Would you buy this for $5K?

[kevperro]

I bid on this on Ebay knowing I wouldn't win. Guess what... the original bidder fell through and they are offing it to me for my bid price of $5K.


Ebay 26X


I guess my biggest reservation is that this sounds too good to be true. Any suggestions for a newbie on what things to look for in terms of buying a used Mac?

[DLT]

If the motor runs and there are no obvious structural defects, its worth $5k easy...

Sounds like you got a hull of a deal.

Just ask if you can start the motor. If they say they can't put it in the water and there is no water spigot available, bring a big trash can and as much water as you can...

Give the whole boat a good eyeballing. You'll be able to easily spot any issues that might make it worth less than $5k... Even if you are missing little things here and there, its still worth well over $5k...

[richandlori]

I'd buy it...clean it up...and put it back on the market...

obviously the seller needs Cash and is willing give it away.....

sometimes you just get lucky in life...ya never know.

[Tom Walsh]

what is to think about , that is easily a $15000 boat
jump on it with both feet
well I take it back there is one thing I would want to check close, the title!

[Larry W]

The email you got is a scam...probably from someone in Nigeria. $5K for something that bid all the way up to $13K? Common sense will tell you that something is fishy about that. I usually get one or two of those same scam emails when I loose a bid on Ebay.

[DLT]

Yeah, make sure you are actually talking to the owner of the boat and don't give them a penny before laying eyes on the boat! hull, don't "send" them any money. If they insist on a down payment, then offer to give them one upon inspection, with the rest payable on closing...

[Captain Steve]

Another thing that is strange...there are like 20 bids between the winner and yours...what happened to them? Did they all say no??? You can click on them to generate an email to them, you should ask them!

If the motor is running...its worth 5 K alone!

[Lloyd Franks]

"If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is." If you look at the bids, seems like a lot of people bid higher than you. Why weren't they contacted?

[kevperro]

I think you are correct. I went to my ebay account and I don't see a legit 2nd chance offer. The email looks good.... these crooks are really getting slick.

I've emailed the Ebay fraud protection. Man... I'd love to have a Mac26 soon and this guy got me all worked up for nothing!

[Larry W]

I bet the email went something like this:

Dear Sir,

I am the eBay seller of Item number XXXXXXXXX. You expressed interest in my item by bidding, however the auction has ended with another eBay member as the high bidder. Because the winner of my auction didn't respond to my emails after winning the auction, I want to issue a second chance offer to you. There are a lot of bidders who bid on the auction for fun and I hope you are serious buyer and we can make a clear deal. If you accept my second chance offer we will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection. To purchase my item please reply me.

P.S. If you are interested i will wait your reply asap.


Thank you!

[kevperro]

[RandyMoon]

It sounds like the urban legand where there is an ad in the classified for a Corvette for sale. The lucky guy goes to look at the car and the little old lady says that it belonged to her son who went to war and did not come back, and she said she didn't have any idea how much it was worth and asked if $2,000 would be too much to ask.

[kevperro]

You can always bet that when something is too good to be true..... it is!

I'm just impressed with how good of a job they did at emulating an Ebay email.

Still saving my pennies though for that Mac26X. Next year this time I'll be sailing!

[fthefireman]

This is my first post , but if you did not recieve this through your my ebay account it is probably a scam. I had the same thing happen to me and i contacted the seller and they had not issued a second offer. Be ware!!!!!

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

If you know how to look at the header of an email, then you can check to see where it really comes from (its easy to spoof the "from" tag). Chances are it comes from a domain that is not really ebay.com.

I expect the ebay fraud dept would like to take a look at the email headers too.