Dammit! I need to shop on eBay more often...
 

Someone got one helluva Buy-it-now deal
:p

So where's "the rest of the story"?

(whatever that flash thingy was crashed my browser so I didn't get to see the full goodness of the ad.)

OH MY GOD!! What a MISS! Though I have to say I've gotten a few of those ridiculous deals myself, but nothing like this one! Now the trick is to downplay the loss: "oh that's ok...I wouldn't want the expense of the maintenance...I'm not the Mercedes type...nothing but conspicuous consumerism...", etc., etc.

Then my capitalist voice jumps in: "yeah, but you could've resold it for a gd bundle!!! ARGGGHHHHH!"

It's a no win...$1000 for a low mileage, late mercedes....and it was a doctor who won it! Insult to injury......:bawling:

Was that for real? OMG.

I wonder if it was a publicity stunt to launch, or attract attention to, that dealers presence on ebay motors? :confused:

Well, if so it worked. If I checked it out, then a whole lotta other people prolly did too. Dunno what advertising costs are, but they probably saved a bundle doing it that way. Not as cool as carving a Mercedes hood ornament into a Rhino horn, but almost as effective at generating net interest/buzz. Saves the PETA hatemail too.

lol im checking for more cheap "buy it now"s. this will take most of the day

Good luck Kagen, I'd join you but I gotta run down to Home Depot...

Don't you think it's odd that the buyer hasn't bought since 2004 and then previous to that since 2002 - I smell a rat. How would such an infrequent buyer happen on this deal quick enough to beat everyone else. That's too much of a coincidence. Only real way for this guy to be the winner is when the dealer posts knowing he will have an immediate and instantaneous 'purchase' from someone he knows and who knows....

Isn't cynicism wonderful....?

Can you tell the elapsed time between the offer being made and the winning bid/purchase? :confused:

Yup.

Listed on June 10th at 21:00:00 PDT
Bought on June 10th at 23:48:56

I would say that it was either a set up sale (I've had sellers do that for me), or they accidentally listed it with a $1000 buy it now price instead of a $1000 starting price. They only have 1 feedback so I don't think they are terribly eBay savvy.

Why? Why not just sell it to you without going through ebay and paying them? :confused:

Talk about your advertising gimmicks. Bet they sold out of vanities in an hour.

And imagine what a Bonfire those Vanities could have made. :-)

News about a 'sale' at $1,000 will get around (it got to the Cellar, as an example) and people will visit the ebay site, get the details of the dealership and a proportion of those will go one or more steps further. May have been an experiment and on the surface it looks like a cheap way to spread the word...

xob - you know, I'm not really sure. I think it's because they want to have as many transactions/ feedbacks as possible, and they wouldn't get that if they sold something directly to someone.

Just a guess.

edit to add - it's probably something to do with this (from the ebay site's list of prohibited practices for sellers):

Outside-of-eBay Offer - Offering the opportunity through eBay to purchase the item or other merchandise outside-of-eBay. The eBay item page may not refer to or promote the seller's individual Web site (including home page URLs which directly or indirectly promote an outside-of-eBay website), sales outside of eBay, or other businesses. However, sellers may include links to their eBay Store and eBay Store items, provided that those links are not URL redirects. Please see the complete Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of eBay policy.

I used to buy on eBay a lot, but have found, for new objects, that it is usually just as, or more, expensive as most on-line retailers.