What's with the Dealers on Ebay?

Is this on ebay? Can't seem to locate any 04's up for bid there at the present time.

 

It was, but the auction is over and no one met the reserve. One of them was up to 27,001 and it still didn't win.

They looked like real VIN numbers.

 

I saw that last night myself.

There is no way (that I'm aware of) that they would have a VIN for a March arrival. Knowing the tough lack of supply situation, I doubt that they even have that unit available.

I should have written down the VIN and did an inquiry today. (Can't access ebay at work due to firewall police)

 

I stand corrected. It is a real Prius. Still in A status.

It's coming to the Southeast Toyota region.....they are a private distributor and I have no clue how their system works.

 

Steve,

Pardon my ignorance but, what exactly is a "private distributor"? More specifically, how is it that this distributor has the ability to offer the car directly to the public?

 

I didn't notice a special markup.

$565 in delivery-type charges were added to the Base price, but I think Toyota mentions $20,560 as the MSRP in a lot of ads now.

What I noticed was you can't get a Toyota extended warranty from them. JM&A owns the SE, and http://www.jmfamily.com/ is their website.

A Google search on "JM&A warranty" is not all good news...

 

But that's part of what I don't quite understand.

These "Distributorships" exist to "distribute" cars to dealers, right? Isn't that their sole function?

 

Yes, Southeast and Gulf States are distributors to the dealers in those regions.

I don't know the entire history, but Southeast Toyota and Gulf States Toyota were set up when Toyota was trying to establish itself in the US. Jim Moran is the grand pooh-bah of Southeast Toyota and his decison to go with Toyota was probably one of the best business decisions in the last half-century. However, I think some customers in that area may disagree.

The private distributors control all Toyota inventory for their respective regions. Quite often they offer different accessories and a variety of add-on's including the now infamous Toyo-Guard.

In the ebay listing I didn't mean to imply that the distributor was listing the car - just they they may have better "visibility" of incoming inventory than other areas.

 

That makes sense. What doesn't is a distributorship offering to sell a car directly to the public (like the one on ebay).......little bit of a conflict of interest there, I think..........

 

The curious things about that car(s) that were up:
(http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2455783423 and http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2455784276)

They were both fully loaded. The first auction ended with a bid of $27,001 with the reserve not met. I have no idea how much the minimum price on this car was.

The seller "[email protected]" has positive feedback ... but for selling purses. I could find no record of this seller ever successfully listing a car on ebay.

The description said the car was not in the country yet - and wouldn't be until March. How come the miles listed were 50?

Anyway, there's another one up there now from a different seller in NC - http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2456143561

 

It's baacck!

That ebay seller has posted his White BC (9) again.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2456173543

This time the bidding is up to 28K and the reserve still isn't met.

 

Re: It's baacck!

Yep, but this time the exterior color is listed as "green"! Strange, isn't it?

 

I concur. Somehow, though, he seems to have figured out a way to get real VINs so as to make the fact that he's scamming less transparent.