Cheap ebay E35-2?

[Nicki]

Hi Gareth,
The guy I mentioned in the earlier post was purely someone I found on the web who had the grace to offer me time and the benefit of his experience. He was in no way involved with this deal. I am the sole party, aside of the seller, in this situation. I probably should have engaged an official surveyor, but I did not. I take the same attitude to buying as do to going to sea; it is my responsibility, success and failure equally. I don't know if you are familiar with the ebay non-payment procedure, but it would appear that both parties are given rope to hang themselves and ebay then decides what follows.
I'll be in touch shortly.
Thanks Gareth,
Regards,
Nicki

 

[gareth harris]

My question had nothing to do with ebay, but with what he told you that made you realise the deal was off - i.e. just what would be required to take the boat into the country. It seems odd that, since E35s have been sold in the EU before, it should be so hard to cross the hurdle that seemed to stop you.

As for ebay, I think the fact the seller wanted $1000 to show you the boat, after you had crossed the Atlantic, would give you a lot of ammunition.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[Brisdon]

Visiting E-bay is like visiting a really interesting country with no police force. You are on your own and there are a lot of freaky people to encounter with no one to protect you beyond your own instincts. Even some of the credit card companies will not go to bat for you if you made a purchase that went bad. Things that have little ligitimate curb appeal will do better on E Bay than they will for a local audience. I often need strange or rare things for film, and I often go to e-bay knowing that what I receive will always be less impressive than it looked in the photo and will have undisclosed problems. But, I need it and I know what to expect, so I continue to use it. I bought a car on E-bay a couple of months ago and had it shipped cross country. It was exactly what I needed, it was obscure and it wasn't a case of looking at a few and picking the best one, so I just bought it early so that I could make the car that "runs perfectly" run at all before we shot it. I wouldn't buy a boat on E-bay unless it was for a movie and I was planning on blowing it up.

 

[Nicki]

Gareth,
The real problem which made me stop was the fact that I had the money to buy the boat, ship her home, pay the VAT and re rig her. I had a small fund for the deck etc, which is more of a time than cost commitment if done myself. In essence, I could get her home and sailing, just. An open-ended cost situation, beginning with expensive storage in a commercial dock, just blew the thing out of the water. It was being unable to work out anything like a figure which scared me and made me see a huge hole with no sailing, just stress, cost and worry. I would still very much like to buy a US of the 60's or 70's, and I think the way to go about it is to have $20k cash and sail her home. That way she gets re-rigged and sorted in the US which is cheaper than here, sailed home, which is fun and , food aside, free, and I get 6 months this end VAT free which would be ample time to slowly sort the paperwork whilst she swings gently on my cheap mooring. That is now the plan.
The long and the short of it is that I have had a good trip to your country, learned a bit more, which is always useful, and worked out a plan for future boat purchases. A good deal I reckon.
Nicki

 

[Nicki]

Brisdon,
Sage words as ever. I love the last line about blowing it up. Made me laugh. At least in the savage, lawless, ebay-world, I paid not a penny for the boat and got what actually can now be justified as a holiday. Your analogy of ebay as a separate country it very interesting and accurate. It is a weired place.
Regards,
Nicki

 

[treilley]

You think our ebay is like a separate country, try visiting a foreign ebay. I once bought an item on www.ebay.de and I never received it. I contacted the seller(business) many times at which point ebay refunded my money. That is the one and only bad experience I have ever had on ebay out of over a hundred sales and purchases. Ebay has both saved me and made me a lot of money.

 

[Sean Engle]

eBay - Watch Your Back...

Visiting E-bay is like visiting a really interesting country with no police force. You are on your own and there are a lot of freaky people to encounter with no one to protect you beyond your own instincts. Even some of the credit card companies will not go to bat for you if you made a purchase that went bad. Things that have little ligitimate curb appeal will do better on E Bay than they will for a local audience. I often need strange or rare things for film, and I often go to e-bay knowing that what I receive will always be less impressive than it looked in the photo and will have undisclosed problems. But, I need it and I know what to expect, so I continue to use it. I bought a car on E-bay a couple of months ago and had it shipped cross country. It was exactly what I needed, it was obscure and it wasn't a case of looking at a few and picking the best one, so I just bought it early so that I could make the car that "runs perfectly" run at all before we shot it. I wouldn't buy a boat on E-bay unless it was for a movie and I was planning on blowing it up.

HOT BUTTON WARNING: ​

Tell me about it - I purchased a 1921 Singer sewing machine on eBay from a guy in Canada 6-7 years ago. I paid for it - and he shipped it in a paper towel box (no kidding - like the kind you would get from a grocery store)!

It arrived here in pieces. He immediately offered to put in an insurance claim against the Canadian Postal Svc instead of just paying for it himself...

I told him he was a moron for shipping it that way in the first place (compare with: I purchased a 1936 Model 21 from a guy in LA - he built a custom wooden crate for it). Moreover, I had REAL problems with the fact that the box itself showed no trauma - and made me suspect that he used the flimsy box to hide an existing broken up machine.

I complained to PayPal - and they basically took the position that "...all we do is transfer the money. We did that - so we fulfilled our contract with you..." So - PayPal is basically nothing more than a fence - and you have zero recourse with them under the terms of their user agreement.

In this case, it reads like F-R-A-U-D.

With all due respect to our guest from the UK - I would be hard-pressed to purchase a sailboat on the other side of the planet - unless I was over there for some reason, and saw it first hand. I think it's a good thing he bailed: the experience he wrote about sounds very dodgy - at best.

When I purchased my boat, I drove up to Everett for four days straight and stood at the dock looking at, poking it, sniffing it, making notes, taking pictures, wondering things like "what the hell is this thing?...". Actually, I think I freaked out my PO a little...

When I purchase something from eBay - I'm a true mid-westerner: I hope for the best - but am prepared for the worst...

My $0.02...

//sse

 

[Brisdon]

I have another example. I bought a lap top computer on E-bay once. I wanted something that would run pc navigation software, and I didn't want an expensive unit living on the boat etc. Well, the laptop arrived not working, but also with the case cracked in half. Seller would not deal with me about it, same thing, make a claim with insurance, not my problem. I could see that the damage was not shipping, but pre-existing (it was supposed to be a working unit with no specified injuries). I had paid for the Pay Pal insurance on this purchase because I wanted to be sure that I would be covered if anything should go wrong. I filled out the PayPal insurance forms, put them in the box, put instructions on the box to send it to Pay Pal, and dropped it off at a Fed Ex station. WELL, they accidently sent it to the seller and not to Pay Pal. Pay Pal said that my insurance was invalid because I didn't follow the rules and that I must now negotiate with the seller for a refund on what I had returned. Even though I had tracking info on the package, the seller insisted that he did not get it. When I reported the sellers lie with the tracking report as information, E-bay and Pay Pal agreed to make an investigation. Every time I inquired, they told me they had no record and I must re-submit. After six months of hedging, they informed me that I had not persued the matter soon enough and that it was now over the statute of limitations for an investigation. I called a lawyer, he said there was already a class action suit and that I could get on it. To make a long story short, a couple of years later I got 12 dollars as my part of the settlement against Pay Pal. E-bay never stopped that seller from selling!

 

[MarkA]

Wow!

I've had the best of luck with eBay. My items were in better condition than described, and the prices were great.

Like anything else, I guess my time is coming.