I understand this, and I see this all the time with ebay car auctions. But, in my experience, and as KevinVarnes says, those auctions remain on the site, and if you go to the listing, it says at the top "this auction was ended early by the seller" or words like this. But the point is, the auction is still there to be viewed. One of the strengths of ebay is the ability to search completed auctions as well as current ones, and I think ebay benefits in doing this even when an auction ends without a successful sale. Buyers doing searches can learn as much from an auction that ends without a sale and seeing how much things don't sell for as much as they learn what things DO sell for in auctions that do end successfully. No, I think something more serious went on here. Ebay has all sorts of fraud-prevention devices built into the listing creation process, so it seems hard to believe that something could slip by them and make it onto their site. But I assume it CAN happen, and maybe that's what happened here. Something not-quite-right was discovered about this auction, and ebay expunged it from their site.
Here's an example of what you see on ebay when an auction is ended early without a sale. This showed up in a search of completed auctions.
No, but I don't know who would be in a position to tell me anything, anyway. I haven't submitted a question about this to ebay, and I have no way of contacting the seller as I noted earlier. The only thing you can do is just wait and see if it ever reappears on ebay. But maybe it was sold locally, and it won't reappear. Time to move on.
OK guys, just like that, the car is back, but now it's on craigslist, and he's asking $7,000 for it. If that's what his reserve price was on the ebay auction, then it's no surprise it wasn't met before the listing suddenly disappeared. But if that was the reserve, it doesn't explain why he told me the reserve was "just under $5,000." The ad text is identical to what he had in the ebay ad, including the bad punctuation and misuse of capital letters. He also did not update it to include that the air-conditioning does not work in spite of his "everything on the car works" claim. In the one time he did respond to my questions, he did say the A/C didn't work, and he said all of the side trim pieces are in the trunk. Why they're not on the car, he didn't say. The photos shown are pretty much exactly the same ones he had on ebay, but there are one or two additional ones. Overall, it is not a bad-looking car at all, although his photos of the exterior are never really very close-up. In my opinion, $7,000 is way out of line given the damage to the front end filler panel under the passenger side headlights, the non-working A/C, and the missing trim. Who knows what other problems it has. Maybe none, maybe lots more. My maximum bid on the ebay auction was $5100, and if he were asking $5000 or $5500, I might very well be tempted to drive over there (it's about a six-hour drive for me) and take a look at it. But not at that price. But I'll watch craigslist. If he gets no interest at what he's asking, maybe he'll lower his price. https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/d/chandler-1977-oldsmobile-toronado/6978049873.html
Sorry. I had meant from the guy himself. You’ll probably never hear anything from EBay. What a strange transaction this has been.
If anyone cares, the car is still on craigslist 8 days after the ad was first posted. No changes, including no change in price.
Update on this car, which I'm still watching. It spent two weeks on craigslist and apparently did not sell as the car was relisted on ebay last Saturday (September 28). The craigslist ad has been deleted. The ebay ad wording is identical to what was in the first ebay listing and to the craigslist verbiage, which means he doesn't acknowledge that the air-conditioning doesn't work despite his "everything works" comment. He did add a few more photos. The auction is scheduled to end Thursday. At the moment, the bidding is up to $2175 with the reserve not met. If his reserve is what he was asking for in the craigslist ad ($7000), he seems far away from getting that number. I have not yet bid on this auction. I'll keep watching it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/143397135291?ul_noapp=true I did ask him one additional question, and that was whether or not the apparent hole in the front bumper filler panel just below the passenger side headlights (see photo is posting #22 above) really is a hole or possibly just peeling paint as it isn't 100% clear in the one photo he provided, and he doesn't address it (surprise, surprise) in the listing. He responded within minutes and said it's an actual hole. I didn't ask him how it got there.
Jaunty, you have a lot more tenacity than I. This guy, and he’s non responsive way would have sent me packing a long time ago. You would think that if a person were selling something on EBay, and were getting a series of questions from somebody they would think, Hey I have a hot one here. Apparently not this guy. If you land this fish, you will get the buyer of the year award for longest fan dance with a seller. Good luck and keep us posted.
My thoughts exactly on the "live one" idea. But as I've said, I think the seller is elderly, and he may not be the sharpest tack in the box any more. Plus, like many novice sellers, he probably thinks the car will sell itself and is worth what he's asking, so he doesn't have to do much more than show a few pictures of it. I agree about going packing, but the issue is this. It's not like I'm looking for a late-model used car for daily-driver use, and there are plenty to choose from. 1977 Toronado XS's don't grow on trees these days, especially ones that are in decent shape like this one apparently is and ones that are reasonably close to me, like this one is. So, I think, it's worth chasing for a while. I've said this before...don't hold a bad ad or weird seller against the car itself. The car is the car, and it has no control over who owns it or what kind of poor selling job they do. If the car is good and can be had for a reasonable price, it's worth putting up with a less-than-perfect seller to get it if at all possible.
When the car you want is being sold by a flake. But, as I said above, the car is the car irrespective of the seller. Plus, I don't need this car tomorrow. I can wait, play a little game, and watch what happens. If he gets his reserve on the current auction, good for him, and I move on. But I'm guessing that won't happen.
You’re of course right about being after a car that you “want”. That almost adds to the frustration. You have the luxury of time. As I said. Good luck on it and keep him on the hook!
