How to buy a local St. Louis car on eBay

Using eBay Motors is a quick and convenient way to buy your next car. You can search for the type of car you want from the comfort of your own home without having to spend long hours trekking through used car lots. In many cases, it is even possible to pay for the car online and arrange to have it delivered to your door. That is why thousands of people around the world are now using eBay Motors to buy their cars and trucks. There are great deals out there, but you'll need to do some research and protect yourself against fraud and misrepresentation. One of the easiest ways to do that is to deal with someone local. You get to check out, and even test drive the car you are interested in before you commit to a bid.

Some 450,000 cars traded hands on eBay last year, says spokesman Hani Durzy. He estimates eBay Motors will do $9.8 billion in sales this year. And plenty of people use classified ads and other auction sites, scouring them for great deals. eBay officials have noted that a passenger vehicle sells on the site every 52 seconds.

eBay auctions are revolutionary because they eliminate the part of the car buying experience many people dislike: the in-person haggling over price with a salesman. Because the eBay market is so large, you can actually buy a car, truck or SUV at wholesale prices. Many dealers across the country not only sell on eBay, but buy cars for their inventory. You can save $100's or $1,000's of dollars over buying from a dealer lot. And if you do buy from a dealer through ebay, you can still get a warranty.

Scrutinize the sellers feedback rating. You should learn as much as you can about your seller, Durzy says. EBay sellers live and die by their feedback ratings. Beyond the numerical rating, read the comments left by other buyers. Take the opportunity to go and see the car for yourself. If the seller is a franchised new car dealer, they have a lot to lose by creating a misleading auction, or hiding anything about the car. They sell cars. That is their only business. It's not worth taking a chance of killing their online business through a bad feedback rating.

Check the cars history. Do some homework to make sure the car is accurately represented. All reputable dealers have an account with CARFAX, and will gladly provided a CARFAX report, which lists any previous reported accidents or odometer fraud and maintenance history. Or anyone with the vehicle identification number (VIN), which all listings should include, can order these reports online for $20. (If you plan to look at more than one car, it pays to shell out $25 for unlimited CARFAX reports.)

Order CARFAX Vehicle History Reports ... the first step to protecting yourself against buying used cars with costly hidden problems. CARFAX searches its nationwide database and provides a detailed vehicle history report in seconds.