Buying online from afar

How do I protect myself if I am unable to physically look at a van before I purchase it? Living in central AB, Canada and all the reasonably rust free vans are southern stateside, I can't afford to be driving all over for the perfect unit. Sending a money transfer and then hoping the seller follows through sounds like a huge leap of faith for me. Is there any suggestions or methods some of you guys have done here?

WP

Get to know some of the guys here, and they may be willing to go check out vans in their area if you ask, even send their own pics... sort of providing their feedback on the quality of the van. Been done lots.

There are also many European members here who have purchased their old iron from the States! I'm sure they will chime in.

Vanish wrote:

sasktrini wrote:Get to know some of the guys here, and they may be willing to go check out vans in their area if you ask, even send their own pics... sort of providing their feedback on the quality of the van. Been done lots.

There are also many European members here who have purchased their old iron from the States! I'm sure they will chime in.

These Guys on the Board here are Pretty Helpful .... You find one in a certain area ... Just ask ... More than Likely One of the Guys will go Check it out for you ....

This group just hates checking out earlies! lol

Another thought... there are a couple threads in the forum listing online vendors who have scammed people shopping for earlies. Take a read through there.

When i bought mine, i made sure i only bought from Ebay, and off a seller with good feedback. Its still a risk though.... If i lived in the States, i would be tempted to get on a plane and go and see it in person if it was good enough....
Sy

You are close to me in spokane - dont dismiss the iron aroung the areas here & northern states near you. There is many available around here - even a dodge early pickup that didnt sell on ebay - yesterday - its 20 miles from mke & the guys asking 3700 usd for it. it is clean & driveable.

Thanks guys, any help I get from afar would be greatly appreciated! Twinpilot001; I have seen some pretty good iron come out of that state, it is definately on my radar, thanks!

WP

Good Luck!! Let me know-Happy Vannin

sasktrini wrote:................
There are also many European members here who have purchased their old iron from the States! I'm sure they will chime in.

I bought my truck over the internet off a private advert on a 'local' website in Arkansas. The good ole boy who owned it was probably as unsure of me as I was of him....however, a few phone calls, and a deal was done. I used PayPal to transfer a deposit, and sent the balance to my buddy north of Dallas to drive across and complete the deal. My buddy also took a bunch of pictures for me, and stowed some much needed parts ready for the cross-country trip to California, and onto New Zealand by container ship. As usual there were a few surprises, but on the whole better than expected.

Like the guys say below....get to know someone here who lives close, and maybe they can help out.

"Your buys your ticket, you rides the ride" as they say.

Just try and do as much research as possible and get someone to check it out for you if you can. I was very lucky when I got my van from several states away, the guy seemed legit right up until he got payment (and I didn't have the van) then he started getting flakey.

The "runs great" turned into "you don't want to fly out and drive it home", after much hassle I finally got a shipper to pick it up and it was a miracle they got it on the truck under its own power. No brakes, no exhaust system, the fuel system was rotted off of it and the crankcase was 50% water/oil from condensation. After a lot of work and money I've got it close to daily driver condition and feel very lucky that there wasn't anything really serious wrong with it (like a bad motor).

Get someone to look at it if you can, if not, maybe see if the seller will take it to a local shop for a pre-sale inspection or buy from a seller that you can have some faith in (ebay etc).

If you are looking for a particular van it would hurt to just ask here.

Vanish....are you able to send me that slideshow? The website is blocked by our filters at work.

shaundoyle09 [at] gmail [dot] com

e-bay has a buyer protection if you buy from them . i bought 1 on ebay and they had a 1,500 mile 30 day warnenty on it. kind of hard to beat. look into how you are going to ship it. if it does not run it will cost more.