Need advice buying a car long distance

Mike69cuda said

I bought mine in LA a couple years ago. I took a plane ride to see it. Worth the $200 to see it in person. Had it shipped back on open trailer since it is driver quality. Enclosed transport is very expensive. Pretty much all the transport companies just take a fee & then post it on the independent trucker board. Worked out fine for me. Don’t think I would buy an old car sight unseen.

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I've bought 3 cars off of ebay, sight-unseen, and paid for them. 2 were not running cars and I did not have a lot tied up in them. In each case, I wrote the sellers before bidding and asked a few questions and got addresses. I looked on Google maps and zoomed in on the addresses to see where they were located; one was at an auto shop and another at what was a home in a good area with a big barn, so I figured they were good to honor the deal. They did.

The 3rd was a used truck at a new car dealer in KC.. I talked to them got some history on the truck and was satisfied; it was only a year old so not a lot of risk there. Flew out and drove it back to VA. Still have the truck.

I am thinking of buying one sight-unseen in CA and having it shipped. The seller is here and after PM's seems trustworthy and willing to help with the loading. I'll probably trust him to send the title rather than hand it to a driver where it could get lost.

A few $k lost is not going to kill me...so if you can't deal with, or afford, that, then this is not a good thing to do. And I already travel too much for work LOL