Buying a salvage car from e-bay

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e-Bay often have lots of quality damaged repairable cars for sale, many from reputable UK salvage yards. However, when buying from e-bay there are a few basic rules to which you should stick. Ive had some experience, and these have always helped me bag a bargain. Hope you also find them useful.

1. The basics first, check the sellers feedback score. Although e-bay have recently banned anybody leaving negative feedback, its still a good indication on whether the seller is genuine, and describes items accurately and truthfully.

2. Check the location of the car or parts before bidding. There is nothing worse than bidding on a car and finding its 500 miles away, and that you cant view before buying.

3. I wouldn’t ever recommend buying without viewing the car first! Buying a non-damaged car off e-bay is risky at the best of times, as you are trusting the seller to describe the car 100% accurately. With a damaged car its very hard to fully describe/show the true extent of the damage in a few paragraphs & pictures, so always make sure toy view before bidding.

4. If you do still want to go ahead and buy a car you cant inspect, make sure you know a local expert who can insect the car for you. Some local mechanics or bodyshop may help you out for a small fee. (Mechanics or bodyshop owners, if you would like to list your inspection services and associated fee’s on wrecks2riches.co.uk please leave a comment on this post and I will happily start a regional directory)

5. This is more related to parts than anything else, but think very seriously before sending money overseas for car parts! If there really is no other option (which is often the case for more exotic cars). I would suggest you place a deposit, and pay remainder on receipt of the goods. I would never advocate sending full payment for parts overseas, the risk of parts not turning up, or for them being damaged in transit is just too big.

6. Do your homework on how much the car will be worth once repaired. Often once you have factored in parts and labour it will be almost as much as buying an un-damaged example.

7. Don’t get carried away in the bidding process. Its really easy to set your heart on a dream car. Set yourself a ceiling price, and make sure you stick to it. Its so easy to get carried away and overpay for a damaged car, before you know it any potential profit you may have made is quickly eroded.

8. Ask as many question as you need to be satisfied of the history of the car, and try to get as many pictures of the damage as possible. Not only do these help you gauge the extent of the repairs required. They also prove very handy when selling the car, as they show any potential buyer the state of the damage prior to repair.

If you stick to these few golden rules, you should be able to find many a good damaged repairable car on e-bay.

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