Samba Classifieds/Am I asking too much?

[Sharp64]

Quick background. I am somewhat new to the VW scene. Owned one back in the day, but mostly bought new for it as the interwebs weren't even evented back then and wasn't concerned about "OG". Over the last 10 years or so, I was involved in a different hobby where I bought and sold a LOT of parts through various forums and was used to providing additional pictures when needed. Over the last 8-10 months I have purchased a few times here on the Samba and honestly haven't had a very good success rate. Couple of purchases came in misrepresented or flat out wrong. Most vendors took care of it, but a couple I didn't even bother with.

Finally my situation and question. On two recent occasions I was interested in some items advertised here on the Samba. One was a set of chrome wheels that are somewhat local, but still a two hour round trip for me. The member only wanted to sell local and I will admit the price was really good, but still it was a $100 purchase and I didn't want to take time out of my weekend to drive an hour there and back if the rims were total crap. I sent an email asking for some additional pics as the only one on the ad showed one rim and the others were covered up or not shown. First email, the seller didn't respond to, the second I emailed directly to him and he responded saying he ignored my first email because he felt I wanted perfect rims for $100. I explained I understood they weren't perfect, but might still be interested if the rust wasn't too bad and could he send pics. All I got was "ill be around Sunday if you want to come look at them. Second situation, decided to go another route after buying beauty rings and realized it made my hubcaps look like crap. Found someone selling them advertised as driver quality and sent an email again asking for a picture of the 4 hubcaps that would actually be provided. 3 days later, no response or reply. Its not like they are asking $30 for a set and have tons of pictures. Again, one picture taken from 4-5 feet away. I don't feel I am asking too much for a couple of closer up pics when I am looking at spending $150-160 for a set of used hubcaps.

My question being, is this just normal response/behavior for Samba sellers? I am all for buying OG when I can, but with the responses I get, it makes it harder and harder to do. The consensus seems to be either "trust me", which hasn't worked out very well, or "not worth it" which I find odd when I'm looking at $100+ parts.

Thoughts?

[WM971252]

There are different sellers here. Some just sell stuff on the side. Some do it just to pay for their projects. Some do it for a business (full or part time). Each seller you will get a different result.

Next there are different buyers. I have had better experiences with Craigslist flakes than some of the ones here. I will say that at this point I read a bit more of the e-mail before responding.

Unless it is something you really want and can't find anywhere else move on. I agree that there should be more detail pictures when you sell stuff but there are some that can't or don't want to.

[Sharp64]

[WM971252]

Again depends on the seller. There are a bunch of us that are what you experienced in other hobbies, pulling over on some back road at 2am to say hi. Hell is was in my sleeping shorts out back looking at a part that someone called on today.

Cause you dealt with a few "bad apples" don't think we are all like that. That painting everyone with the same brush won't help you out any. I fully agree more pictures should of happened but then ask why. I picked up a trailer load from one guy that has no idea how to turn on a computer and the guy that does was on vacation for that month. I was not getting any pictures from him and it was more than a 2 hour drive each way plus a $50 toll one way and $150 ferry ride on the way back so....

[awreed]

Yes, it sounds like the people you dealt with weren't being entirely reasonable or helpful. Is it possible that there was some sort of miscommunication going on?

Either way, make sure you check the feedback before you even email/text any buyer-- http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewforum.php?f=14

What others are saying about some of these sellers can really speak volumes. But make sure you read through most of the posts for each person: some of these high volume sellers will have one or two people who really had a bad experience.

[mark tucker]

i want some perfect rims for $100 also..... I did manage to get some for my wifes honda elfament of a acura rsx for $100. but as of yet no such deal for my vw.

[Sharp64]

[vwinnovator]

depends on the cost of what I'm selling, and how I read what the person is asking for pic wise...

10-15 min of emails/pics per person adds up to hrs. and days of accumulative time for "tire kickers".

good example is if I'm selling a used transmission..
What difference does it make If I send 1 pic or 10? you can't see inside of it, they all look the same plus or minus a little dirt, and I sell them at "core" prices..
so I see it as a waste of time..

right now a local guy 15min away wants pics of some 8 spokes w/good tires I'm selling for $200 !! the wheels AND good tires...

Sent him a pic and a phone # and after 45min on the phone listening to how he bought a car cheap and wants all these parts for it, but no money to buy them he follows up with a text asking for close up detail pics of each wheel and tire...
Right...I'm going to get right on that...F'n drive the 15 min and take a look in person..(of course that will consume another 30-45 min of my day, lot of time to "give away" set of wheels/tires.)

lot of time wasters out there. Do this long enough and you learn where to spend your efforts.


On the plus side though, I do go above and beyond to those who do come to my shop in person. Guess I'm a little old fashion and prefer the face to face transactions...

[VDubTech]

I understand your point and it's really infuriating sometimes. I've had good luck with this site for the most part and on CL as well, but the way some people put up ads makes me crazy. You're selling a car $5K, and you put up on shitty picture that for some reason you decided to take at night, at a shitty angle AND you couldn't take 3 more steps back and get the whole car in the photo. Come on, put some effort into it. When I'm taking pics for an ad, I take tons of photos and post as many as possible. Rarely do I get someone asking for more photos but when I do I respond and with any luck get a cell number that I can text photos to so if there's a certain area of a part the customer wants to see, I'm standing there right in front of it to take it for them. There will always be time wasters but I for the most part weed that out when I put up my ad because there are plenty of clear photos of the part/car taken from many angles during the DAYTIME. I try to look at it as if I were looking at my ad to buy that part what would I want to see? You'll never please anyone but a little effort when the ad is placed would solve a lot of those problems. Weird angles, DARK photos, photos that look like the person was jogging by what they're trying to sell as they took the photo....pics of cars that don't get the whole god damn car in them....seriously it's not like you're waiting for the film to get developed and you see it isn't right..TAKE A STEP BACK and you'll fit the whole car in the shot! Ugh...
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[hitest]

I don't think you are out of line asking for pics- but I do have a couple pointers about things you see here:

If a seller only shows one pic of one of 4 wheels- he does not care much for them- and expects no buyer would either. These items take up space and make wives mad. This doesn't happen with big ticket small items. These are a token sale ad- to keep their spouse happy, "But really baby, I tried to sells those sweet rims, but VW people are cheap."

If a seller won't get back to you- they simply have bigger fish to fry. Match your speed to buy with their speed to sell. If they are a hot item- he'll respond because his pager will light up. If you're the only local guy interested in something, he's thinking, "He'll get back to me, he's the only sap in FL who would want these."

Most seasoned Samba folks here care about their reps. They sort things out before making the whines and feedback threads. When you open a guy's feedback thread and every other entry is him defending/accusing/excusing/retorting, etc., maybe he's not the guy with whom to deal. I'd much sooner deal with a guy that has had a couple rough transactions than the one with no feedback. It actually feels good to part of the repair process- and you may make a friend for life- but at least, a great part connection later.
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[modok]

If I get sellers who want to look at it and not buy it, want it cleaned up and more pics, keep me on the phone for a long time, or don't show up, instead of the price being negotiable, it goes up.

Nothing is free. If the seller puts minimal effort into selling it, the price should be low, and it often is, and often it's a good deal.

Most of the WORSE deals I've got suckered into, the seller had paragraphs about how good he thought the thing was and lots of pics, and it turns out the seller did believe what they had was awesome, but it wasn't

[mark tucker]

polished turd is still a turd. but some people think thiers dont stink and the price reflects it and they sometimes sell some and some keep em. you never know. but if you dont ask all the questions and you receive a spraychromed turd you just might deserve it.always ask and filter through the sailmanshit.

[andk5591]

Couple things quick - look at how long a seller has been on here. Someone that just joined only to sell something is not a "member" IMHO and I will be somewhat cautious.

If its a long term member - look at some of their posts. Are they good people or jerks. Will give you a good idea of how dealing with them will be. There are members on here that I wouldn't buy a cherry oval for $500 from......well, maybe I would.
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