Anyone familiar with the company ERA Auto Consign ? The reviews I've read are favorable, but what's a bit troubling is their offer of FREE enclosed shipping AND a 10-day inspection with right-to-return, and they would pay that shipping as well if the vehicle is not acceptable. And only if/when the car is acceptable, do they invoice. (a little confusing on their site) Seems too good to be true. When looking up the company, it says it was incorporated in Aug of this year (2023), yet some of the reviewers say they've "been a customer for a long time". I am interested in a car they have, but obviously a bit leery.
Where is their "showroom" located? Do they even maintain a "showroom warehouse"? If not : MAJOR RED FLAG!! Especially with the RECENT "Start-up date"!
Part of a response I got from them… > The vehicle is located and stored in one of our warehouses in Philadelphia, PA and can be purchased directly from us. Because delivery is free to any buyer, we list the vehicles in several locations to have more visibility. <
Sounds like this motorcycle sales bunch that used to hound me about selling my motorcycles. They sell it for you for a price. If you are really interested I’d fly, drive, hitchhike to Pa to look at it. If it’s really there.
I can't even find their site, which is a huge redflag. I was approached by a company a couple years back when I had a couple cars on Hemmings for sale. They offered to list them on their online auction platform for like $400ea and promised to get 100k views because their site was one of the best. Yet, when I looked for their online website, all I found was an underdeveloped copy of bring-a-trailer. Obviously I told them no, but I'm sure some sellers would fall for it and pay them $400 to post on their site hoping for a buyer. I believe some of these outfits are actually real and not a "scam" but they take advantage of sellers by offering services and opportunities that don't always pan out, but at the end of the day, they got paid and you still have your car.
After a bit of searching… https://www.nycompanyregistry.com/companies/eraautoconsign-llc/ doesn’t really tell much, except that the incorporation date was 8-31-23, which may or may not be important. Companies have to start at some point in time.
Come on. how could this possibly be true? Free shipping, enclosed even, included in the price-both ways if you don't like the car? Maybe on a Duesenberg or a Blower Bentley. it would be less expensive to fly you out to look at the car than to ship it both ways.
Google maps of their location -https://duckduckgo.com/?q=788+Baldwin+Rd+Fulton&t=newext&atb=v243-1&ia=maps&iaxm=maps
I too am leery about ERAAutoConsign as I am really interested in the purchase of one of there vehicles. They did respond to me via email that there located in Philadelphia and I replied what is there exact location as I would like to see the vehicle in person...never heard back from after 2 requests?
Maybe not relevant, but 40 some years ago my friends dad was a lawyer. He incorporated his business/practice. I asked why. He told me (old info, who knows) that the business was liable, not his dad as a person was not. That always made me leery of small places with the “inc” on the end.
If you're looking to sell a car, this place in Mankato, Minnesota is closer to home for you. https://www.uniqueclassiccars.com/
We did the same thing with our vet practice. The land was owned by a partnership (not taxed yearly as a corporate asset) and the practice itself was a corporation ( no personal liability). It is a fairly common business move and, not necessarily, shady.
"FREE enclosed shipping AND a 10-day inspection with right-to-return, and they would pay that shipping as well if the vehicle is not acceptable." read that over and over again until you no longer think it is a legit business
Why not just use Bring a Trailer? https://bringatrailer.com/auctions/ They have been around a while, and I know lots of people have used them with no issues.
Sounds like a familiar scam to me. I was interested in an OT car I saw on Craigslist a few years ago and the seller told me the exact same story-the car is in storage out of state, they'll send it to me and free shipping back if it's unacceptable, yadda yadda. I'll bet the price is really great, unbelievable even, and for some reason you can't just go to Philly, look at the car and pay in person. I keep seeing the same scam pop up on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace too; just today I saw one for a car advertised locally but the picture was from a 2019 ad from a dealer in the Netherlands. Do a tineye.com search on the photo in the ad and see how often it comes up.
@Budget36 Hello, Any name business has to have a business license on the premises. Also most have their license posted for all to see. The local consignment auto sales places here in So Cal are legitimate and have good business sense. Some have disappeared during the start of the pandemic for “locked in” reasons and no off of the street shoppers. Some larger parts stores have a section that have a car or two for sale. Some are on consignment. It is good business to showcase a nice hot rod or antique car to draw in customers. In one part of an older city, there is a place that sells cars located inside of their building. Some are on consignment. Jnaki We had two businesses. One was a photo oriented business and the other was a manufacturing business for custom skateboards and skateboard oriented scooters (years before the Razer scooter craze) for little kids all the way up to adult sizes. Our only requirement for starting and running the businesses was a business license. So, we were off and running. Then in the skateboard/custom scooter business had some hiccups. One was liability. We needed to separate our daily lives to incorporate the business name and license. Despite being the owners, the company was going to be owned by itself. Not us as participants. That leaves us out of any liability for damages and accidents. At the time we laughed at the prospect of a business owned by itself. We still made the profits, but in case some mom sued us for accidental damages done by/to her kid, our friend, a lawyer, said we need to incorporate and have liability insurance at least 1-2 million dollars. Jnaki We were fine with his instructions and decided to be ok with his plan. Incorporation was fine. But, the cost of that insurance policy was $15-16,000 dollars per year. That was the killer point for our fun, family business that had a future ahead of itself. I liked doing assembly line stuff, creating new designs and custom making a skateboard scooter for our friends and their kids. Even making custom scooters for the adults that had an wide open look when I showed them how I can keep up with our fast moving son and his friends. Add in custom skateboards at a profit, but discounted from stores with high prices was a future coming along, too. But, the initial cost and yearly upkeep, the 16k, plus monthly necessities put us out of business. As we were still figuring out if we could do it, a big toy corporation came along and built a crappy version of a plastic skateboard unit with no thought as to handling or safety. It was mass produced, low cost, sold a lot of them in the department stores and chain toy stores across the USA. Plus, the cost was so low that no one else could duplicate the plastic items. Insurance, a drop in the bucket for the large corporation and they ruled the market for years, with an awful design. Then, the Razer phenomenon came along and wiped out everyone!!! YRMV
A former circle track driver of mine jumped in an other race car and got killed. The next day I incorperated. 1981
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