BucknutBob
New member
I bought my last two 4Runners online--one off eBay, and one off Craigslist, both out of state (I had the vehicles shipped to me), and both were excellent deals and transactions. Just do your due diligence to put as many things in your favor as you can--contact them directly over the phone (so you can hear their voice and how they word their "sales pitch"), ask tons of questions about the vehicle (how long they've had it, work done, who did the work, what they used it for, maintenance records, etc.), get personal info from the person (I exchanged name, address, driver's lic. #, personal references, etc.), check Carfax report, get LOTS of photos (or as one of mine, they sent me a video tour of the truck, referencing things we had talked about on the phone, so I knew it was the same guy and truck) from all angles, including underneath. On my eBay purchase, I bought from a veteran seller with excellent feedback (this is VERY important, as they count on keeping this clean for future sales, and will go the extra mile for your satisfaction), and the kicker--he failed to set a reserve price, so I got it for a steal! Here's an insider's tip for winning your auction--wait until the last few minutes of the auction, figure out what you'd be willing to spend regardless of the current auction price (preferably a considerable jump over the current bids), enter that amount on the bid page BUT DON'T SEND IT until there's about 5-10 SECONDS left, leaving others no time to overbid you. The beauty of eBay is you only have to pay whatever the last bid before yours was! I bid on a 2nd Gen 4Runner that could've sold for $2500-3000--the bids were stalled at $1025, I figured $1700 was a reasonable cost for me and placed that bid--no one outbid it, so I got it for $1025! Yeah, baby.
