I feel bad for sellers who have to contend with their own personal distrust of the world when posting a car up for grabs. This 1969 Toyota Corona coupe here on craigslist looks like a clean starter project for someone, and the price is fair – $3,000 for a runner. However, the seller isn’t too keen on helping long-distance buyers (doesn’t trust shippers), nor will he entertain the prospect of paying via PayPal or wire transfer (kind of necessary if you’re on the other side of the country). I purchased my M3 and 535is using PayPal and wire transfers and guess what? All went fine and everybody was happy. With only 52,000 miles on the clock, this early model Toyota looks like a great buy for the money, but you’ll have to be willing to travel to get it or already live near DeFuniak Springs, Florida. Thanks to Chuck F. for the find!
Cute little car, shame it’s on the wrong coast. It would go great with the 73 hilux pickup I just picked up.
I’m having that decision to make on selling my 74 Cadillac hearse to an interested buyer across the country. Do I distrust paypal and such because of horror stories of disputed claims and the possibility of losing my car and money or do I just roll with it and have faith in someone to not be a slime ball.
Guess we’re going to find out.
It sure is hard to sell things when you have very narrow restrictions on what must be done to purchase something.
It does make it challenging, but have you met some of the losers you find on Craigslist?
I wonder how the seller got the car from Riverside, Calif? Wire transfer/paypal and a shipper maybe?
Seems like a good deal for such a clean “1969 Toyoter Corony” I forgot they even made coupes. The family of a girl I knew in high school had a 4-door one of these. The family had twelve kids and it was the “practice car” for the family…each kid inherited the car to practice driving then once they got their license it was passed to the next youngest. The father ran the car like an airline runs a plane…every time something wore out it was either rebuilt or replaced. The last time I saw it in the late ’70s it had over 200k miles on it! ^_^
Everybody on Barn Finds should just send a simple one line email to the seller to ask him if it is still for sale.
The seller has nothing to worry about. Money shows. Confirm it through the bank. Confirmed? Yes. Sell car. It’s the buyer who assumes the concerns of being duped.
I would say a better idea would be if someone was really interest although sounds pretty dumb. Start by sending him an email and request his contact info and at the end of the message include your information. That would be a start. Once speaking to a person would be very easy to figure the level of interest on both sides. Pretty sure if you were serious as a buyer he would accomodate. When on the phone the question could be answered on how he paid to get it from California to Fla. That would be a hot button. I agree with the seller that cash is king. I have used paypal and it is an option. I like it only as a LAST option. I agree with Grant. Too many loosers. Would rather take a bullit then deal with that.
It seems to be getting more difficult to do the long distance buying thing. Does not help that CL has pretty much directed in their “Scams” section not to sell or buy long distance, nor accept cashiers checks even after they have cleared. I have done many long distance deals and there never was a problem on either side, but on the most recent one I really had to sell myself as an up and up buyer.
Even though the seller sounds like an “interesting soul” his paranoia is not without merit. I just purchased off of CL and the gentleman I purchased from was telling me some of the “stories” people were giving him or the “trade” offers they were making. Absolutely unfathomable that people are (A) literally that stupid, or (B) think that sellers are that gullable! Unfortunately I need to sell the items that I replaced with the upgrades from him, on CL! Not big money but I am seriously debating whether it is really worth the hassle?!?!
You completely missed my point! I am not interested in the car.
The seller says three or four times in the ad not to ask him if the car is still available and swears that he will not answer emails asking if the car is still available.
I just think that it would be funny if a guy who is so determined to tell everyone not to ask if it is still available, received hundreds of emails simply asking if the car was still available, with no other questions or interest expressed. Just hundreds or emails saying simply “Is the car still available?”.
I buy quite a few cars of Craigslist and ship them to Germany. Granted, there are sellers misrepresenting their cars, but overall, using common sense, the transactions are fine. Once in a while you run into paranoid idiots (Sorry but this seller deserves it) like this guy. One seller did not even want to accept my cash without meeting me at the bank. Yes, there are not only bad buyers on Craigslist but also a lot of unreasonable, unrealistic, uncooperative sellers. This is one of them. He definitely won’t get my business.
P. S. I just TEXTED him asking if the car is still available.
As expected, he responded with an expletive. Kudos to the seller. What a way to sell a car. LOL
Too bad its a slushbox. You all being a mite hard on the seller. I’d guess he’s had some bad experiences. Between halfasses, Nigerians, autobots and Russian spammers Craigslist picks up a lot of junk, Seller might be older too. Or just fed up. In any event the ad violated MY cardinal rule: Dont buy anything from Florida.
That’s an RT-52…. Funny…but wouldn’t you wanna see the Right hand side??
Another point of interest is that the front license plate was issued in 1966!
Something funny here and I’m not laughing.