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eBay tat volume 3.


Ross_K

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Guy buys something for less then sells it for more shocker. You see this all the time on RR. Someone buys car for £400, mot's it, welds it, fits lots of new bits to it then re-sells for £600 to the cries of "OMG you bought this for £400 you criminal".

 

If he can get someone to pay his prices for his cars and it doesn't involve a baseball bat or him blackmailing the purchaser with pictures of them being initmate with a goat then who cares!

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If he can turn a profit on these old motors and people are prepared to pay it then what's the problem?

 

I think that's exactly "the problem" for some people (not you specifically Luxo). That Vauxhall "scandal" for example: guy who once owned the car gets upset because it's being sold for loads of asking price... not rocket science is it? Maybe The Doctor stretches the truth a bit maybe not, show me a sucessful business man who doesn't talk the talk. Maybe all The Doctor has to go on is what he was told when he bought the car.

 

How many dissatisfied customers of The Doctor do we know about?

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I'm with cort16 and for those tyre botherers out there, he does mention you should satisfy yourself of the risks driving home on the original tyres.

 

I don't see the issue - all his cars do have a good chunk of preparation work go into them, more than I see on any other car for sale, they all look great and I don't care about what someone has paid for something if I am happy to pay the price they want for it.

 

A good example is my XM estate - I bought it for £250, took the trouble to get it MoT'd, spent more at the MoT station on it than it had cost me to buy, have spent more money subsequently servicing it, am just about to buy a set of alloys for it too - now should I punt it on for £250 or should I expect to recoup [some of] my money spent on an exhaust, service etc. You tell me but I know my XM estate is worth a lot more than my initial £250 investment.

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Yeah, but there was nothing stopping the Vauxhall owner tarting it up himself and doing a good write up. He just sounds a bit sore to me. Someone else took the initiative, thats life innit.

 

If that's a reply to me, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. His little facebook campaign screamed "why did I let it go so cheap?" to me.

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I've met him, sold him a really nice ex Jersey Austin 1800, he gave me a good price, he had the hassle of re-registering it, doing some minor repairs, advertising it, and dealing with the pond life who inevitably waste your time. He did well out of it, I did well out of it, everyone's happy.

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For my tuppence worth I'll say this.

Yes I find his ads a load of gushing tosh so I exercise my option not to read them, but I'm pretty sure that if I DID spend £3-4k on that Glof I'd probably feel a lot less shafted that if I'd spent five times that much on a new one. :wink:

 

Anyway, we have our own 'Scottish Doctor' just up the road. This guy's ads are similarly verbose and his pictures similarly Photoshopped, although he tends to deal in 10-20 year old Mercs, Porsches and BMWs rather than classics, but here's an example of his current wares.

 

vqZ02l.jpg

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Perhaps you can explain to us what 'fit for purpose' actually means when applied to a 27 year old Golf (which is very obviously in excellent condition).

 

It's defined retrospectively, i.e. it constitutes a de facto guarantee that it won't be blowing up within a few weeks (which it may well do, despite its otherwise good condition, being a 27 year old car that hasn't been over 2000 revs in the past 12 years and probably hasn't been maintained as it should).

 

Total balls. Are you seriously expecting him to offer some sort of guarantee with this thing? If so, just out of interest, how long and/or how many miles would you like on the guarantee.

 

He expressly says there is no guarantee. You are not obliged to bid, and if you do, you bid a price that takes into account the fact (of which you must be already aware, lest you are bidding without reading the description) that there is no guarantee. Now you are saying that he is potentially in breach of a contract with a buyer, because he hasn't offered a guarantee. You are talking horse shite.

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Yeah, but there was nothing stopping the Vauxhall owner tarting it up himself and doing a good write up. He just sounds a bit sore to me. Someone else took the initiative, thats life innit.

 

If that's a reply to me, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. His little facebook campaign screamed "why did I let it go so cheap?" to me.

 

 

Ah Ok. Where on fb was he moaning about it? Didn't know about that.

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I can't help thinking of this bit from 'The Office'

 

[brent believes anything with the Queen's image should be currency]

David Brent: In fact, a postage stamp is legal tender. A bus driver would have to accept that as currency.

Tim: Yeah, that'd happen.

Gareth: Well, if he doesn't, report him.

Tim: Yeah, I'll report him while I'm walking home.

Gareth: Get a taxi. (if you've got enough stamps).

Dawn: Or cash 'em in at the Post Office.

David Brent: Shouldn't have to! Shouldn't have to!

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MrB, the SOGA says "fair description" for private sales, "fit for purpose" for trade ones. You can't be a trader and sell cars on a "fair description" basis. Them's the laws.

 

What he said. It doesn't matter that it's a 27 year old car.

And eBay isn't an auction in the traditional sense of an auction: The buyer's contract is with the seller, not the "auction house".

So any bollocks about auction items being sold as seen is just that - bollocks.

 

And if the seller is a trader, SOGA applies - we all know this.

Flowery item descriptions about Mrs Boggins driving to the Bridge Club with the vicar once a week don't count for shit.

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That Golf is lovely, what seems to have escaped notice is that the selling price will end up pretty high because it could be a GTi within a few weeks! No point restoring a knackered one if you can buy such a clean shell.

 

Mk2 Escorts anyone?

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If I came by enough money (say via a lottery win) to pay the mortgage off and live off the interest every year, meaning I didn't have to work, I'd spend my days doing what The Doctor does*.

 

The guy is living the dream - buying, working on/detailing, finding out the history of, and most probably getting a good drive in all sorts of interesting kit. The guy seems to make a decent profit (so maybe even a decent living) out of all this too. Surely all us shitists should all aspire to that as a lifestyle?

 

Wuvvum and others are rightly lauded on here for doing pretty much the same thing, aren't they? I'm not sure about the profit bit in some cases, mind.

*Though I'd probably just decide to keep pretty much every car that came my way and turn victory into financial defeat, Del-boy style. Coz I is thik.

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'SOGA APPLIES!!! SOGA APPLIES!!!' says the internet law dept. But what does it actually even mean? What legal cover does it give someone buying this car? What circumstances does it apply in? Its total bollocks man.

 

OMG SOGA LAGOS GOSS BROSS MAT & LUKE SOGA SOGGY SAGO GOATSE

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FFS. The Doctor obviously spends a fair bit of time finding these old cars, he prepares them properly, photographs them well and states clearly and without bullshit that they're old cars so bid at your own risk. WTF is the problem?

 

You'd think that the poor sod would be getting a bit of credit for finding these old things and making them properly nice, but no, he gets called all kinds of shyster because he's not offering a warranty on a 27 year old Golf and Luxo wibbling on about the fucking Sale of Goods act?

 

No wonder people don't bother dealing in low-end old cars. If this is the shit the Doc gets for flogging immaculate stuff imagine what it's like for people flogging old chod. I certainly wouldn't bother. If this is how old car folk behave then it's easy to see how cars get sent over the bridge instead of dealing with the shit that comes with flogging cheap old cars to Watchdog obsessed anoraks.

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I think any 20+ year old car with a design life of twelve years or less would be minimally covered under SoG Act. It has already lasted beyond the reasonable time expected of it and therefore anyone buying such a vehicle would reasonably expect it to break down at some point and require work beyond what a less old vehicle would need.

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To actually pin things down here, is anyone aware of any case law where an old, and slightly valuable (i.e. far more than scrap, but not 'blue chip classic' value), car was found not be 'fit for purpose'?

 

English law seems to be based largely on precedent, after all ....

 

I suspect that such case law doesn't exist, as it would be nigh on impossible (as many have alluded to on here) to argue that a car of this age should reasonably be expected to be up to such standards. I could be wrong, mind.

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FFS. The Doctor obviously spends a fair bit of time finding these old cars, he prepares them properly, photographs them well and states clearly and without bullshit that they're old cars so bid at your own risk. WTF is the problem?

 

You'd think that the poor sod would be getting a bit of credit for finding these old things and making them properly nice, but no, he gets called all kinds of shyster because he's not offering a warranty on a 27 year old Golf and Luxo wibbling on about the fucking Sale of Goods act?

 

No wonder people don't bother dealing in low-end old cars. If this is the shit the Doc gets for flogging immaculate stuff imagine what it's like for people flogging old chod. I certainly wouldn't bother. If this is how old car folk behave then it's easy to see how cars get sent over the bridge instead of dealing with the shit that comes with flogging cheap old cars to Watchdog obsessed anoraks.

This, times eleventy.

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I usually find that "old car folk" are some of nastiest, snide, back biting, heather scum put on God's green earth. I've had the misfortune to have been co-opted [against my better judgement] to join a couple of "owner's clubs". First meeting I went to, the first time I opened my gob with a quite reasonable idea, .you would have thought that I'd suggested that they have sexual congress with a three legged goat. I never went back.

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Hey, chill out everyone. 8)

 

As Pete said, SOGA is precisely why the low-end traders are being wiped out. Exactly because the courts are too draconian in its application- did you see me, or anyone else, saying it's a good thing overall? A guy who sells stuff from e-bay instead of a container behind a canopy is already ahead of those traders by virtue of not having overheads and keeping a much smaller stock. There's nowt wrong with that business model, in fact it's pretty shrewd- sacrificing volume for the sake of a good per unit profit. However, trying to dress up trade sales as private ones is pretty much illegal, and there's no harm in pointing that out, particularly when the part of the market we're talking about isn't the one that's been hit hardest by the application of a very blunt legal instrument.

 

I also agree it's a good thing that there's more interest in shite and that some random old cars can seemingly fetch quite a bit of money with a good polish, and I did say that he clearly has a knack for buying the right stuff at the right price. However, that doesn't make the patronising sales patter any less silly or the legal side of things any more black-and-white.

 

Why do you have to get quasi-emotional about that?

 

Let's get back to the regular programming. Is there anyone anywhere near East London with time to kill this weekend? This would be the perfect 'sensible' car for me if I still can't manage to sort parking out. LPG, high-spec, reasonable fuel consumption, and in a few months it's eligible for classic insurance.

 

media?id=2119893331

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

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