Yeah, it's the same seller in Philadelphia that I almost bought a 2005 SMB from (and another member did). He's legit, but a wholesaler who seems to play the Ebay game with off-the-books Buy it Now. He posts the vehicles with no reserve and a low start to get lots of eyeballs, and puts a note in the listing with a buy it now price. You call him, meet his price, send him a deposit via PayPal (~$1500), and he takes the ad down. The deal is done outside of Ebay. A bit dodgy way to do things, IMO. Beware that by doing it this way you get NO Ebay buyer protection. Also, he states in his ads that "If you come to buy the vehicle and aren't happy, you don't have to buy it." But in small print at the bottom he says deposits are non-refundable. So you can not buy the car, but then he keeps your $1500 deposit. In my case, I put down the deposit of $1500 (before I really thought it through). Went down to look at the van and it had enough issues that I decided not to buy it. At first he refused to give me back my $1500, even though he made mis-statements in his ad, didn't disclose that the Starcool was completely disconnected, etc. I brought up the fact that the ad had patently wrong details, and he said that wasn't his problem (even though he wrote it), and that I should have looked at it before I committed to buy it.
After arguing with him for a bit, we settled on me paying $300 to get out of the deal, and he refunded $1200. It left a very bad taste in my mouth and I wouldn't buy a vehicle again from him. I'm sure I could have gone after the full refund, but for $300 I counted it as a lesson learned.
The forum member who bought the 2005 I passed on seems to be happy with it, but he had the benefit of me posting all the van's details and my personal review of it before he bought it. Had I known the details, I might have been ok with the purchase.
See related thread:
http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...0-a-20151.html