i know that this is and has been a much talked about subject..... but i just do not understand the people who are roaming ebay and paying very high prices for either junk, cars that are obviously fakes (and can be spotted from the aweful photos that are posted here for us to mull over), and very over priced NOS or good condition parts. i can't believe some of these people who will part with their money so easily with little or no research. the cars that are fakes are the most amazing. with a little research you can find out if this car have a "strange" story or an unreliable seller. if i was going to plunk done some money on a car, i would ask people that knew about these types of cars about what to look for and how to verify their originality. an example is if i was going to buy an olds 442, i would look up the olds guys on the net and in my area and ask them for advice. in addition to ebay driving up the price on our parts, there is some advantge to it. i think that gets more buicks into the hands of those that will restore them. if that 1972 GSX sells for less than $5K i think that it will be restored and placed back into good condition. that is a plus. 10 years ago, i do not think that anyone would have bought it for $1K. i could go on and on..but i just had to vent. john
$$ relative I suppose John: I agree 100%. However I realize there are LOTS of people in this world with LOTS more resources than me. I'm by no means dirt-floor poor but in contrast to a good number of folks, I am. If you look at a good percentage of this BB signatures, you will see several nice cars listed to a single individual. If someone can own a string of nice BUICKS, they probably can afford just about anything BUICK related. Good for them! (Bad for me) I just have to get lucky I suppose. My .02
Count on 1/3 of them getting paid for!! Most of the so called bids are faked by their friends...... Hoping to generate interest in it. Why would they relist and say "because of deadbeat bidders" If it was a ligit sale it would be paid for in notime at all..... Not taking away from all of the looser nonpaying deadbeat bidders outr there, it is possible some bids are from these guys and they have no intention to pay just want to run up the bids for fun.... (MOrons!!)
We used to say the same things about Hemmings Motor News. Remember roaming the swap meets years ago, and hearing "well they're going for Xx or 00 in Hemmings." Now, its ebay. You gotta be careful out there, whether its Hemmings or ebay. I had more trouble with scammers in Hemmings than I've heard of or had experience with on ebay. Mark
VERY Good point, Mark. Back in the "good old days" Hemmings was the only real rip off. I am not blaming the publication itself, only the Capitalistic Economics of the situation. Of course, with the worldwide exposure of Hemmings, and now to a much greater extent with E Bay - it only makes sense that the sellers are going to ask top dollar. Who wouldn't? Maybe people on this board with common interests, friendships and local clubs, etc. When it's your rare NOS whatchamacallit and the whole world bidding on it- why not get top dollar? Of course, it's the hobby itself that is being ruined. How many real deals do we find at the swap meets in the last few years? Not many, because the sellers can always go to E Bay and get their top dollar!
i think that the whole deal with the high prices on ebay will run it's course. i think that the prices will come down on most things. the 71 gs grill though is a rare piece and with no reproductions.... the price goes up. also things will settle back down when the people that buy these GS cars that are not complete or in need of a total resto realize how little reproduction parts are available for these cars. we all know how hard it is to find good 1972 impact strips for the skylark/GS cars. wait till some guy who is trying to retore a project car finds this out. or that there is NO good reproduction sheet metal for these cars. what are they going to do when they find out that the car can not be restored as easily as a chevy or a ford. then you will see alot of these projects being sold for less than they paid for them. i just hope that they do not get parted out in order for these people to recoupe the money. and that is the real crime. how many real GS cars will be destroyed for the money of the parts, or GS 350 cars that have their original engines tossed in favor of a 455 clone/rip-off. john
It is a perfect example of laissez-faire, perpetrated by a Mercantilist company. Wow, Adam Smith would love that comment.....:grin:
Actually if you look at EBay as a whole, it's a seller's market. I can't tell you how many times I've seen things go for more than they'd cost brand new in the store. Which reminds me I have a bunch of Mopar crap I need to sell off hehehe
