Annoying sellers

I've dealt with this more than a few times. Recently when we were looking for the Dart for my wife we looked at more than a few cars that the sellers said were in running, driving conditions with minimal rust to go look at them and find they were the opposite. One of the sellers was trying to get into the car flipping business but really knows nothing about cars. He didn't think the black duct tape around the windshield was a red flag. We pulled up a little corner and found almost the whole windshield area was rusted out. The minor rust spots he said where at the driver's side floor were golf ball to tennis ball holes in the rotten floor. Sad too since it ran extremely well. Over all it wasn't anything that wasn't fixable, but his asking price was astronomical for the damage. Tried to offer what we thought was fair, which was way more than I'd offer for it today, and he wouldn't take it.

When I was looking for my classic Ranchero a few years back I saw one on CL that I had been watching for a few months slowly drop in price. All the pictures looked great. They had swapped the small block with a big block racing engine and done the modern suspension upgrades. I call the guy and he said it was running perfectly. My buddy and I go to look at it the next day and he wasn't there. His son who helped build the car was though so he showed it to us and told us all of the things wrong with it. Nothing held the hood on, the windshield was toast, the welds on the front suspension had snapped, and the exhaust burned through the shift linkage so it couldn't move if we wanted it to. Ultimately worked out as we found the year I wanted down in San Diego which turned out to be a rather decent car for the money.

Having bought more than a few cars now off of private sellers I've become a lot more knowledgeable about what to look for and how to gauge their pricing. Most people on CL tend to over price their stuff to not get 1000 calls from tire kickers. People that know what they're looking at know what a car is worth and tend to know the right price. And hey if some idiot is willing to pay asking price then that's just a bonus. Usually just means having to hold onto a car for a little longer though. Personally when I start looking at cars I am in the market to buy one within a week. I already have the money at hand am just waiting to find the right car. Has really surprised the last few sellers that I've dealt with when I look at a few things and then offer them cash on the spot. No BS just business. I understand the first person with cash takes it. There is something to be said though about letting potential buyers understand when others might beat you though.

Had a friend that wanted to get a Ranchero. He found one in L.A. that was gorgeous. He lived in San Diego. He called the seller and said that he was getting on the freeway with his trailer to grab the car. He had cash on hand and was ready to take it home. It would take him around 2 hours to get there. The guy said ok and he'd hold it. He called the seller again once he got off the freeway and the guy said that he had sold it an hour earlier.