Your 10 Horrendously Bad Car Selling Stories

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Isn’t it great when you agree to a price with a buyer, they show up, and they try to knock more off the price? And, their main tactic for doing this is by blatantly trying to break things to cause more issues with the car? Reader SeventhScorchedEarth was selling his Jeep CJ-7 on eBay. This is what happened when the winning bidder came to take delivery of the car and finish the transaction:

I once posted a fairly modified Jeep CJ-7 on eBay. The eventual winning bidder was from Boston (I was in NJ) and he contacted me several times by email. I gave him my phone number and spent maybe two hours with him discussing the condition of the Jeep, the work done to it, taking additional pictures, really trying to give him as much info as possible. I BEGGED him to take a day trip and come down and see the Jeep. Bidding was over $15k at that point, and seeing in person is not the same as pictures or phone calls.

So he wins the auction, comes down to pick-up the jeep, and immediately starts renegotiation talks about how his winning bid was too high, and really, only classic Broncos go that high. BEFORE HE EVEN SEES THE JEEP. I calmly tell him that if he wants to walk, the second bidder is already willing to pay the winning bid amount, and he actually came and saw the Jeep in person, so no worries. go ahead and walk.

So he drops that line and we go look at the jeep. He opens the hood. Says it looks kinda dirty in there, and I should have done a better job cleaning it before he came down and he slams the hood shut as hard as he could. Then he starts shaking wheels by hand, kicking the exhaust pipe, banging on the tail lights, HANGS off the roll bar and then, he grabs the steering wheel from the ground and VIOLENTLY starts shaking the whole jeep by it. He BENDS the bracket that holds the wheel the dashboard. and THEN, he has the gall to look at me and say “that’s broken, I’m not paying for this jeep”.

OK, get off my property. Do it now. Right now. You want out of the contract? You’re out of the contract. I want you standing in the street before you you hurt my Jeep or yourself, and I want it now. No harm, no foul. Get out. Keep the $1000 non-refundable deposit, just leave.

After that insanity, I went back inside to contact the second bidder and leave feedback for this clown. And wouldn’t you know it? The clown who won is already a leading bidder in a classic Bronco auction. I would have gladly excused his bid, but instead he came all the way down and broke my rig. So I left him bad feedback, and he went BALLISTIC.

Turns out the Bronco seller reserved the right to reject bidders with bad feedback, so he knocked the clown off the auction and he didn’t win that either, and he was PISSED. 😉

Still the biggest nutter I’ve ever sold a car to.

Suggested By: SeventhScorchedEarth

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