Buying sight unseen

carl

True Classic
What is the normal protocol for buying a car that you will have shipped that you have never laid eyes on and never actually met the seller? Let's say you see a car on Craigslist or FB market place that is further away than you want to drive to do a personal inspection. I'm not talking about making sure the car is what's advertised, I'm talking about actual payment and collection of title so that buyer and seller are protected. The buyer would obviously make arrangement for a shipper to transport the car. Something I may consider but have never done as I have always looked at the car and made the deal in person.
 
HI I would have a hard time doing it sight unseen , the world is a different place than it was 20 years ago , is there some one on this sight that is in that area , this is just my opinion.
 
As for the financial aspect, you can pay a broker to handle the deal for you. That way they are responsible for exchanging the money for the title and making sure that aspect is handled correctly. It gives you a guarantee of the transaction so you don't get scammed.

Effectively that is what PayPal is for eBay. If you are buying the car through eBay then you get some protection financially by paying with PayPal (provided you don't use "friends and family" payment). But not in terms of the decision to buy or not obviously.

As for the condition of the car vs the selling price, that will be up to your level of risk taking. Request a million detailed pics, and ask tons of questions (I prefer to do it over the phone so you can gauge their personality). If the seller balks at anything you request then I'd end things there.
 
You can also use a letter of credit where your bank sends the money to the seller’s bank with instructions so the money is not released until the title (and any other documents) are provided. The bank is basically acting as an escrow agent.
 
The bank is basically acting as an escrow agent.
Thanks @twincam69 , "escrow" is the word I was looking for with regard to PayPal. The funds are essentially held by PP until the transaction has cleared. However I've never bought a car on eBay so I'm not sure if PP has different rules for vehicle purchases?

I don't recall who it was but one forum member had some excellent advice on such matters. Apparently he is something of a car dealer and has bought and sold countless vehicles through just about every method available. No idea what thread that discussion was in.
 
I actually did this on another important vehicle. But I had a slight advantage in that I was very familiar with the make and model and I was able parse between the lines and photos regarding what I was getting. Plus I had realistic expectations and even expected less and was pleasantly surprised to get as much or more than I expected. So it can be done, but probably only as an expert in that vehicle and the usual transaction red flags. Otherwise the advice above is actually your best bet.
 
I bought a Ferrari 400i 5-speed sight unseen from Canada, although I had been watching that particular car for eight years prior to buying it. Had it shipped from Toronto to Vancouver. I took the train up to Van then drove it back to Seattle.

3B293E09-001F-4903-A56A-7127AC6D05FD.jpeg


I also bought my 76 Scorpion from San Diego site unseen in 1999. Shipped it to Seattle. Sold it in 2003.

I also bought my 348ts from London, and while I did go see it first, it couldn't be shipped until four months later and then spent 36 days at sea. But that was a crazy remote transaction if there ever was one.
 
I realize I was not clear enough in my question. I'm not asking about verifying the condition of the car, I can deal with that. My question is how to handle money and title transfer so both parties feel safe. I'm sure the seller would be just as nervous as the buyer.

Given how far away the car is, it probably makes more sense to just make a relaxing two day trip of it and do the eyeballing and official business in person. I was just looking to see how folks dealt with a non-visiting situation.
 
I sold my TR6 to a buyer out east that I never saw or met, and he never saw the car in person until it was delivered. It was a very slow and deliberate process. Like most here I'm sure, I communicated to him that it was my goal was for him to say the car was better than I described it when it was delivered to him. We spent a LOT of time on the phone and did video conference calls as well so he could be shown exactly what he wanted to see. As I said, there was a LOT of time spent. He then opted to hire a third party person to come look at the car for him. I had no problem with that, but, inspectors can be sorta' random. He spent a fair bit of money ($250 or so??) and I had the car in my building, parked over my lift, ready to do whatever he requested. All he did was take a bunch of pix and go for a "test drive" around the block. He didn't even drive it or ask to have it put up in the air. If you're familiar with TR-6's they're pretty cramped and he was a big boy. So..... he squeezed himself into the passenger seat and I drove the car!

With regards to the financial transaction, it's a matter of sometimes having to have some faith and stepping off the ledge. He agreed to send me a cashiers check for the total. I then took the check to the bank and they gave me a date by when it would clear. Yes, it was a cashiers check but they can be faked. Again, communication is the key. As soon as I had this information I told him I would overnight him the title and that's how it went down. A week later he had the title in hand and he sent a carrier to pick up the car. I met the carrier at the local high school parking lot (transporter was too big to come down our long gravel drive) and away it went. He loved it. It exceeded his expectations. I did OK money wise and he got the car for a decent price.... and TR-6 prices are on the rise. Everyone was happy.

I know however, for every good story there are probably multiple bad ones. The key for us was going about it slowly, thoroughly and methodically. Your mileage may vary!
 
Given that you are comfortable with the condition of the car there are a couple of other concerns. First, will you receive a valid title that you can use to register the car in your name? Second, will the car be available to the shipper for transport? (Then you can deal with the shipper - another topic altogether.) As stated above, you need a broker to insure both concerns are satisfied. Ideally you can enlist a trusted person to do this for you as a favor. But, unless you have someone who will do it for free you're going to have to pay someone. How much are you willing to spend on a broker? I've dealt with a broker to buy Copart cars before. They cost me right around $200 to do the paperwork, get everything "in order", for a Copart purchase.
I prefer to pick-up the cars I buy, and pay for them when I do. (Be prepared to pay with cash, or wait for the check to clear.) But, that's not always possible. When I can't pick the car up I've handled it a couple of different ways, usually sending a wire transfer for the purchase price. My bank is VERY apprehensive about that kind of transaction because of the fraud they've witnessed. "You understand that we can't get this money back, right?" In one case they questioned me about why I was so sure I would get the car (the alarm bells went off when they found the seller's address was a local police station - yes, he was a cop). You should have seem her face when I told her that I was sure I would get the car because the car was parked in my driveway. The seller trusted me to pay once the car arrived! In other cases I just sucked it up and sent the money. Yep, it's scary, but I figured I had enough documentation to get legal relief - eventually. I have lost a deposit a couple of times (my decision not to proceed with the purchase) but in those cases I knew the deposit was at risk when I sent it. So...
In your case Carl I assume the car doesn't run and drive. IF it did run and drive I would recommend you "arrive and drive" it home. If you do that just bring a credit card with a high limit, and a sense of adventure. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Carl, maybe contact an attorney local to the seller to take your funds into escrow and release to the seller when provided with the valid title?
 
There are vehicle escrow and shipping companies that can handle the transaction for you. Or you might see if the seller would agree for you to give the funds to your lawyer to hold in trust pending completion of the transaction. Once the lawyer receives word that your shipper has the car in hand, and the title is overnighted to the lawyer, then the lawyer can release the funds to the seller. Works much the same way as escrow.

My nephews bought a couple cars from Japan sight unseen, and had them delivered to Savannah, GA. I can see if I can get ahold of them (or their mother) and find out what they did.
 
You guys have given me lots to think about. A possible quick sale of my spider fell through so I'm back on my original time line. Gotta sell the spider first.
 
I realize I was not clear enough in my question. I'm not asking about verifying the condition of the car, I can deal with that. My question is how to handle money and title transfer so both parties feel safe. I'm sure the seller would be just as nervous as the buyer.

Given how far away the car is, it probably makes more sense to just make a relaxing two day trip of it and do the eyeballing and official business in person. I was just looking to see how folks dealt with a non-visiting situation.
I buy and sell cars remote all the time. Typically payment is done by wire transfer, once the money is received, the title is sent overnight to the buyer. Then the shipping can be worked on as that typically takes a few weeks. Bought my X, Scorpion, TR8 all in this manner, plus have sold several cars in a similar manner with no issues.
 
I will mention that in all three cases, the cars were never in doubt and in the case of the TR8 and Scorpion, I had some local club members look at the car and confirm that all was good before the money changed hands.
 
I've sold a couple of cars remotely. Both times I overnighted a signed Bill of Sale with the agreed price and a photocopy of my title to the buyer. Once the money was wired to my bank account and declared good funds by them I overnighted the original title (signed over to the buyer on the back) and all the service records to the buyer. It is at this point they OWN the car and it's location is irrelevant. The new owner needs to have an insurance binder, etc if the car is valuable. I also helped advised and coordinated the loading of the car with their transporter and emailed the buyer photos of the car with close-ups of the straps and anything I thought janky after the car left. It's remarkable how easy it was both times.
 
When I bought mine, we had a large number of emails, lots of pictures and having many questions answered about the car so it was all documented by email This also gave me time to know the person selling the car. We used an escrow company to hold the funds until the car was delivered and met the description of its condition. The individual's level of knowledge on the car was very good which further put my mind at ease and he was a member of this board when he was active 10 years ago.

Final thing to keep in mind is that people can answer truthfully about the condition or status of a car but different people can have different views of what that means. For example a 95% restored car would have all parts that could cause problems replaced while another person may consider it 95% complete as long as older parts are in acceptable condition. We would both be right and honest but have different definitions as to what 95% complete means. So ask lots of question don't assume you are both on the same page.
 
Sadly my experience from buying Fiats (and a Miata) have been grim. These were all cars I looked at and the the seller usually had no clue about the car but would try to answer questions anyway. With the Miata the kid pretty much lied about everything but I was able to figure that out at the time of viewing. One can still get caught out. I went and looked at 75 spider that looked decent. The front shock towers looked totally unrusted...very rare for around here...and the floors were perfect. After getting the car home and starting in on it I discovered the floors were perfect...they were astonishingly well done in fiberglass, hardly any metal left! I was really upset with myself for not catching this.
 
Back
Top