It smells like a scam but...
Discussion
... I can't quite work out how?
I put my BMW E39 528i up for sale on E-Bay. The car has done 165,000 miles, has required welding on one sill where the jack went through and needs a replacement head gasket (does about 15 miles before all of the water is spat out!)
I paid £675 for it 3 years ago and have put a lot of miles on it. Best scrap value I could find was £100 so I took a punt on Ebay with a start price of £99.99.
It's currently had 250 views (In 24 hours) and has attracted 15 watchers but no bids.
I've had an email from a guy who says he can pick up tomorrow with a recovery vehicle and will pay me £300 cash. He says he is exporting the car?
This morning I had a call from him asking if I wanted to confirm the deal!
Definite Russian accent!
It just feels so dodgy and must be a scam but I can't see how I'm the one being scammed?
He'll be paying cash and I'll be checking the notes!
I've printed off the AA private sales receipt and have added wording specifically to guard against him saying it was mis-described.
I'll make sure he fills out the V5 and will just give him the green portion
Anything else I need to watch for?
I put my BMW E39 528i up for sale on E-Bay. The car has done 165,000 miles, has required welding on one sill where the jack went through and needs a replacement head gasket (does about 15 miles before all of the water is spat out!)
I paid £675 for it 3 years ago and have put a lot of miles on it. Best scrap value I could find was £100 so I took a punt on Ebay with a start price of £99.99.
It's currently had 250 views (In 24 hours) and has attracted 15 watchers but no bids.
I've had an email from a guy who says he can pick up tomorrow with a recovery vehicle and will pay me £300 cash. He says he is exporting the car?
This morning I had a call from him asking if I wanted to confirm the deal!
Definite Russian accent!
It just feels so dodgy and must be a scam but I can't see how I'm the one being scammed?
He'll be paying cash and I'll be checking the notes!
I've printed off the AA private sales receipt and have added wording specifically to guard against him saying it was mis-described.
I'll make sure he fills out the V5 and will just give him the green portion
Anything else I need to watch for?
I had a similar thing when selling a hard top for a toyota hilux - Polish guy rang up, said he would pay more than it was advertised at and he would come and collect with cash.
Was a little but dubious but he turned up with a trailer with 3 other hard top's on, stacked it up and handed over the cash.
He said it was cheaper for him to have a run over here and collect a few than try and buy them in Poland.
No problem at all and he was a nice fella
Was a little but dubious but he turned up with a trailer with 3 other hard top's on, stacked it up and handed over the cash.
He said it was cheaper for him to have a run over here and collect a few than try and buy them in Poland.
No problem at all and he was a nice fella
hornetrider said:
Not a scam if he's offering cash. You'd be surprised how many Polish etc vehicles you see at the ferry ports towing old duffer BMs and Mercs back for spares.
This is what I'm hoping! The alarm bells really started when he went straight into a £300 offer on the first day of the auction with no other bids in.Older cars are very cheap in the UK compared to nearly everywhere else, especially broken older cars but they are worth a lot more over the continent, if not the whole car then the spares certainly will be. He'll either take it over and get it fixed for a fraction of the cost and sell the car on for a profit or brake it down for parts and sell those on at a profit.
I'd make sure a big mate or two was round when he shows up though, just in case.
I'd make sure a big mate or two was round when he shows up though, just in case.
I passed a Chrysler Grand Voyager on the M20 heading towards the docks. It was Polish-registered, and towing a trailer on which was another (UK-registered) Grand Voyager, which has light rear end damage.
I could only imagine they'd bought it cheap over here and were taking it home to break for spares for their own one.
I could only imagine they'd bought it cheap over here and were taking it home to break for spares for their own one.
Member on another forum sold an old Mondeo on eBay to a buyer in Poland - I forget the exact amount but it was a few hundred. What horrified the seller was the buyer flew over and was driving it back. But he emailed to say he made it fine.
Buyer said he intended to swap to LHD and sell it on so they must sell for a heck of a price there to make that worthwhile.
Buyer said he intended to swap to LHD and sell it on so they must sell for a heck of a price there to make that worthwhile.
Had similar with my S6 ... 2x cracked manifolds and a rattling exhaust, no MOT
Listed on eBay and had a similar call from a guy who offered me bottom book (more than what I expected really considering) drove from Milton Keynes to Newcastle to view and pay cash (plus paid for the spare front bumper I had in the garage for it and also wanted an extra set of S6 alloys I had sitting but I wasn't selling those)
Asked if I could keep it in my garage till he sorted a transporter as he had a few cars up and down the country going for export. A couple of weeks later he called and had the transporter arranged for the following day. Arrived as planned and done and dusted.
Listed on eBay and had a similar call from a guy who offered me bottom book (more than what I expected really considering) drove from Milton Keynes to Newcastle to view and pay cash (plus paid for the spare front bumper I had in the garage for it and also wanted an extra set of S6 alloys I had sitting but I wasn't selling those)
Asked if I could keep it in my garage till he sorted a transporter as he had a few cars up and down the country going for export. A couple of weeks later he called and had the transporter arranged for the following day. Arrived as planned and done and dusted.
I had similar when selling some speakers on eBay. The purchaser seemed a bit suspect, was apparently UK based, but then says was travelling from overseas with cash. Hmmm I was thinking.
But he turned up when he said he would, paid cash and was on his way. His estate car was absolutely stuffed to the gills with used Hi-fi equipment, he'd driven all the way from Poland to collect a load of purchases, and was heading straight back to sell it.
But he turned up when he said he would, paid cash and was on his way. His estate car was absolutely stuffed to the gills with used Hi-fi equipment, he'd driven all the way from Poland to collect a load of purchases, and was heading straight back to sell it.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff