Used SC parts, buyers, and sellers...rant and your thoughts...
09-10-07, 07:49 PM
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Used SC parts, buyers, and sellers...rant and your thoughts...
First off, I don't know if this is the right section for this. I'm guessing it's a general topic, not really a feedback for a certain buyer or seller so I put it here rather than the feedback section.
Also, this is a bit of a timeline of my experiences and it's a bit long...alright, really long, so if you don't care to read it all just skip down to the summary part at the bottom. Maybe it will interest you enough to read the rest.
The MKIII
Before I bought my SC I had a MKIII Supra for several years. I spent tons of money on it and modded it to the hilt. I'm not talking your average brokass MKIII owner type tons of money and mods either, but that's another story.
During the years I had that car I bought from several different people and parted many cars out myself. I never had any buyers complain that I didn't send what I promised. I like to think that's because I was honest in my descriptions and treated people like I would want them to treat me if I were buying from them. I was well known in the Supra community and often times people wouldn't bother asking lots of questions about the items I was selling, or even for pics.
As a buyer in that community I only had one person sell me an item that was not as described. It was only about a $15 item, but the principle upset me nontheless. It seemed as though most sellers were quite honest about what they were selling.
I haven't been a part of that community for around a year now, but I like to think it hasn't changed much.
The MKIV and the SC
For the last year I've been an active member in the SC and MKIV Supra community. I of course do understand that the SC and MKIV communities do overlap, but my used parts purchases from the MKIV community have all been for parts that the SC doesn't come with stock so I'm splitting them up from here.
As a buyer from MKIV sellers I've found them to be for the most part quite honest. I haven't had anyone send me anything that wasn't exactly as described and I've made many, many purchases from that community.
I have run into a handfull of scammers though. For instance...I had a guy sell me a 6 speed diff and never send it to me. I ended up getting my money back, but it was a long and painful process. It's my beleif that the MKIV community is succeptible to scammers because it's a higher dollar car. Scammers probably think there's more money floating around that community for the taking, and they're probably right.
SC, The Good
As for the SC community I haven't really had anyone try to scam me by not sending me something I paid for. I've had perhaps 6 completely smooth transactions. All 6 were relatively inexpensive purchases, roughly $100 each. Now I'm not saying I like to or can afford to just **** away $100, but in the swing of things those are on the cheaper end. I'd like to think that that's the way most of your transactions are, no matter the price. You see what you want, you pay for it, and what you pay for arrives.
SC, The Bad
I've also made 3 higher priced purchases. One for $300, one for $700, and one for $450. 2 of these 3 were made from well known used parts sellers. One was made from a lesser known used parts seller on that auction site.
The parts in the $700 purchase were body peices. I didn't ask for pics because the seller was well known and seemed to have a good reputation. When the parts arrived they were incredibly poor packaged and in horrible condition. I do body work for a living and I wouldn't have put them on a customer's car, letalone my own. The seller was only willing to give me a partial refund, and a small portion at that. They claimed that the parts must have been damaged during shipping, but there's no way that much damage was done through a box, albeit a beat up one. The peices looked like they had been drug through gravel. I ended up selling the peices to someone for dirt just to recoup some money. I sent them lots of pics and told them about the damage to the peices. They came cash in person so that they could see what they were getting. They were happy enough with them that they bought them and I was happy that I at least got some money back. I've never bought from that seller since, and never will again.
The $450 purchase was from a well known seller that I've made some smaller purchases from in the past with good luck. I felt confident buying from them so I did so without hesitation. They didn't have all the parts on my list, but I trusted them enough to pay them for everything and told them to just send the items as they came in. In fact, I'm still waiting for a couple of things. Most of the items were very cheap and came just fine. It's the 2 expensive items, that I was most explicit about wanting to be in good condition that have come with issues. When I paid the seller didn't have one of the expensive items. However, a couple weeks after me paying they put one up for sale guaranteeing it to be in perfect working order. A couple weeks later mine arrived and didn't work as promised.
On my $300 purchase the seller described the item as "perfect". They took pictures and in the pics the item looked like they said. I bought it simply because it was nicer that my current one, which is in very nice shape mind you. Not perfect, but nice. When the item arrived and I opened it it was trash. Old cuts in the material, cracks, etc... The seller swears that it was perfect when shipped. BS. I enlarged the pics that I had origonally looked at of the item and the damage became visible. Even after telling them this they still swear it was perfect.
Summary
I guess my point here is that I've, for whatever reason, had much more dissapointment from my purchases in this community than any other. I'm to the point that I don't even want to pursue used parts purchases for the SC anymore. I don't feel that it should be necessary for me to tell sellers "I work on cars for a living, for over 10 years in fact. Please make sure that you're sending what I asked for. By the way, what I'm asking for is a nice used part that functions properly with no visible damage."
Now, do I expect a part used part to look like it's never been touched by a human hand? No. Do I expect it to look like it just came out of a wrapper packed by Toyota? No. I do however expect it to not have things missing, broken, or not functioning. And if it does have any of these issues JUST TELL ME!!! I'll probably tell you I'll keep looking untill I find a nicer one and thank you for your time. Is that too much to expect when paying top dollar for something? I would expect that the rest of you would want that treatment from your seller, wouldn't you?
So, what I want to know is am I the only one with this problem here, or is this just commonplace and noone ever speaks of it? What's your take?!?!?!
Also, this is a bit of a timeline of my experiences and it's a bit long...alright, really long, so if you don't care to read it all just skip down to the summary part at the bottom. Maybe it will interest you enough to read the rest.
The MKIII
Before I bought my SC I had a MKIII Supra for several years. I spent tons of money on it and modded it to the hilt. I'm not talking your average brokass MKIII owner type tons of money and mods either, but that's another story.
During the years I had that car I bought from several different people and parted many cars out myself. I never had any buyers complain that I didn't send what I promised. I like to think that's because I was honest in my descriptions and treated people like I would want them to treat me if I were buying from them. I was well known in the Supra community and often times people wouldn't bother asking lots of questions about the items I was selling, or even for pics.
As a buyer in that community I only had one person sell me an item that was not as described. It was only about a $15 item, but the principle upset me nontheless. It seemed as though most sellers were quite honest about what they were selling.
I haven't been a part of that community for around a year now, but I like to think it hasn't changed much.
The MKIV and the SC
For the last year I've been an active member in the SC and MKIV Supra community. I of course do understand that the SC and MKIV communities do overlap, but my used parts purchases from the MKIV community have all been for parts that the SC doesn't come with stock so I'm splitting them up from here.
As a buyer from MKIV sellers I've found them to be for the most part quite honest. I haven't had anyone send me anything that wasn't exactly as described and I've made many, many purchases from that community.
I have run into a handfull of scammers though. For instance...I had a guy sell me a 6 speed diff and never send it to me. I ended up getting my money back, but it was a long and painful process. It's my beleif that the MKIV community is succeptible to scammers because it's a higher dollar car. Scammers probably think there's more money floating around that community for the taking, and they're probably right.
SC, The Good
As for the SC community I haven't really had anyone try to scam me by not sending me something I paid for. I've had perhaps 6 completely smooth transactions. All 6 were relatively inexpensive purchases, roughly $100 each. Now I'm not saying I like to or can afford to just **** away $100, but in the swing of things those are on the cheaper end. I'd like to think that that's the way most of your transactions are, no matter the price. You see what you want, you pay for it, and what you pay for arrives.
SC, The Bad
I've also made 3 higher priced purchases. One for $300, one for $700, and one for $450. 2 of these 3 were made from well known used parts sellers. One was made from a lesser known used parts seller on that auction site.
The parts in the $700 purchase were body peices. I didn't ask for pics because the seller was well known and seemed to have a good reputation. When the parts arrived they were incredibly poor packaged and in horrible condition. I do body work for a living and I wouldn't have put them on a customer's car, letalone my own. The seller was only willing to give me a partial refund, and a small portion at that. They claimed that the parts must have been damaged during shipping, but there's no way that much damage was done through a box, albeit a beat up one. The peices looked like they had been drug through gravel. I ended up selling the peices to someone for dirt just to recoup some money. I sent them lots of pics and told them about the damage to the peices. They came cash in person so that they could see what they were getting. They were happy enough with them that they bought them and I was happy that I at least got some money back. I've never bought from that seller since, and never will again.
The $450 purchase was from a well known seller that I've made some smaller purchases from in the past with good luck. I felt confident buying from them so I did so without hesitation. They didn't have all the parts on my list, but I trusted them enough to pay them for everything and told them to just send the items as they came in. In fact, I'm still waiting for a couple of things. Most of the items were very cheap and came just fine. It's the 2 expensive items, that I was most explicit about wanting to be in good condition that have come with issues. When I paid the seller didn't have one of the expensive items. However, a couple weeks after me paying they put one up for sale guaranteeing it to be in perfect working order. A couple weeks later mine arrived and didn't work as promised.
On my $300 purchase the seller described the item as "perfect". They took pictures and in the pics the item looked like they said. I bought it simply because it was nicer that my current one, which is in very nice shape mind you. Not perfect, but nice. When the item arrived and I opened it it was trash. Old cuts in the material, cracks, etc... The seller swears that it was perfect when shipped. BS. I enlarged the pics that I had origonally looked at of the item and the damage became visible. Even after telling them this they still swear it was perfect.
Summary
I guess my point here is that I've, for whatever reason, had much more dissapointment from my purchases in this community than any other. I'm to the point that I don't even want to pursue used parts purchases for the SC anymore. I don't feel that it should be necessary for me to tell sellers "I work on cars for a living, for over 10 years in fact. Please make sure that you're sending what I asked for. By the way, what I'm asking for is a nice used part that functions properly with no visible damage."
Now, do I expect a part used part to look like it's never been touched by a human hand? No. Do I expect it to look like it just came out of a wrapper packed by Toyota? No. I do however expect it to not have things missing, broken, or not functioning. And if it does have any of these issues JUST TELL ME!!! I'll probably tell you I'll keep looking untill I find a nicer one and thank you for your time. Is that too much to expect when paying top dollar for something? I would expect that the rest of you would want that treatment from your seller, wouldn't you?
So, what I want to know is am I the only one with this problem here, or is this just commonplace and noone ever speaks of it? What's your take?!?!?!
09-10-07, 08:00 PM
#2
It's a different crowd, SC owner's no longer feel that they drive 55k cars..They buy these cars for 4k and trash them with junkyard/ebay parts..Most will do ANYTHING save a dollar and will not pay for a quality part...Unforunately, these are the same exact people trying to sell you what they consider "quality"..
09-10-07, 08:13 PM
#3
damn sorry to hear that bro... I've never delt with anyone sending me busted/broken items, but at the same time i havent bought to many used stuff. I've sold stuff in the past, but i always try to mention all of the imperfection with the items and always post pictures of it. From what I've seen it seems like everyone in the SC community is fair with there items.
Now with people owning Supras i can see why alot of people try to scam one another just because there are alot of high value items.
I hope everything works out for you in the future when i comes to buying stuff from others.
Now with people owning Supras i can see why alot of people try to scam one another
just because there are alot of high value items.I hope everything works out for you in the future when i comes to buying stuff from others.
09-10-07, 08:15 PM
#4
i have always delviderd on my end to send quailty parts and if i know where the parts came from i will also tell that information in my add but stuff isnt the same anymore people will do anything to get over but if u reasearch ur buyer and procet ur self u will be all good
09-10-07, 08:17 PM
#5
Lexus Test Driver
Join Date: Mar 2003
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Ive had my SC for about 3years, and in the last year ive been all over MK4 sites. I must have done more MK4 TT transactions than SC transactions, and I guess im one of the lucky few that has had good luck with everyone.
But yes the crowds are very different.
But yes the crowds are very different.
09-10-07, 09:03 PM
#6
Lexus Champion
In recent sales, I've always made it local...giving the prospective buyer the option to check out the items in person. I've also made it easier for some folks by even delivering the sold items to them in my area! Some members here will also tell you that I've given stuff away for FREE. I even pay for shipping! Knock on wood, every transaction here on CL and SF have been ultra-smooth for me.
Now, there is only so much trust you can give. You won't know until it happens to you, bottom line. In your case dude, it happened 3 times. That sucks. I don't know what exactly happened, so I won't be taking sides at this point. I hope your future buying/selling experiences are all positive ones.
Now, there is only so much trust you can give. You won't know until it happens to you, bottom line. In your case dude, it happened 3 times. That sucks. I don't know what exactly happened, so I won't be taking sides at this point. I hope your future buying/selling experiences are all positive ones.
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09-11-07, 09:57 AM
#11
Lexus Champion
I've had nothing but good luck with the MKIV/SC community. Aliga packages parts up so safely that it takes me longer to open whatever I bought than it does to put it on the car. Knock on wood but I've yet to have a bad transaction with anybody here or on SupraForums and I've bought almost everything for my car on one of the two sites.
09-11-07, 10:42 AM
#12
I got ripped off here with trying to get some 97 SC conversion parts, I prefer that CL had the trader rating setup like SupraForums and clubna-t. I buy the majority of stuff on SF. I see some threads here that make me laugh like the one where the guy is selling a BOV and someone is insterested in buying it but then asks "what does it do"? Lol
09-11-07, 11:37 AM
#13
I try to go through the Aliga's, Cherplex's, Scotturnot's, and ACleanSC4's of the world for parts whenever I can. Certain forum members are established and well-respected for a reason.
Almost every $100+ item I have bought has been from an established member or a retailer. I have had very good luck with my transactions to this point.
Almost every $100+ item I have bought has been from an established member or a retailer. I have had very good luck with my transactions to this point.
09-11-07, 11:40 AM
#14
I've sold a good amount of stuff on the internet and have also bought a good amount as well. There is just people out there that are just plain scammers and hide imperfections. You just got to live and learn.
I've had many good deals and quite a few bad deals but check my rating on here, SF, clubna-t, etc. Its all good.
I've had many good deals and quite a few bad deals but check my rating on here, SF, clubna-t, etc. Its all good.
09-11-07, 11:50 AM
#15
Lexus Champion
As far as trader ratings go, I do wish that more people would be on the ball as far as returning feedback. I have a +3 on SF but would be at a +6 or +7 if everyone I had a good transaction with left me feedback after I left them theirs.