Not sure if this is something new or not..... Check out this auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1869330036

This guy is selling the "rights" to a MINI! After you pay him off, THEN you can pay MSRP at his dealer!!! I guess your buy his "place in line"....

Bidding is already over a grand.... I guess the wait is much longer in some places than others.

Satchmo

 

People are just nuts I love my car but I would never pay someone for his spot on the list.

 

HA! I see that the seller is in Huntington Station, NY. That's the location of the dealer where I got my car (Habberstad MINI). So, odds are, he's selling a car that he's ordered through Habberstad and that the "lucky" winner of this auction will need to go to Habberstad to pick it up/pay for it.

The real hoot here though is that as of last month, you could pick up a 2002 MCS right off the lot at Habberstad. No waiting, no paying for unwanted add-ons, and nothing over MSRP. It's not as if he's actually selling a no-wait car into the wait-infested SoCal market. ANYONE could go to Long Island and buy it themselves!! So, what bidders are really paying for is for this guy to take their money and then to get a car that they don't even get to pick out on their own. Unbelievable. :evil: :evil:

I don't have any experience with eBay...but is there some way to stop this guy from ripping people off?

 

I think the guy has HUGE ***** for doing that!! And the people who are bidding are either desperate, or their just plain dumb! And I'm willing to bet that this guy has a deposit on a 2nd MCS and is waiting for this auction to rack up $$$ so he has some extra cash to put towards HIS baby! I have to admit.... it's a pretty smart idea!! I'm not the type of person to try and pull that over on someone, but it's a good idea!! Some people have the $$$ and are dumb/desperate enough to bid on that... more power to them!!!

I love how he didn't mention how long the wait would actually be..... If it's there at the dealership waiting to be picked up, then basically people are auctioning for this guy to cancel his order so they can buy the new floor model he left behind! Which, from the bidders perspective, is really dumb!!! Why should i go and give this guy $1,050(last bid when i checked the page) to give me his order when i can just settle for a floor model at the dealership, especially since it was mentioned in a previous post that the local dealership of the seller does not charge dealer add ons etc for floor models, so you won't pay for what you don't want!! Why settle for his model?? It just doesn't add up to me.... which is why i'd never bid on that!

 

This e-bay ..rip-off has been going on for months now.
I 've seen this bidding" on a "space in line " since at least June 2002.
Responding to the post... regarding Long island.
Yes we have mini's here for sale....here on LI
Take a ride to Habberstaad Mini in Commack , Hassell Mini in Freeport or my favorite where I actually bought mine ...right off the lot.....
Mini of the Hampton's in South Hampton...
Enjoy :smile:
D

_________________
2002 MCS:pure silver/black top,lapis int.,all pkgs,17"ROH rims,

 

Perhaps we could all write e-mails to the webmaster of ebay we could bring it to his/her attention!? I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it, but we can always try! I mean, i feel it is unfair to the people bidding! I know that if i fell for this and paid this guy double his deposit for basically nothing... i'd be mad as hell!!!! :evil:

 

Yeah - it's old news. They've been doing that for at least 6 months. It's a disgrace!!! :evil:

 

Oh well, I guess if people are stupid enough to fall for it, or too lazy to try on their own to get a MINI, then it serves them right. It just good old fashioned American capitalism!

 

>>Oh well, I guess if people are stupid enough to fall for it, or too lazy to try on their own to get a MINI, then it serves them right. It just good old fashioned American capitalism!



You've got a point! At least we can in some way get the word to everyone on this site through this thread that there are people scamming mini's on eBay!!

 

Item #1868872066
On ebay...an S with ~45,000 miles for sale. Somebody did some motorin'

 

I've seen this going on for awhile and know of a guy that even sold 3 deposits back to a MINI dealer for 2000 each. I'm sure the people bidding on these deposits know what's up.

Getting nothing? They're getting the car of their choice NOW @ MSRP. If you live in California, like me...that's not easy. Even with the $1000 you pay for the "rights" to the car , in So Cal you're still saving 2000-6000..what's so dumb about that?

 

Okay...I'm an idiot...I just looked at the auction and it's now at $7600!!!!!

Maybe I'll sell the rights to DVL MINI and buy an old Cooper instead.

 

Our dealer said that we could not transfer our deposit, that it would violate our agreement. Some dealer somewhere must not be gettin' enough a fix off his jacked up MSRP.

 

And don't forget the ole dealer 'holdback.'

 

Maybe I can auction off a ride in my MINI. Opening bid $500.00. Maybe the same idiots will bid on it.

 

Yeah, this is really weird and fascinating. I just checked, and the bid is over 7 grand AND the seller has changed their id. I also can't tell for sure, but it looks like the most recent highest bid was from the same person who was highest (at 3 grand less than this morning) last night! I think the whole thing must be a joke. No one would pay 7 grand over MSRP for an S...particularly when they could go to NY and buy the car directly from the dealer (NOW, w/o a wait) at MSRP.

Dvlmini, that's why I discounted the SoCal-wait effect...that is, if one were just despirate to get away from that wait they could come east and buy a car off the lot (just like what this auction is offering) w/o paying a premium to the ebay seller. Very strange, and I guess a real "buyer beware" example about eBay

 

The sad thing is that this isn't just happening with the Minis. It's happening with any new enthusiast car I read somewhere that someone sold their palce in line for a 2003 Viper for $15k. Obvioulsy. money is no objective to these people. I expect the same thinig will happen with the new Mazda RX8 coming out next year. Do a search on ebay for a Nissan 350Z. There's one on there with a bid up to $4k and it doesn't even end until 10/21

 

Sorry for continuing to monitor this thing...but as I said before, I find it fascinating (probably more that I find the concept of eBay fascinating than anything else)...

If you check the auction now, you'll see that a bunch of the bidders have withdrawn their bids and the top bid is back down to around a grand (from over 7 grand yesterday morning). It appears that some of the bidders "didn't read the explanation", but others withdrew because the seller wouldn't respond to their email (he used a bogus email address).

Amazing the eBay allows this sort of scam.

 

eBay allows anyone to sell anything that isn't actually illegal. Taking advantage of idiots isn't illegal. "Allowing a sucker to keep his money is morally wrong" (not my quote).

 

>>eBay allows anyone to sell anything that isn't actually illegal. Taking advantage of idiots isn't illegal. "Allowing a sucker to keep his money is morally wrong" (not my quote).
>>
>>
No, it may not be illegal, but it is certainly bad karma. Besides, I'd hate to see anyone -- idiot or not (it's all relative, right?) -- who was interested in a MINI be taken advantage of.

 

MY TWO CENTS.....
HOW RETARDED ARE PEOPLE....LIKE JUST GO AND BUY ONE FROM THE NEAREST DEALER....GEZZZZUZ