This can't be right. What do you think. Sounds a little fishy to me. Maybe a salvage title?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ocusZbsQQfviZ1

 

 

Looks pretty clean. Maybe the current owner is over extended and just wants the ~$10K to pay off an auto loan balance? Or they're purposely under valuing the car to get a good bidding war going? It would be interesting to do a real title search, but I don't want to spend the $7.99 to satisfy my curiousity.

 

Yeah, If anyone has a current carfax account, can you run one on this car?

I'm not interesting in buying it, just curious.

 

I was able to run a Carfax on it out of sheer curiousity (gratis, of course)...The title is clear!

It was registered on 10/12/04 in Denton, TX...Apparently it has only had one owner. Definitely weird since that's the buy it now price too...

 

almost worth buying it just to resell it

 

That's gotta be a typo. There's no way they'd be selling that for $10k.

Two things possible:

1. Typo....should be $19,xxx, not $9,xxx.

2. Seller has no idea how to use ebay and/or what the "buy it now" feature is.

 

Consider this statement from the selling website/page:

"Note: This listing is restricted to pre-approved bidders or buyers only."

If, and I do mean if, the price is quoted correctly, then maybe the seller is trying to place some restriction on who can actually bid on/buy the car. Not enforcable, but possibly some pre-screening is going on. IMHO.

Anyway this is pure speculation on my part

 

It is a scam. He has MINIs on ebay all the time under different names. When you email him for bid approval, he tells you the real price, or wants a good faith deposit.

This scam used to be for large screen plasma displays, but has moved in to desireable cars.

 

The auction has been pulled... He might have mislisted it.

 

Just tried to purchase it a few seconds ago,

ebay shows the item invalid????

too bad

 

I tried to ask a question. Here is what I got from Ebay:

Subject: SP NOTICE: eBay Ask Seller a Question or Contact eBay Member Alert Received: May-01-06 From: eBay Expires: Jun-30-06 Dear REMOVED FOR PRIVACY:

Our records indicate that you recently sent an email to blc082 through the eBay email system using the Ask Seller a Question feature.

We would like to provide the following safety tips:

1. If you received a reply to your email do not respond (either through the eBay system or your email provider) if the message is an offer to buy or sell an item. This type of offer is against eBay policy, may be fraudulent, and the transaction will not be covered by eBay protection programs.

2. If you received what appears to be a Second Chance Offer for an item you recently bid on and it's appearing in My Messages with the subject of "Message from eBay Member", it's not a legitimate Second Chance Offer. Real Second Chance Offers appear in My Messages with a blue background and subject stating, "eBay Second Chance Offer for Item...". Always check for both the blue background in My Messages and the subject line of "eBay Second Chance Offer for Item." when responding to a Second Change Offer.

3. Never pay for your eBay items using instant cash wire transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram. It is against eBay's Safe Payments Policy for a seller to request payment via these methods as these methods are unsafe when paying someone you don't know.

If you have already sent payment for an off-eBay transaction, or if you are a seller who has already shipped an item to a fraudulent buyer, we suggest you take the following steps:

1. Contact the payment service you used to make the purchase. If you paid via credit
card, most card issuers provide consumer protections in instances of online fraud.

2. Contact the local law enforcement where you sent your payment. You may be able to receive additional assistance by contacting the authorities in the area where the seller resides. The following link may be helpful: /csg/p?www.usacops.com/

3. File a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. IC3 is
a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. They review reports and refer information to the appropriate local, state, or federal agencies. You can file a complaint at: /csg/p?www.ic3.gov/

We would also like to request that you take a few minutes to provide more information related to the transaction. Please complete the Item Bought Outside of eBay form from the help page below. The information you provide will allow us to work more effectively with law enforcement should an investigation occur.

 

Wow, that didn't last long. Website shows nothing now.

Oh well....If you read it carefully before it was pulled, it also said that the car was made in GERMANY!!

 

In answer to several recent posts here:
It was a "Buy Now" so a bidding war doesn't sound like the motive.
The price wasn't a typo. He restated the $9,900 price in an e-mail to me.
Jim Ray has it right. This guy has been offering various products on eBay including the Mini. My last e-mail to him with hard questions has been ignored, even after my offering to fly to Lincoln, ME to see the car.
I've reported this to eBay but they infuriatingly only ask for the Item #. They're interested in no comments or facts. I've spoken to the DMV and Police in Denton, TX. They are little help. The police think the car is a BMW (NOT!!) and say it hasn't been stolen. Sounds like this guy gets a VIN and color of a "clean" Mini, then offers his for sale with those numbers. Or something to that effect. eBay is only interested is getting him off eBay. I'm interested in getting the bastard locked up. Any ideas?

 

Sounds like the 3 series I looked at about a month before buying my MINI. Used 2002 3 series 15k Miles asking 9k from a seller in CA. Rried to contact them and got a response to the affect of the seeler is currently out of the country please provide the following info and we will conact you. More than enough info was asked for to provide complete identity theft, an obvious scam.

If it seems too good to be true then it likely is.

 

These scam are all over the place in the Motorcycle section of Ebay.

 

I found this same scam when I was looking to by my classic mini. Get pre approvial, then wire them money, and they will ship it to you within a week. All of them were using stolen ebay user id's, and were all out of the country, regardless of what the ebay profile claimed they were.

Be very careful purchasing an auto off of ebay......

Nik

 

You know, these Ebay scammers aren't too bright. Seems like they would at least try to put a believable price on something instead of some ridiculously low price so everyone can tell it's a scam. I guess they figure there are always some not-to-bright buyers out there that will take the bait.

By the way, NEVER bid on a big ticket item like this unless you can actually make arrangements with the seller to see it in person (or a designee) before money changes hands. 99% of the time asking to see the item in person before the auction ends will flush them out. You'll never hear back or get some kind of double-talk about them living abroad right now and really can't arrange a site visit. Motor on also makes a great point about crooks using these scams to get personal information from you for identity theft purposes. Way too many scams going on.

 

Scam, happned to me. Some loser listed 10 SONY VAIO laptops under my name, but they all were take off by ebay

 

The sellers, AKA "scammers", will also use the email address you sent them for pre-approval of your bid to send you phishing emails, claiming they are from Ebay and are trying to get your username/password and other sensitive information. Also, many people use the same password for their Ebay and Paypal accounts, so you'll get a double dose of d**k. They know you have an account because you're asking to bid on their items. Common sense should always prevail, if it sounds too good to be true..............

 

Well the issue is dead on this end. We tried to get the police and eBay involved and both were about as helpful as jello. I wonder how these scammers can look at themselves in the mirror.

 

Why can't I just leave things alone and move on??!! I just hate letting these guys continue to scam. I reported this guy to the FBI today. Whether they have the resources to go after people like this is uncertain. We'll see!

 

I commend you for trying but this is one of perhaps thousands of scams going on right now on Ebay. The best thing you can do is report it to Ebay and they will usually pull the plug.

 

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is, even on eBay (and I'm extremely biased), so just be careful and if in doubt, report it to them. You can now report a suspicious item directly from the view item page. There is a link at the bottom of each page that states "report this item."

 

$10,000 if the car was flooded in New Orleans, maybe. I wouldn't believe it.