Hot Rods Just bought the last car I will ever buy without seeing in person.

Integrity, Respect & Responsibility ...... words than have vanished from our lives.

 

I agree that not everyone here is out to get someone. And I have had plenty of good deals.

He has been a member since 2010. Not an Alliance member. I'll send you some info.

 

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I got an email from my brother who lives 450 mi away from where I'm at and he tells me about an ad in the local paper. 1934 Hupp 3W Coupe, Looks like a Ford. $XXXX.XX.

I got off the web and made a call to him right then. I got ahold of him and said that "he had to look at this car right now!"

He was pretty hesitant, but it was only a few exits up the interstate from his place in Nor Cal . An hour later he was standing in front of that car located in the owners house-not the garage-the house.

He looked it over for me top to bottom, gave me the lowdown, he took pix and put them in the mail,(they got here after I was already on my way up north), but I was on a mission to get a B engine for my pal Oscar that was for sale in my brothers 707 area code, little did I know that it was 5hrs. north of my brothers.....

The owner of this car had me put a non refundable deposit down, which I wired to my brother so he could physically hand it to the owner.
This is the only time that I have ever bought a car sight unseen. I was lucky to have my brother go look it over for me and even luckier dealing with the seller who needed me to be an equally "straight shooter" buyer as he had to blow the door casings off of his doorway in order to get that car out.

My point here is that whenever you let your precious and hard earned greenbacks leave your hands for the purchase of anything, you gotta have someone to check it out who you trust and who knows cars.

My experience took place when 35mm film was still the way to get images of perspective purchases. since the millennium with the advent of digital imagery, this has become much easier really look over=(High Res Pix).

If someone doesn't want to take the high res pix of what is posted for sale/listed that is when I would be suspect of a non righteous deal. Just as your time is valuable so is his, but a way not to make a wasted trip could be the high quality imagery=(non photo shopped).

Sorry for your bad experience(s). I hope future purchases will be as they were described in their representation.

 

Sorry to hear you got ripped off. I always go look or no deal-too many crooks out there. I have looked at quite a few for Hambers on here though. When I sell something I strongly suggest they come look-if not then hire someone to check it over or no deal. Not long ago a guy was wanting to buy a 40 we had. He said I saw the pics-no problem. I said come and look or no sale-he didn't come so no sale.

 

Sorry for your bad experience with this car. Only suggestion is go get into the garage and look at what you actually got and what is involved in getting to the level you had hoped for. If it cannot be done then my suggestion would be to move it along. It will haunt you every time you look at .

Really sorry you got taken advantage of. Sad.

 

I called the guy and left a message. If he won't help me then I will probably just move it with a better description than he gave me.

 

These threads never cease to amaze me. In this world regardless of the way you believe it should be, if you deal in this fashion you deserve to be deceived and ripped off.
Sorry if that seems harsh but some of these lessons are learned in the school of hard knocks.
You know what they say, "a fool and his money are soon parted".

Good luck in getting it resolved if possible.

 

I agree and I've already admitted that it's my fault. Just hoping more people will read this and they won't be as gullible as myself. Thanks

 

Thanks to Woody's Hot Rods, for starting this thread. A lot of good info here to avoid unwanted issues.

 

i dont think anyone deserves to get ripped off.

 

I agree.

 

I don't need a thread to teach me this lesson. Never have and never will, buy something as important as a car, sight unseen. The days of trusting strangers ended decades ago.

 

your multiple losses is not the norm but, getting burned is not as uncommon as one might think. at least have someone look at it and send pics while still at car's location gives you some piece of mind & security. but, if for whatever reason that you do not go look yourself do not blame the "helper eyes" for any problems that were not evident or missed. now comes the really hard part - you go look at it and you buy it and then you find all kinds of problems that you thought would be "easy & cheap" to fix. sometimes we screw ourselves in more than one way.

 

Pictures posted with any ad are always chosen to show the car at its best and my vision of clean condition is always better then what someone elses is, I try to remember that when buying and pay accordingly when I can't do so in person. Good luck going forward with your dealings.

 

I've been thinking of posting one of my vehicles here on the HAMB classifieds, but seeling long distance makes me wonder if I could say the buyer HAD to have someone (Hamber) come inspect the vehicle for them?

I'd sure want someone to inspect a distant car/truck if I was thinking of buying one.

 

I've lot track of how many hundreds of dollars I've spent over the years making road trips to look at "perfect" 47/53 Chevy truck beds and am damned lucky I never sent the money to pay for one of those before going to see about it.

I bought a few OT cars on Ebay back when you could buy basically scrappers for pocket change and never got burned on any of those but the most I paid was a bit over 100 bucks and I drove that one home and my wife drove it for a year and I sold it on Ebay again. Good little car but I couldn't see paying 400 bucks to have a carb on a 100 dollar car rebuilt.
On the other hand I have gone out and inspected and taken a crap load of high rez photos of one rig for a guy on the east coast who had found it on Craigslist. Truck wasn't perfect but was as it was represented and worth the asking price and it turned out I've known the couple selling it for over 50 years.

 

I'm amazed by the mis-description of things - especially when the prospective buyer can physically see them.
I went to see a car a few years ago that was described as a '9', and as I pulled up it looked as described. The paintwork looked flawless and the condition was definitely up there until I looked at the other side of the car which was parked just a bit too close to an 8' wall.....
It was wiped out! the whole side was scraped and dented, the doors didn't fit and all of the trim had been ripped off and was missing.
His explanation was "It was perfect before the accident".
Some people!

 

i have looked at several cars for other people that was buying. some were better than said some were not. one person was buying a 57 wagon every thing was better than said. execpt the title did not match the vin. so i will not buy something with out a person checking it out for me while were are on the phone and can talk or in person

 

Woody, Back about 10 years ago when I had some $$$$ before I had to go out on Disabilty. I was buying a few buicks and wagons off flea bay and was very lucky with them. Then I traded my 64 buick wagon purple seen in my avatar for a 56 Chrysler Windsor from a fellow H.A.M.B.E.R. He even trailered it down from way up north to me here in East T.N.I looked the car over and he looked mine over .He unloaded the Chrysler and loaded up my wagon .We were both HAPPY. I Drove the Chrysler for about 3 years and then sold it to get what I always wanted a 56 buick station. It had been on Flea bay and didn't sell{that should of been the 1st red flag}Then I talk to a friend of mine who just happen to live about 45 minutes down the road from the guy who had it in upstate N.Y.So I ask him to look at it. He goes and looks at it and say it looks like a good deal .He heard it run and being a buick with the dynflow trans.I tell him MAKE SURE IT DOESNT LEAK trans fluid. He says he didn't see any. So I bought it sight unseen. I pay my friend $400. to bring it down on his trailer. He cant get the trailer up my mountain drive way so after about 45 minutes he gets the buick started and backs it out of his enclosed trailer. Then it wont start again so in the dark and pouring rain I tow it up my drive way with him leanling out of the window with a flash light because the headlights were so dim. Finally got it up to the cabin and I said lets leave it here. We go in the house we dry off I pay him and have a couple shots to warm up and he heads back up north. During the next few days I get the 56 buick running and guess what? The damn motor has a knock in it and is gushing trans fluid out as fast as I can put it in. I try and drive it down to my shop which is down the hill. The car had a hard brake pedal but come to find out the brake booster didn't work so when I get down to the shop I cant stop and the emergency didnt work either. LOL, and wind up taking out the back wall of my shop about a foot..I had to shove old bed sheets in it for about a week till I could fix it . {It was Nov and cold}Nothing happened to the car.So me too never bought another car sight unseen.It took me 3 years to go from this .

 

. TO THIS. Live and learn. P.S. The title was fudge up too. I had to get that straighten out. Bruce.

 

If it is a good car at a good price. It will be gone the first day posted in the local paper/free want ads. If it is on Ebay it is overpriced for the local market or its a POS that no locals want. Stepping over dimes to pick up pennies.

 

As for my friend who checked it out, when I found my olds wagon I had sold 12 years ago and found just sitting in a garage for the last 10 years{ NOW THIS TIME I WENT UP AND CHECKED OUT THE CAR IN PERSON} he leant me the $$$$ to buy it back because he felt so bad about the 56 buick wagon and all the $$ I had to dump in to her. He towed it home for me too and I payed him back and we were both happy. It only took 2 months to get the Olds wagon road worthy after sitting all thoses years. I will be repainting her back to her original color when it warms up a little more here,But for now I am driving her and loving it and she aint going no where again. lol. In fact I will be cruising in her next weekend at the rod run in Pigeon Forge next weekend. Happy motoring you all Bruce.

 

WHAT? No 70's show Vista crhiser?

Sent from my SM-G360V using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

There is an old saying about a fool and his money. Sorry you got taken advantage of, an expensive lesson no doubt.

 

I think anybody who buys sight unseen will eventually get burned. I also have. I bought a rust free convertible off ebay. It was so rust free that the gas tank and trunk floor fell out on the pavement while unloading it from the shipper. Pictures are no guarantee either. They make cars look better than what they are. If there is any way for the description to deceive, then rest assured that it probably does.
Like you, I learned the hard way......never again. I gotta touch it.

 

I almost bought a sight unseen car. It sounded like I couldn't get hurt on the deal. 57 Chevy Handyman wagon. New paint, newly rebuilt 383 for12K. I then came to my senses and drove 4 1/2 hours to see it. What a POS. Had new paint over dents and rust. If the car was outside I'd have driven right past it.
Trust me when I tell you, I will never even think about buying something I haven't seen.

Ggary

 

Don't get me started on people misreprisening cars, I put 1500 miles on looking at crap that I Asked Specific questions, 1 a 34 Ford pu (hamb classifieds) Way over priced for the condition. An of course strategic pictures taken to omit the ugly, that was 700mls., next was 53 f1 same story that was only 500mls., next a 57 Wagon, ditto only 300 mls. All coming home Empty! A Wiseman, Is only a fool with a good memory!!

 

That's a loaded statement we all say its our last but then there's the next one

 

I learned many years ago not to buy a car without looking at it. I will not sell a car without the prospective buyer looking at it. That way there is no bad blood.. I have driven over 1800 miles to look at a car, only to find that the bastard lied about everything. Only cost me time and gas money.

 

Several years ago I spotted what was advertised as a 37 Ford Pick up in good shape that I found in Hemmings. I borrowed a pick up and trailer and drove over 4 hours to pick it up. What I found in this guys front yard was a pile of rust that I was afraid to touch because I was sure my finger would go through the rust. The seller said I couldn't leave with an empty trailer. We drove back empty.