Hours, days, weeks. I can’t even begin to tally the time I’ve wasted – flushed away, evaporated, murdered – because of eBay Motors and Craigslist and even Hemmings. I know that half the listings are frauds, and the other half are overpriced. I know that “excellent condition!!1” means well beaten and abused. And that “shows signs of wear and tear” means it was previously used to haul broken toilets. I don’t care. It’s just the ultimate window shopping, tire kicking, fantasy dreaming experience. That’s why Murilee Martin (Jalopnik) puts up those wonderful project car hell posts. Because they inevitably will be hell. Just ask Stephan Wilkinson (or to save him precious time, read his book). But I don’t have to worry about that when I’m on eBay Motors. Once I see that the engine has been replaced with a hamster on a wheel, I can just move on. “What would it be like to own a stick shift Land Rover Discovery?” Surf eBay, find one, sift through the pics, and imagine yourself in that ridiculous ride. Car picture porn online? Nothing comes close. Don’t know much about a model? Pop over to Wikipedia for some misinformation, then hit up YouTube to hear how it sounds. Best of all, the auctions last just long enough for my passing tastes to expire. Oh sure, I like the idea of a Peugeot 405 wagon this week. But next week it’ll be gone. And I won’t care, because I’ll be looking for a Buick Grand National. Or a Mercury Marauder. Or maybe an Olds Rocket 88! It doesn’t matter what your poison is, because between eBay, Craigslist, and Hemmings, they’ll cover it all. In today’s podcast, Lieberman and I have another silly argument about the wonders of Italian sports cars, among other delights from Autofiends.
………or a Citroen?
ALWAYS a Citroen. 2CV, SM, DS, and even the very unusual to see XM. It’s all good.
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…!
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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!
I like traderonline’s classic car section when I need a good fixn of car porn.
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
@ VJ
There are 3 Peugeots in the US on findyourauto.net on Ebay, all 505s. No 404s.
@David Holzman:
You might enjoy CrazedList.com, as well.
UGH!
@David Holzman
I looked up the Peugeots, however i ended up at a 1969 LandRover. Window shopping on ebay is addictive