I got screwed buying a motorcycle that I bid on, but didn't make reserve (have a feeling he did a super high reserve on purpose). The guy msg'd me after it ended unsold and asked if I wanted to buy it for my bid price cause he doesn't want to list it again. This was before the "second chance offer" thing was around. I sent $500 deposit through paypal and drive 3 states away to find his dad there with a pre-signed title and an excuse "he had to work today" (and he didn't know this before I drove 300 miles!?). The best part was, the guy lived on a 10 mile long dirt road that was barely passable by 4wd truck (let alone a sportbike), so I couldn't even test ride it. Choice was, take the bike and pay the remaining $2000, or leave it and lose the deposit. So I bought it (DUMB). I get it home, pull the body work off, and the bike is BEAT. Nothing like the ebay description. All the bad stuff was conveniently hidden behind the fairings too. I had to dump $1800 in engine and transmission parts into the damn thing just to get it roadworthy.
Lesson... don't trust anyone. Always make sure there's something for you to fall back on unless it's a risk you're willing to take.
Worst part of the story is that I took a loan out for $3500 to buy the bike. It was from CitiFinancial. For 28% interest (DUMB). Yeah... so I paid something like $9800 for a bike that I later sold for $2000. 6 years later I'm still feeling that mistake.
Glad you got your part in the end though. Looks sweet.
