When is a Sold Car Not Sold?

"That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms" (thatbastardkurtis5)
08/24/2015 at 16:17 • Filed to: None

When your eBay buyer decides to ‘walk away’ from the transaction after not really understanding how buying a car on eBay works.

So I had sold my Jaguar on eBay last week, and immediately felt a tinge of dread when the buyer emailed me to say he needed to research how to register the car in his state.

The car in question:

Here’s the thing about buying on eBay: you need to do all of that before you buy the car. Your buying the car on eBay means that somebody else didn’t buy it, meaning that you may have cost me a good sale so that you can do ‘research’. When you buy a car on eBay, that’s it. You’ve bought it. There’s no haggling after, there’s no research being done.

Now naturally if a car is grossly mis-stated, of course you don’t go through with it. But I described the FUCK out of this car. I’m not a one-paragraph description guy, I wrote a damn book about this thing.

And from my description, three things were abundantly clear: Rhode Island doesn’t title cars older than 2001 (meaning you’ll get the last registration and a bill of sale from me), it needs a fuel tank changeover valve and voltage regulator, and the A/C doesn’t work.

So when the buyer tells me he needs to do some research on the registration, that he needs to research how to do the voltage regulator, and asks me if the A/C works when he finally comes to see the car...forgive me for being a little bit upset.

When you’re selling on eBay, you have to describe your car to a higher standard than you do on Craigslist, because there’s no haggling. It’s my responsibility that what I’m telling you the car is is what it is. And I’m fine with that, I like doing that. So for a buyer to basically take my work describing the car and ignore it, then decide to not buy the car even though I told him everything there is to know about it...he’s basically telling me I lied about the condition of the car, that I’m not okay with that.

Anyway. Here’s a picture of my P71 with the new chrome trim rings I installed yesterday. I quite like the look.

DISCUSSION (18)

DrJohannVegas > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:20

Sorry about your eBay BS. But, the car looks great; I’m sure you’ll get it done.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > DrJohannVegas
08/24/2015 at 16:21

Thanks for that. It’s an absolutely gorgeous car, somebody will show up who appreciates it.

HammerheadFistpunch > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:23

I will admit to doing this once, but not really since I think the seller was a little too eager to jump on it. I sent a message to a seller asking if $XXXXX price was something he would consider, then he told me congratulations I won. I didn’t intent to buy the car, I was just checking to see how wiling he was to work with me on price (it was out of state and I was shopping around). He had already closed the bidding and declared me the winner. I had to go through ebay mediation to get out of a sale I wasn’t ever trying to win. I never made a bid through ebay, except that my message was went though their system. Long story short, it was still technically legal so Im glad the seller worked with me to make it right

Scorpio GTX1 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:30

Report him. It’s a clear violation of the ToS and he’ll get his account banned. Bidding on a car is a binding contract, and he broke it.

Scorpio GTX1 > HammerheadFistpunch
08/24/2015 at 16:32

Did you use the “Make an offer” option? Because that is equivalent to buying it. But if you only sent him a message, then that’s ridiculous.

aberson Bresident of the FullyAssed Committe > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:33

i’ll give you a buck fiddy for it

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:35

Speak to me of this Jag and its price.

HammerheadFistpunch > Scorpio GTX1
08/24/2015 at 16:37

To be honest, Its been like 10 years, so I can’t recall.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
08/24/2015 at 16:41

‘84 XJ-12 Sovereign, originally a German market car, been in the US since sometime before my grandfather bought it in 1989. 60k miles, perfect interior aside from the headliner dropping in one place, no rust, runs beautifully, needs the aforementioned voltage regulator and fuel tank changeover valve. I just restarted it on eBay for $6500 or best, I’d sell it for $5000.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > HammerheadFistpunch
08/24/2015 at 16:46

Yeah, he went about that wrong. In my case, it was eBay’s ‘best offer’ that he sent in and I accepted it. In your case, a little bit of confusion...you didn’t make him an offer, you were just feeling it out. If somebody had asked me if $x would buy the car, I’d tell them to make the offer through eBay and make it official. Nothing wrong with what you did, but this guy kinda screwed me.

HammerheadFistpunch > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:47

Bummer about that.

rb1971 ARGQF+CayenneTurbo+E9+328GTS+R90S > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:48

Technically, I think eBay considers all bids on cars (and homes) on eBay to be non-binding.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/…

In any event it sucks to be given what appears to be the run-around. I’ve bought several cars on eBay over the years, but never learned how much people suck at internetting until I tried to sell one.

ETA: Not sure how if at all this dovetails with non-auction/”best offer” sales of vehicles. But I have always heard that vehicle and home sales are non-binding.

jariten1781 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 16:48

RI doesn’t title cars older than 2001? Weird. That has to be a pain selling online...seriously, I bet you lose 50% of leads just on that fact alone.

rb1971 ARGQF+CayenneTurbo+E9+328GTS+R90S > Scorpio GTX1
08/24/2015 at 16:49

The person sounds like a dick but I’m not sure it’s a violation of eBay’s TOS. See my response above.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > rb1971 ARGQF+CayenneTurbo+E9+328GTS+R90S
08/24/2015 at 17:00

That’s true, but in this case I think it’s an abuse of that policy. All of his concerns were things I wrote about in the ad, and you can register the car in his state without the title. eBay would consider this non-binding, but he would still get an unpaying bidder strike because he backed out, not because I mis-stated the car.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > jariten1781
08/24/2015 at 17:01

It’s a bit rough, but I can get a title-registration history from the DMV that’s good for registration basically anywhere. And for most places, just the last registration is good enough.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 17:03

If I were anywhere near Rhode Island I would probably beg you to hold that for me until I could figure out a way to scrounge up the money. That is my favorite Jag.

Berang > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms
08/24/2015 at 19:43

I don’t understand how somebody can be like “I’m going to spend thousands of dollars on something and I DONTEEN KNOW WHAT ITIS!”.

Must be nice to be able to be that careless when it comes to blowing cash.