Very strange - new post for a 2005 MINI S with 3K miles for $12K. It states $12K as the price a few times so it must not be a typo.

This is bugging me! Would someone else please check this out and tell me what I'm missing?

 

where do you get 12,000? the bid's at 10k and it says "reserve not met"????

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mini-...04058623QQrdZ1

(is this the one you're talking about???)

 

bid price doesn't mean the final price. Usually seller will start with a low price to attract buyer.

 

Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...QQcmdZViewItem

Specifically states - "Buy it now price". I understand how eBay works - that's why this has me perplexed!

 

this looks really fishy as if he's trying to eliminate Ebay from the process.Anyone who is advising people to contact him directly and not through ebay is breaking the rules and as such is probably a scammer.Caveat emptor! I bet if you report the post to Ebay, it'll be gone within the hour.JMO edit: too late it's already gone, LOL

 

Already been removed....

If it is too good to be true... it probably is (unless you are buyiung from me! )

 

Something was up with that - either that or he made the same mistake twice. Scammers are everywhere these days......Maybe we all can help by finding this sort of thing and reporting it.

 

That was a scam and eBay cought it.

Your lucky they cought it before you did!

 

scammers blow

 

Most of the people on ebay a fine but there are plenty of scams there too so you have to be careful.

One of the worst scams on ebay motors is known as the "BIN Bandits"

BIN stands for BUY IT NOW

Typically the scammer will list a vehicle and will not actually list it as an ebay BUY IT NOW listing but will tell you that you can buy it now for this price if you contact him via email.

The scammer will nearly always post his email address in the listing and ask you to email him instead of using the ebay "Contact Seller" method.

Once you contact the seller he will usually either tell you that the car is in another country but he will ship it to you for the price listed. Or he will tell you that he has moved to another country but the car has already been crated in the united states and he will have it shipped to you wherever you want. Either way, he will make some fantastic excuses as to why you can't come over to look at the car before purchasing it.
He will do his best to win your confidence and get you to send him the money for the car before shipping it to you.
Of course, after he has your money you will never hear from him again.

If you have already contacted one of these scammers you should stop communicating with him and report the scam to ebay.

Just for educational purposes here is an example of one of the BIN BANDIT scams.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...QQcmdZViewItem
DO NOT CONTACT THIS GUY OK!
Look quickly because ebay should kill this auction as soon as it is reported.

 

you must be deciding this based on more than these concerns:
- lame seller feedback history
- direct contact email in the description
- low price bin price

what else is the tell?

or is that enough... i would not buy a vehicle from someone who doesn't have positive feedback for selling big ticket items before, and a note from his pastor

 

The other test of "too good to be true" is to describe the car to the Blue Book web site (kbb.com) and see trade-in values it provides. If this guy could walk into Carmax today and they would give him $19000-23000 for it (depending on condition), selling it on Ebay for $12000 makes one wonder if the car is wrecked/defective/haunted or whether it exists at all.

 

I'm deciding this based on the fact that I was almost taken in by two of these guys and I have studied the ads long enough to accurately detect this sort of scam.


Here are some of the main identifying marks that you can look for.

(1) Usually it will be a very popular car or collectable car or antique or exotic car. Something kind of special anyway.

(2) Almost always will have a starting bid between $1 and $100. Something really low to grab your attention with no reserve price.

(3) Almost always will have the sellers email address in the ad and many times will advise you not to use ebay's "Contact Seller" function but to contact via email instead. (This is because these guys usually use stolen ebay accounts that often times have high feedback ratings. I once used the ebay CONTACT SELLER even though the guy said not to in the ad and the REAL owner of the ebay account told me that his account had been hijacked and that ebay was looking into it.)

(4) Almost always will BIN or BUY NOW or USD in the title with a price set at about half of the actual value for the car.

(5) Will almost always put "Note: This listing is restricted to pre-approved bidders or buyers only. Email the seller to be placed on the pre-approved bidder/buyer list." in the ad.

(6) Will usually give you the story about the car being either in another country or in a crate once you email them asking for more information.

(7) LOOK AND FEEL (Once you begin looking for these sort of scams you will begin to see other patterns in the way these guys put the ads together. The ad that I mentioned is definately a scam because I have seen dozens exactly like this and I know how they look. Sorry if that doesn't really explain much.)

I have reported dozens of these to ebay and they always remove them.

If you don't believe what I am saying you should do a google search for "BIN BANDIT" or "BIN BANDITS" and you will find more information.

 

This scam auction will be removed by ebay soon so I have saved a picture of it for you to look at.

First of all here are a couple of things to look for if you are just searching or browsing.
CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE



And once you click on the auction to view it here are some other things to look for:

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE

 

The hummer scam has been removed from ebay now.

Here are a couple more scams for your viewing enjoyment.

See if you can spot the tell-tell signs:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...QQcmdZViewItem


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1962-...QQcmdZViewItem

PS:

These jerks do the same thing with tractors and other expensive items:
http://cgi.ebay.com/2003-6120-John-D...QQcmdZViewItem