Morning all,
I regularly footle about on eBay as I like to see what's going for how much and I never cease to be amazed by the sellers that spend so long extolling the virtues of their vehicles and posting umpteen pictures of the exterior then completely fail to post any of the interior.
This immediately makes me suspicious. My cynical side kicks in and I can't help thinking that the seller is dodgy and that they can't actually get in the car as it isn't theirs to sell.
Also, why do people put pictures of the engine bay on their listings? I should ruddy well hope that it does have an engine, and the pictures are generally too small to tell if there are any significant leaks or anything else amiss. Just seems like a waste of time to me.
Hey ho.
Last edited by: Badwolf on Thu 13 May 10 at 10:09
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>> I regularly footle about on eBay as I like to see what's going for how
>> much
It seems to me that there are few bargains to be had on ebay these days.
Re photographs, it's possibly simple incompetence, newness to selling on ebay, or thoughtlessness. People post pictures on engines etc. on Autotrader too.
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>> Re photographs, it's possibly simple incompetence, newness to selling on ebay, or >> thoughtlessness. People post
>> pictures on engines etc. on Autotrader too.
I agree, FT. It's much more likely to be something like that rather than a more sinister reason. I just can't help thinking the worst, unfortunately.
I've bought three cars off eBay and each time I rejected cars that did not have interior photographs, no matter how clean they looked on the outside. And how clean the engine bay looked... :-)
Last edited by: Badwolf on Thu 13 May 10 at 10:18
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Annoys me too. I want to see front seats, back seats, dash, boot and exterior, and all the seats on a 7-seater.
I do not want to see 5 exterior shots of the same quarter and one close up of each alloy wheel.
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>> Re photographs, it's possibly simple incompetence, newness to selling on ebay, or thoughtlessness.
>>
It is not restricted to ebay.
There is a basic lack of understanding of advertising especially for vehicles even slightly up market.
The basics of the spec are not clearly defined up front. e.g. the proper colour of body / seats to start with then loads of dross listing what every car in that category will have electric windows PAS HRW etc. For trade adverts it is a lazy approach, wasting everyones time and probably loosing sales.
I have recently been trawling adverts looking with son for a S/H MB SLK. He wanted a fully loaded example and my was it difficult to identify what was on offer.
Poor adverts, photos, spec detailswere the norm. Fortunately a good one was found at a dealers and it appeared to be at least £2K under the market prices.
It had, at current prices, £10K of options loaded on it so in his case description was very important. Even then it had no phone connection ( and no Ipod connection) so he then had lots of £££s pent adding those two.
( Am I amazed that all those extras had been selected but no phone connection especially as it has a large phone key pad built into the dash. Priorities, priorities)
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On the subject of trying to sell cars, I have never understood why gargae forecourts insist on putting one or two wheels on a ramp, or opening all the boots, or tying balloons to aerials?
What is the point in that?
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It's to get your attention. Judged by your acute observation of the techniques employed, it obviously succeeds.
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It doesn't just happen with cars either. If you shop online for a watch, a pair of shoes or a piece of luggage, you'll find a lot of retailers who lazily make do with the manufacturer's standard publicity shot of the item. But a few take the trouble to include their own photos, and what invariably strikes me is that the item looks so much better than in the maker's own picture. It's as if the makers of these expensive, three-dimensional objects, things that a customer in a shop would pick up and examine carefully from every angle, don't know how to make their own products look good on a two-dimensional screen.
I suspect there's an element, as with the eBay photos, of "let's say what we want to say, not what the buyer wants to hear".
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Equally, a carefully prepared ad suggests to me that the owner might have looked after the car carefully too. Quite a few Autotrader private ads have put me off completely - phrases like "absolute mint", "must be seen" etc, which you just know are going to be a let-down. And worst of the lot "no time wasters". If I've driven 50 miles to look at a car that turns out to be not as described, who's wasting whose time?
I also like to be able to see the reg no., so I can check it out up-front. Most sellers do leave it visible, but some like to mask it, usually due to a misplaced?? fear of cloning.
Last edited by: Dieselfitter on Thu 13 May 10 at 13:48
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>>And worst of the lot "no time wasters".
Quite.
If I see those words in an advert, then I don't waste my time - let alone anyone else's.
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I always like to see pictures of an engine bay if its got 80k on the clock and it looks so clean why?
If the coolent level is low then its not been serviced correctly.
You can also get a good idea also about the state of the engine by the photos.
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>> I always like to see pictures of an engine bay if its got 80k on
>> the clock and it looks so clean why?
its looked after? - i like to keep all the salt and grubby stuff out of there
I clean mine - shall i get my coat?
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Fine if you have all the history etc, but very often people clean engine bays to hide the major gearbox oil leak or what ever.
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I like to see an engine bay image... and I always have one on a sales ad... and it's always clean... because like redviper because I care about the car.
I always have an interior shot too... but they can be hard to show the true look... often making a car look much better or worse than it really is... depending on camera exposure.
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I maintain my cars well. Clean engines? Don't bother, don't care..
A bit of oil prevents rust.
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Photos of cars on eBay - FotheringtonTomas
