eBay Motors: nuances of purchasing

Not everyone is aware of this, but eBay Inc. is an American company that provides services primarily for online auctions, not online stores. You can buy all sorts of things, including vehicles, on eBay auctions. There are many different nuances to consider when buying such a large item remotely, especially if the seller and the buyer are located in different countries.

With no hidden fees and many great features, eBay Motors remains one of the best car auction sites for used vehicles.

The platform offers many listing options, including fixed/non-fixed price auctions, no predetermined price, and "the best offers”.

eBay Motors has one of the lowest listing fees among any other used car auction websites on the market, starting at $25. Please note that eBay will charge this fee even if your vehicle is not sold.

Searching for and selecting a vehicle

There are many vehicles of various brands, years of manufacture and technical condition on eBay. Sometimes you can find exotic or unique vehicles for sale (for example, those created for filming in popular movies). Let's see how to implement it in practice.

You can search for vehicles in the search bar by the model name you are interested in. To refine the category, select the "Cars and Trucks" section on the left side of the display. You can narrow your choice of vehicle by defining additional parameters: the year of manufacture, model, manufacturer, technical condition, etc.

Like most other items on eBay, vehicles are offered not only at auction, but also at a fixed price, wherein the seller may reduce the price of the vehicle. To bid on a vehicle, use the "Make an Offer" button. You will not be able to bargain much, but getting a 3-5% discount is quite realistic.

When participating in an auction, you may experience a situation where your bid is the highest, but still does not meet the minimum selling price set by the seller. In this case, the lot will not be sold and will be put up for auction again in some time.

In order to get the maximum benefit, it is better to make a bid ("strike") literally within the very last seconds before the auction ends. To do this, sort the list of bids by the special parameter "Time: ending soonest”. This will help you identify the lots coming to the end of bidding.

The final price of the vehicle consists of the value itself (the auction price or the price set by the seller), the dealer's fee (if the dealer participates in the transaction), transportation costs for transporting the vehicles and customs fees. It is recommended to consider the latter in advance, as those can make up the lion's share of the final shipping cost.

In order to calculate the cost of customs clearance, you need to know the engine capacity (defined in cubic centimeters – cm3), its power (expressed in horsepower: horsepower – hp) and the year of sale (year). The lot description usually contains some of this information; you will have to find out the other from the seller, or to search for this information in public catalogs. The data obtained, as well as an approximate purchase price must be entered in a special online form on the service for calculating the customs duties.

The final price may appear to be much higher than you expected and the purchase becomes unprofitable. Don't worry; try to find a model with a less powerful engine. You will save on customs duties and fuel at the same time.

Inspection of the technical condition of vehicles

To find out if the vehicle has any significant defects you should carefully read the description on the auction site and study the pictures. If the information is not sufficient, you can contact the seller and ask him for details.

Be sure to find out if the seller is a dealer. If you purchase a vehicle through an intermediary, you will have to pay an additional fee, which is added to the final bill. It often makes several hundred dollars.

The description usually includes the vehicle’s VIN, which can be used to determine the number of its previous owners, as well as to find out if it has ever got into an accident (using CARFAX, ЕpicVin or other internet services therefor). The checking cost makes from $11.

Paying for a vehicle at an auction

A deposit paid at an auction for a vehicle is both a down payment and a guarantee that the buyer will transfer the balance of the vehicle’s cost to the seller. Most of the time, the money is sent by wire transfer at eBay Motors.

The deposit is non-refundable. It is usually paid via PayPal in 2-3 days after winning the auction. Its amount ranges from several hundred to several thousand US dollars.

Sometimes it is possible to agree with the seller about not transferring the deposit, but simply adding it to the final amount of the bank transfer. The deposit amount is specified under the price on the vehicle description card. 

Be sure to inform about buying a vehicle with further transportation to another country. In this case, you will not need to pay local taxes. Find out immediately when the documents for the vehicle are ready. Without all necessary papers, neither the transportation company nor customs will accept the vehicle.

Vehicle delivery by land and sea

After the payment, the transportation of the vehicle follows. It is arranged in several stages:

1) Delivery of the vehicle and documents to the transportation company terminal. 

2) Delivery of the vehicle to the port of shipment. This stage can be performed by the seller (partly) and the transportation company.

Check with the seller if he can deliver the vehicle to the address you have specified. It is usually cheaper to ask the seller (private owner) for this service than to use a transportation company.

The cost of transportation by land varies from $300 to $1500; its term is from 5 to 10 days. However, the price and the term depend on many factors: the distance of the site where the vehicle is located, the port, the season, the type of transport used for the transfer, etc.

3) Customs clearance at the port and loading into the container. These operations last for another 3 to 7 days. More precise terms depend on the specific port and its workload, as well as on the carrier's schedule and mode of loading. After the customs clearance is completed, you will be sent the customs documents for the vehicle by express mail (the service cost makes from $50 to $120).

4) Delivery by sea. On average, it takes about a month and costs about $1500. 

There are two well-known and the most popular methods of shipping vehicles by sea: in a container or in an open way, like on ferries (Ro-Ro, or Roll on-Roll off).

The second method is faster: there is no need to wait for the container to be loaded/unloaded. However, the vehicle is affected by rainfall in case of Ro-Ro transportation. During a storm, the "salt baths" are also possible, which are not good for the vehicle. It should be noted that the vehicles with body damage are not accepted for Ro-Ro shipments.

After the vehicle is delivered to the port of arrival, it is unloaded and sent to the customs terminal (for about 1-3 days), where all the required documents are prepared and the customs duty is paid. Once this stage is completed, the vehicle can be picked up and registered.

The term of customs clearance depends directly on how quickly you provide the required documents: Title, copy of passport and TIN, original payment order, general power of attorney in three copies (if you entrusted the clearance to a transportation company).

Security and guarantees

The purchase of a vehicle, like any other item on eBay, is covered by a money-back guarantee (if the buyer's claims are justified). This does not mean you have to let your guard down when making a purchase.

Prior to buying, be sure to check for the seller's rating and to read the reviews about him.

The following factors should alert you:

• a small number and a poor quality of pictures of the vehicle;

• time constraints of the auction (from one to three days; usually it takes a week);

• absence or invalidity of the VIN number.

When paying for your purchase, never agree to transfer money in a way that eBay cannot control. 

After winning the vehicle at the auction, the seller's contact details will be available to you. Be sure to make a "test call" via Skype or any other messenger to make sure that the seller is a real person who is actually selling the car.

Columbus is here to assist you

As you have probably noticed, there are many subtleties when purchasing on eBay, not all of which can fit just into one article. To protect yourself as safe as possible during the purchase and delivery process, contact Columbus for help.

The company’s experts with extensive experience in the used car market will help you choose the best vehicle at the auction according to the parameters you specified, to diagnose it and to check its history, to provide profitable transportation by land and sea, and to arrange the insurance (usually 1% of the car’s value).

If required, they will also help with the vehicle repair, its certification and registration, as well as restore all the necessary documents.  

We can proceed with all operations "turnkey", almost not involving the client.