Well here is an interesting developement.
On August 24th the pie wagon sold to a buyer in Laredo TX. I have received full payment, but have had very spotty contact with the buyer (no phone number given and only ebay emails). I have repeatedly asked him for an update on shipping, when he finally replies, he says he's "working on it". I've sent several messages in the past few days and get no response. I am at a complete loss to explain this behavior from someone who has paid for the car. I am storing the car in my garage for now, but am going to be needing that space for my own use soon. What is my obligation to the new owner and how long do I have to accommodate this guy?

Rod

#1: Are you absolutely sure you actually have the money in hand?

#2: If so make sure (if possible) he knows your predicament and set a time limit. Don't know if this will actually do any good legally but it' would be good if you do it.

#3: How long do you have to hold it? Simple answer is what are you going to do with it?

"What is my obligation to the new owner and how long do I have to accommodate this guy? "

If it wasn't, this should have been spelled out clearly in the terms of your original eBay listing or in communication with him prior to him executing the winning bid.

Has he make the full payment? If so, I would contact ebay. As the seller you should be able to get his contact information from them. If he has only made a down payment I would still contact ebay by phone (in both cases) and talk to them. Tell them what is going on and they can advise you how to go from there. They are acting as agents for you and the buyer.
I don't think you can set a time limit for pickup after the sale without talking to the buyer unless it was stated in the ad.
Bottom line, call and talk to ebay.

Yes, The payment in full was made and is in my account.
I really do not have an issue with holding the car, but not in my garage, I suppose I could park it in the driveway and cover it.
In his defense, the terms of storage were not spelled out in the ebay ad. It is just a little more than bizarre in my mind, to pay someone 20K+ and not respond to there communications. I'll try contacting ebay and see where that leads.

Rod

Hey, Rod, I am thinking about selling a car (non-T) off ebay and was wondering what the fees were when you sold your T? Is it a percentage based on the selling price? Any tips would be greatly appreciated, and I hope you get through to your buyer!

This sounds a bit suspicious.

Make sure that the check or payment really clears your bank before releasing the vehicle to anyone.

Rod, I had a similar situation when I sold a Cat D-4 a few years back. The buyer came to my place and gave me a personal check for $8K. I told him, as soon as the check cleared, I would have the bill of sale for him and he could pick up the tractor. The check cleared in a week, so I called him, he said he would make arrangements to get it, but need a couple of weeks.

Fast forward six months, no response to my calls and messages. One year same thing. I did a search on the guy and found he was the owner of a fairly large agricultural co. I finally called his business and spoke to his financial person. I told him I was going to resell the tractor on a lien sale for storage fees.

The buyer called me back within the hour to "settle up" as he no longer wanted the machine. I sent him a check for $5K and the tractor was mine again, to sell...again!

When I bought my touring car I told the guy I was getting my new garage built and needed time for the contractor to complete their work in about two weeks. In the middle of construction the contractor went belly up and I was stuck with nothing more than a cement slab for a garage. I told the guy I bought the T from and he was nice enough to keep it for the winter until I could get my garage up in place. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control. On the other end of the septum, I sold an old F12 Farmall to a guy and had it over a year. I wrote the guy and told him I was keeping the tractor and his money and he wrote back and told me he had forgot about it. One day while I was out he took the tractor from my yard. I could had fought him over it but I just didnt feel it was worth the trouble.

You're in a sticky situation since you're now having to negotiate storage terms after-the-fact. I have seen this before even with terms clearly spelled out. It's most likely poor management of his time, money, or both. Some people get overextended with obligations and just want to secure their spot by paying for it. Some people live so close to the edge that they shoot first and ask questions later: e.g., buy the car and is now too broke to pay for transport.... but you're free storage since you didn't have down terms to assess storage fees.

At any rate, it's always best to make direct contact with the buyer on the phone. eBay isn't going to make any personal effort to rectify this. They already got their money too....

Bill,
total fees for the 1911 were 73.80 that included Buy it now fee (5.00), insertion fee (50.00) picture fee (1.80) reserve price fee (15.00) and another picture fee (2.00).
I had 2 other cars listed at the same time and they were all in the same range.

Fred, there is no question about the funds, it was a wire transfer. (the only way, in my opinion, to receive or send payment).

John, sounds all too familiar!

I have contacted ebay and they tell me it is a business that bought the car, so maybe that explains a few things. I have their phone number now and will see how they respond. Still I find this very odd behavior.

Rod

Well it pays to go thru ebay if you have an issue.
Ebay contacted the buyer and he just now sent this message.
"Good morning Rod,

I just paid the transport service, as soon as I get the schedule for pick up, I'll let you know

Carlos"

Thanks for all the help guy's.

Rod

That's good! I didn't mean to imply that it doesn't do well to have a "paper trail" through eBay. You need that in the event you have to abandon the deal and want a refund on your fees, dispute things, whatever.

Hope it goes well. Some buyers seem to enjoy smacking sellers around and others I think are just not good communicators.

Rod, Check with your bank and see how long the guy has to stop payment and get his money back. My bank says 1 year. The only safe money is Post office money order. E-bay has access to your bank account. Move the money out and any other till the dead line passes. Scott

Why not just move the money to another bank account? That would prevent someone 'backtracking' the payment and trying to recoup it.

Unfortunately I have had a buyer go back to the company where he bought the money order months later and demanded a reversal and his money back. The bank took my money out of my bank account without contacting me and I was out of the merchandise and the money and when I tried to fight it the banks lawyer threatened me and on the crooks side 100 percent. Take Cliffs advice and move the money from your account to a nother account or to a nother bank till the statuette of limitation is up on returns. Frank

I've dealt with fraud while selling boats. All sounds very legitimate - but maybe not.

Did the buyer accept the listed price without hesitation? Big red flag.

If he pays by check, call the owner of that check. I once received a check drawn on BMW of Chicago. Very legitimate business. They'd been hacked and all the checks were fraud. Funny thing was that the account on the check was a DEPOSIT ONLY account. The check would have gone into my account and looked good - for a week or two - most likely long enough to deliver the boat only to have the bank reverse the deposit.

If there's ever a discussion of cash or payment to a transportation guy - run away. Total fraud.

The guys are right. Move the $.

Actually, the best option is to keep one separate account for transactions of this nature. When funds are deposited in this account, transfer them immediately to your 'everyday' account. I have sold several cars to long-distance buyers who I never met and this method worked very nicely. My buyers only had the 'intermediate' account number, never my 'everyday' account number. It's nice to be able to trust someone, but better not to (old Sicilian proverb....).

Cliff,
Spot on advice!
Yes, I've been doing exactly that for the past couple of years. I much prefer to have the payment wire transferred, and the minute it gets to account #1 I immediately move it to account #2. I got into the habit of doing this when dealing with overseas buyers. There is just way too many variables involved with other banking systems.

In the instance that resulted in this thread, I was not concerned with the payment (it had already been wired and transferred. I was mainly concerned with transportation (or lack thereof) of the car.

Rod

Rod,

Just trying to help here ....

If you could just go ahead and send me all pertinent information, I will try to sell the
car again for you. We'll get that car removed from your driveway and I get to keep the
money.

Okay ?

Did you let the buyer know that after payment the car had to be removed from the premises in a certain amount of time? Say 30 days? Or not responsible for said car after that time? Some sellers state that in the description and buyers responsibilities.

I had a friend sell a T speedster once, got cash and the guy was supposed to come to town and pick it up and the pink slip (title in CA DMV lingo). Well he never showed up. After a year my friend goes looking for the guy. Turned out he was a drug dealer and was either in prison or dead! After 5 years with no contact my friend resold the car!

One option would be to give him a reasonable amount of time after he said he had arranged for transport, then move it outside and cover it.

Another would be to take it to some indoor parking garage and park it, and let him know the cost per day and tell him he can pick up the claim ticket whenever he comes for the car.

Just send the buyer an e-mail thanking him for picking up the car today, everything went fine. thank you for your business.

That should get his attention.

Alan, that's evil, but I like your style!!

ALLan fromdown under.