprises. I bought one of my Ebay cars from a town on the TX/NM border. My first thought was the fact that it was a rust-free desert car. That ended up being true, however the dash and interior were sun faded badly on a 58,000-mile car. The owner (being born and raised there) had no idea that faded panels were out of the ordinary and didn't think to mention it. Conversely, when I still was in PA, I sold an El Camino on Ebay and was very truthful in my advertisement. A guy actually flew in from Kansas to see it and thought that I misrepresented it because he found some rust on the frame. For being a PA car, it was incredibly rust free, but since he was from KS where they rarely use salt on the roads, he had a different perspective.

3) unless you can physically see it, talk to the owner, and get a true feel for the situation, I don't recommend buying the car unless its local. Anyone can lie and say that its a clear title on the internet. Actually seeing the title and putting a personal note with the seller has monumental impact on the deal.

The other secret to buying a car from Ebay: Find the car, visit the car, research the car and its fair price. Then enter a bid that you think is fair and walk away. Your bid may be way below what the market price is or 5 times as much, but you will have entered a bid based on your current interest, distance to go, and what you can afford. It will reflect your willingness to purchase the car. If someone else wants it more, they'll bid more. If you get outbid, don't enter into those last minute bid wars. You'll end up going more money than you wanted... always. You can make wise decisions when you research it, but in the last 5 minutes of the auction you can't make reasonable judgements on its value to YOU.

Have fun. I find Ebay to be a real joy to surf and investigate. Just know that when you surf it, although prices look incredibly low, they all shoot up in the last 10 minutes of the auction. It seems to be oddly distributed, too. Super-rare cars sometimes don't sell because they are not mainstream, and overly common cars don't sell because there are more cars than bidders. Ebay tends to make the most money for sellers of mildly rare to semi common cars. Deloreans and Ferraris don't always sell, nor do Cavaliers and Civics. Its the in betweens that make money for the sellers. The common cars tend to make good deals for the buyer.